tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1716768851867657552.post2419251359280484825..comments2023-11-17T04:46:28.043-08:00Comments on Cybereconomics: In praise and damnation of freegansDessert Survivorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04616064444288249273noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1716768851867657552.post-41157878455455931722008-11-28T05:02:00.000-08:002008-11-28T05:02:00.000-08:00From the Freegan.info page you included:We, in Ame...From the Freegan.info page you included:<BR/><BR/><I>We, in America, have so much and so many people all over the world have so little. Why do we have more? Because we're number one! Other folks are literally starving so that we can have fully-stocked shelves at our supermarkets and health food stores.</I><BR/><BR/>The argument reminded me of Adam Smith's view that nations involved in trade should want each other to be developing and economically strong, not weak. (I've lost this and amd not going to research it. But doesn't he say something about Britain surrounded by poor neighbors will find that it must do mostly everything itself, even if it is open to trade with the others?)<BR/><BR/>The Freegans assume that our vast amount of trading must be exploiting countries and peoples that do little but supply our food and other goods, keeping the trading partners poor and hungry. I agree there probably are cases where some people are hungry because of decision-making by those in authority that devotes resources away from supplying (or distributing) food properly. And some of that might consist of devoting resources to things that these authorities can trade with US companies (or the US government). But these cases are causing hunger because of something other than competitive market outcomes.<BR/><BR/>Al this made me want to check something: Our trading partners. If the view that we exploit others through trade is correct, then we should probably expect to see evidence of our exploitation in the trade data. But this quick glance at trade partner statistics, <A HREF="http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/top/dst/2008/09/balance.html" REL="nofollow">most recently for September 2008</A>, shows that those we exploit the most are all quite nicely developed countries themselves. Just as Adam Smith suggested.<BR/><BR/>So are appetites are likely causing great hunger in Japan and Germany?Michael J Oakeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13984708160139931500noreply@blogger.com