alt Hacker NewsRicardo's comparative advantage result is contingent on the assumption that capital is not mobile across borders. This was a good assumption in 1817. Is it a good assumption today?
Furthermore, he's very up front about this in On the Principles, and from this information you can calculate the exact number of people who read the damn thing between the person repeating the talking point and the person originating the talking point.
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In 1817, capital did not cross borders. Borders crossed capital.
Arguably studying derivative works, such as a volume on economics, would be sufficiently acceptable as to void your calculation…
I don't know it makes much difference. People could walk from country to country in Europe back then and still can, likewise you could move money and equipment and still can.
It doesn’t really matter what Ricardo said in 1817: every US academic economist surveyed in 2018 by the Kent Clark Center disagreed that US aluminum and steel tariffs would increase the welfare of the American people ([0]), and this is with the benefit of >200 years in advances in economic scholarship and analysis since Ricardo.
[0] https://kentclarkcenter.org/surveys/steel-and-aluminum-tarif...