logoalt Hacker News

edgyquantyesterday at 7:30 PM2 repliesview on HN

I dislike this analogy because a nation is not a person grocery shopping and anyway if a single grocery store was the only way to get food that would put me in a very lopsided relationship with them and the power dynamics in such a case are obviously bad for the person.

Nations have interests and there’s a real conversation to be had that a country should ensure it has strategic industries so its existence is never at the whims of another.


Replies

andrubyyesterday at 7:43 PM

> a real conversation to be had that a country should ensure it has strategic industries

Then let that be the reason for tariffs rather than the bullshit argument of trade deficit = taking money.

show 1 reply
javanissenyesterday at 9:28 PM

This is one view. Another view is that maintaining economic interdependence between countries — aside from making both countries richer via specialization and comparative advantage — is a great way to incentivize cooperation and prevent them from killing each other.

Examples here: https://www.hoover.org/research/when-trade-wars-become-shoot...

show 3 replies