Exports are a COST, Imports are a BENEFIT

In this imperfect world of ours in which governments everywhere presume to superintended the commercial activities of their subjects, trade agreements are often the best available way to make trade freer, if not as free as it can and ought to be.

This reality exists because of the combination of two powerful forces:
(1) governments are prone to serve special-interest producer groups within their jurisdictions, and
(2) most citizens are ignorant of economics.

These forces combine to create the widespread mistaken impression that international-trade’s benefits come in the form of exports while imports are thought to be the ‘costs’ that must unfortunately be paid in order to enjoy these ‘benefits.’

I estimate that three-quarters of all the negative feedback that I receive when I make the case for free trade is rooted in this utterly backwards understanding of the benefits and costs of trade.

Were people to understand that IMPORTS are the BENEFITS that we get from trade while EXPORTS are the COSTS that we must pay in order to receive these benefits, everyone would, in turn, understand the absurdity (for Americans) of what Trump proposes to ‘negotiate’ for Americans on the trade front.

The man’s goal is to arrange for Americans to be able to export more and to import less – that is, to spend more and to get less in return. It’s as if Trump (as well as SK and others) are really  secret agents sent here by an enemy government to enrich non-Americans at Americans’ expense.

War with Iran

I re-post this here so to solicit comments and discussions about the topic.

After reading this piece – a piece that I am in great agreement with – I am very disturbed.

Rozeff articulates in this essay parts of  my Theory of Hegemony, where I suggest that it is always the actions of the Hegemonic power that is the causation to political events and not the Weaker power – the Weaker power always and only can react to the actions of the Hegemonic power, and cannot be the cause.

Part Tres: the Beginning – Where to lay the Foundation

The vast majority of the People are stuck in denial or the complexity of the reality of the situation and its inevitable consequences are simply too large for them to comprehend.

The mindset of the American mass mind is, in one word:

Clueless.

Part Deux-Demi “Reflections on Part One”

After reading the responses of a few of those on SUFA, I can see that some did not accept the message in my article “Political Reality”

I named the post “Political Reality” for a reason. The reason: because this was the reality.

I did not post it as an assumption. I did not post it as an expectation.

I posted it because it was the world right now.

Part Deux – The Task of the Remnant

The term “The Remnant” is a reference to the biblical book of Isaiah, a story of a prophet sent by God to warn the unheeding People of the coming reckoning. Alfred J. Nock wrote a wonderful essay about the story:

http://www.aapsonline.org/brochures/isaiah.htm

“…[T]here is but a very small Remnant,” he says, “of those who possess a saving force of intellect and force of character – too small [….] to be of any avail against the ignorant and vicious preponderance of the masses.”

Political Reality

This morning you wake up to the first in a two-part series. Which is ironic, because as you wake up to this article you are doing the exact opposite of what the majority of US citizens are doing. This part One is a bit longer than I would have preferred. But that was necessary. There are a ton of political realities that just screamed out to be highlighted. And before we can get to part two, we have to recognize and understand these political realities. Many of you may wish to deny what you read here today. But don’t waste your time trying. Instead, give some serious thought to what you are reading. Because while it may not be happening with the active readers that come to SUFA to exercise their brain each day, the reality is…….

The Great Danger

There is a great danger looming. It will be a turning point in history and decide the future for much of the Western world for the next 1,000 years.

This danger is not economic though the economic crisis may trigger it.