Sign-In
Cart
How Nations Grow Rich: The Case for Free Trade
Hardcover
Business GeneralEconomicsGeneral Political Science
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN10: 0195112377
ISBN13: 9780195112375
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: May 8 1997
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.91
Height: 0.71 Width: 6.38 Depth: 9.59
Language: English
ISBN13: 9780195112375
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: May 8 1997
Pages: 160
Weight: 0.91
Height: 0.71 Width: 6.38 Depth: 9.59
Language: English
There can be no doubt, writes economist Melvyn Krauss, that the prosperity of the industrial nations since the Second World War has been due largely to global specialization and interdependence. No one country does all tasks today -- products are designed in one country, produced in another and assembled in a third. The increased standard of living resulting from global specialization in turn has led to the growth of the modern welfare state, including an increased demand for economic security and social measures which guarantee politically-determined minimum consumption standards for citizens. Ironically, says Krauss, as the debate over the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the recently established World Trade Organization demonstrate, today's welfare state has evolved into a protectionist state. U.S. consumer advocates (Ralph Nader) see free trade as a threat to consumerist legislation. U.S. environmentalists (Jerry Brown) see free trade as a threat to environmental legislation. U.S. human rights advocates (Anna Quindlin) see free trade as a threat to human rights abroad.
In How Nations Grow Rich, Krauss argues there is no inherent reason why the growth of the welfare state in the Western industrial countries should conflict with free trade that is, there is no inherent reason for the welfare state to be protectionist. Exposing fallacious welfare state arguments for protection, Krauss makes a powerful case for free trade in general, and NAFTA in particular, as mechanisms for raising U.S. living standards. Americans are made better off through a reallocation of U.S. productive resources from lower-to-higher productivity uses--from textiles to computers, for example. Moreover, by raising wages in Mexico relative to the U.S., Krauss expects NAFTA to help reduce both legal and illegal immigration. Were states like California to reduce their generous social services and affirmative action programs, labor immigration from Mexico would fall to politically acceptable levels. Krauss' novel insight that migration and foreign trade are alternative means of effectuating international exchange is used in this lively and informative book to shed light on a host of important policy issues. By the very act of restricting textile and apparel imports, the U.S. virtually compels foreign textile workers to migrate to the U.S. The European Union's tariff against East European exports provokes a flood of Eastern workers to Western Europe.
In How Nations Grow Rich, Krauss dispatches both traditional and newer arguments for protection with unusual verve and clarity. Addressing the belief that protectionism boosts employment, he points out that import restrictions can destroy U.S. jobs when imposed on materials we use as parts. For example, in 1991, Apple and Toshiba suffered a dramatic increase in their production costs as a result of a 63% tariff on imported Japanese flat-panel display screens. This protect-America policy backfired, causing these two mega-companies to move their production facilities abroad. In response to protectionist demands that the U.S. close its markets until Japan reduces its trade barriers against U.S. goods--that trade be fair before it can be free--Krauss points out that in a market economy where consumers are kings, only a consumer-based equity standard is valid. Thus what the fair trade protectionist argument really comes down to is the nonsensical proposition that because foreign countries damage their consumers by foolish protectionist measures, equity demands the United States follow suit.
This wide-ranging and stimulating book clarifies such important and often inaccessible issues as development policy, foreign aid, trade sanctions, child labor, human rights trade linkages, immigration, European Monetary Union and affirmative action trade policies. How Nations Grow Rich is must reading for anyone concerned with public policy and international economics.
In How Nations Grow Rich, Krauss dispatches both traditional and newer arguments for protection with unusual verve and clarity. Addressing the belief that protectionism boosts employment, he points out that import restrictions can destroy U.S. jobs when imposed on materials we use as parts. For example, in 1991, Apple and Toshiba suffered a dramatic increase in their production costs as a result of a 63% tariff on imported Japanese flat-panel display screens. This protect-America policy backfired, causing these two mega-companies to move their production facilities abroad. In response to protectionist demands that the U.S. close its markets until Japan reduces its trade barriers against U.S. goods--that trade be fair before it can be free--Krauss points out that in a market economy where consumers are kings, only a consumer-based equity standard is valid. Thus what the fair trade protectionist argument really comes down to is the nonsensical proposition that because foreign countries damage their consumers by foolish protectionist measures, equity demands the United States follow suit.
This wide-ranging and stimulating book clarifies such important and often inaccessible issues as development policy, foreign aid, trade sanctions, child labor, human rights trade linkages, immigration, European Monetary Union and affirmative action trade policies. How Nations Grow Rich is must reading for anyone concerned with public policy and international economics.
Also in
General Political Science
Capitalism and the Camera: Essays on Photography and Extraction
James, Daniel
Coleman, Kevin
Paperback
$28.45
Playing Oppression: The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games
Flanagan, Mary
Jakobsson, Mikael
Hardcover
$52.50
The Craftivist Collective Handbook: Projects, Stories and Methods for Your Gentle Protests
Corbett, Sarah P.
