The arguments never change. Yet the lesson of free trade is so easy to learn. In a living, breathing economy, change is perhaps the only constant. Individuals' subjective valuations of goods and services, and of money itself, are like quicksilver. Market prices, therefore, adjust according to the demand for and the supply of a particular good.
Prices also respond to the demand for and stock of money.
An economy unable to adjust, to reconfigure labor and capital to yield the best results, is an economy likely to be highly unstable and fraught with persistent misallocation. An example of the benefits of free trade and the virtues of economic flexibility is to be seen in Hickory, North Carolina. Certain traditional sectors of Hickory's economy-namely, the furniture, textile, and chemical industries have been shrinking for many months as cheaper importers beat out domestic producers for market share. But Hickory is booming, and unemployment is at a 30-year low. Because of new fiber-optic cable plants, medical centers, semiconductor plants, and satellite manufacturing companies.