From: nelson_p@apollo.hp.com (Peter Nelson)
Subject: Re: Trade War?
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 20:17:38 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA

In article <1992Nov12.183042.23658@beaver.cs.washington.edu> pauld@cs.washington.edu (Paul Barton-Davis) writes:
>In article <BxM7Ft.L4n@apollo.hp.com> nelson_p@apollo.hp.com (Peter Nelson) writes:

>>  Millions of US jobs depend on markets overseas.  Major US companies
>>  like HP, Sun, Dec, IBM, Boeing, Caterpillar Tractor, Eastman Kodak, 
>>  and many, many others do a big part of their business in exports.
>
>Schumacher doesn't address international trade explicitly. However, I
>suspect that if he were alive today, he'd argue something like this:
>there's nothing wrong with such trade, but having an the economy of a
>given political (and by your own claim, *cultural*) entity dependent
>on exporting things to other such entities that it does not control or
>even necessarily share much with is a mistake. If we can't build
>stable, healthy economies within the confines of a national boundary(*),
>what makes us think we can do it within the confines of the entire
>planet ?

  I don't think anyone is arguing that we _can't_ have a working,
  healthy, economy within the confines of a nation as large and
  diverse as the US.    Rather I think that nobody sees any need
  to attempt this.    If we did attempt to, in effect, isolate
  the US economy (ignoring for a moment the problem of isolating
  our capital and debt markets) we would lose the advantages of
  international markets:

  1.  The efficiencies of scale that allow us to enjoy lower
      prices on many goods.

  2.  The stimulating effects of foreign competition.   Presumably
      the rest of the world would continue to enjoy the benefits
      of such competition and gradually their technology would
      surpass ours.

  3.  The jobs that are provided by US companies that do a lot
      of exporting, and the jobs that are provided by foreign
      companies doing business in the US.
   
  4.  The benefits of foreign ideas and technology to US prod-
      ucts.  I mentioned the Canon engine in HP Laserjets but
      there are thousands of examples.

  5.  The benefits that we bring to the rest of the world in
      providing jobs and economic opportunities, especially to 
      LDC's.   While some of this may be thought of as exploitive,
      and indeed some of it IS exploitive, there is no question 
      that the growing prosperity and standard of living of many
      other nations owes a great deal to trade with the US.
      And contrary to popular belief, it's not a zero-sum game.

  6.  The international outlook that comes with extensive foreign
      trade.  According NPR the last 10 years have seen an explosion
      in foreign-language classes in the US, and much of this is 
      attributed to greatly increased US foreign trade.  America
      has always been an insular nation and this is a small breath
      of fresh air.  I've traveled overseas on business, my wife
      travels extensively overseas on business, the assembly-line
      workers at Marysville were sent to Japan for training, etc.
      As the Economist headline said, "Trade is what makes the
      ship to go"  (<-- what is the original source of this quote?)
                                                                   


---peter