Hardcover
$19.99
Guerrilleros and Neighbours in Arms: Identities & Cultures of Anti-Fascist Resistance in Spain
Marco
Paperback
From $24.99
Battling the Big Lie: How Fox, Facebook, and the Maga Media Are Destroying America
Pfeiffer, Dan
Hardcover
$10.99
Urban Revolutions: Urbanisation and (Neo-)Colonialism in Transatlantic Context
Kipfer, Stefan
Paperback
$43.50
Nonstate Warfare: The Military Methods of Guerillas, Warlords, and Militias
Biddle, Stephen
Hardcover
$67.50
By the Light of Burning Dreams: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the Second American Revolution
Talbot, David
Talbot, Margaret
Hardcover
$27.54
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
From $12.99
Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
Wolin, Sheldon S.
Paperback
$11.99
Everyday Life and Politics in Nineteenth Century Mexico: Men, Women, and War
Wasserman, Mark
Paperback
$44.93
With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful
Greenwald, Glenn
Hardcover
$35.14
Doing History from the Bottom Up: On E.P. Thompson, Howard Zinn, and Rebuilding the Labor Movement from Below
Lynd, Staughton
Paperback
$18.95
Broken News: Why the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back
Stirewalt, Chris
Paperback
From $9.99
China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power
Kristof, Nicholas D.
Wudunn, Sheryl
Paperback
From $8.99
The Clash of Globalizations: Neo-Liberalism, the Third Way and Anti-Globalization
Kiely, Ray
Paperback
$30.00
Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump
Swan, Jonathan
Haberman, Maggie
Hardcover
$30.60
American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn's Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump
Goldmark, Susan
Bird, Kai
Hardcover
$28.80
The U.S. Constitution: A Comprehensive and Annotated Guide for the Modern Reader
Murray, Melissa
Hardcover
$27.00
Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made
Kobes Du Mez, Kristin
Hardcover
$28.79
Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds
Fugelsang, John
Hardcover
From $17.99
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times: How to Reclaim Your Power, Fight for Freedom, and Reimagine Democracy
Perryman, Skye
Paperback
$16.14
Wtf America?!: The Way Out of This Hell and Back to Democracy
Meiselas, Ben
Meiselas, Brett
Meiselas, Jordy
Hardcover
$30.88
The Counterrevolution: The Fall and Rise of Donald Trump and the Maga Movement
Hanson, Victor Davis
Hardcover
$32.30
The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017
Khalidi, Rashid
Paperback
$17.99
The Elijah Mandate: A Call to Courageous Faith in a Hostile World
Tsarfati, Amir
Piflaks, Tolik
Paperback
$18.04
American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union: An Anthology
Meacham, Jon
Hardcover
$34.20
The Steal: Four Right-Wing Hard-Liners, One Republican Presidency, and the Raid on America's Courts
Wagner, Alex
Hardcover
$26.99
The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America
Warnock, Raphael G.
Hardcover
$27.00
Not Today, Fascists: The Lies That Got Us Here, and the Truths That Will Reunite Us
Welch, Jennifer
Hardcover
$26.09
Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded Usaid
Enrich, Nicholas
Hardcover
$26.10
The Lost Founder: James Wilson and the Forgotten Fight for a People's Constitution
Wegman, Jesse
Hardcover
$27.00
Pay Attention: How the Algorithms and Media Wars Are Suppressing Truth and Rewiring Your Brain
Pakman, David
Hardcover
$28.50
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
Goldstone, Brian
Paperback
$18.00
The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World
Bevins, Vincent
Paperback
From $12.99
If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All
Soares, Nate
Yudkowsky, Eliezer
Hardcover
From $19.99
So Ordered: An Originalist's View of the Constitution, the Court, and Our Country
Alito, Samuel A., Jr.
Hardcover
$30.40
Last Branch Standing: A Potentially Surprising, Occasionally Witty Journey Inside Today's Supreme Court
Isgur, Sarah
Hardcover
$28.80
Country of Lords: Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America
Phillips-Fein, Kim
Hardcover
$31.50
The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon
Schweizer, Peter
Hardcover
$30.88
The New Dark Ages: The Death of Reading and the Dawn of the Post-Literate Society
Marriott, James
Hardcover
$23.40
The Last Free Women: A Daring Escape from Afghanistan and Coming of Age in America
Blumenstein, Rebecca
Kapp, Diana
Hardcover
$28.50
All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump
Scaramucci, Anthony
Hardcover
$26.99
The College Scam: How America's Universities Are Bankrupting and Brainwashing Away the Future of America's Youth
Kirk, Charlie
Hardcover
$35.99
The Origins of Totalitarianism: With a New Introduction by Anne Applebaum
Arendt, Hannah
Applebaum, Anne
Paperback
$19.79
The Elections That Changed the World: Fifteen Pivotal Moments That Shaped How We Live
Bash, Dana
Hardcover
$30.40