Yet another economics professor gets it right!
September 02, 2007
Exports are Costs; Imports are Benefits
by Don Boudreaux
Today’s edition of the Chicago Tribune published this letter of mine:
You’re correct that free trade likely would create more opportunities for workers in Illinois to produce goods for export (“How free trade boosts Illinois,” Editorial, Aug. 25). Never forget, though, that the ultimate benefit of trade lies not in what people must sacrifice-not in the creation of opportunities to produce output for others-but in the greater quantity, quality and variety of goods and services that free trade makes possible for ordinary people to consume. Free trade’s bountiful harvest is not its exports; it is its imports.
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, Va.
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