But those who are ignorant of economics are surprised when the same thing happens in California in the 21st century that happened in the Roman Empire a couple of thousand years ago. Even countries with a history of having surplus food to export have found themselves hungry after price controls caused farmers to stop growing as much food. It has been the same story with rent control. History tells us that such things happened, but economics tells us why they happened. Price controls are only one of many counterproductive policies growing out of confusion about the nature of economics.
Fallacies are the norm in media and political discussions of international trade.
Popular understanding of economics is at least two centuries behind economists' understanding of the economy. The economics profession has failed to educate the public on basic principles. The net effect has been highly sophisticated analyses on the frontiers of economics and utter ignorance of the most elementary principles by millions of people outside the profession. But of course that does not stop them from advocating their pet economic policies. A Citizen's Guide to the Economy.