Economic illiteracy fosters or abets a lack of human decency. Let’s compare the American government and the Vietnamese.
The average Vietnamese person generates a value of $15,194 per year, or GDP per capita, and earns that amount. The corresponding figure in the US is $81,665, more than five times as much. Vietnamese people are poor. (My comparison of GDP per capita is in international dollars at purchasing power parity (PPP), based on the World Bank’s World Development Indicators.Purchasing power parity is the lower price of nontradable goods available in poor countries. The price of land, lodging, and many other services would be equalized by trade, which, if allowed, would result in a price difference that exceeds transportation and transaction costs. increase the GDP of poor countries in comparison).
I would like to add that the Vietnamese people, the people living in Vietnam, have had a tragic history, even if only in the last century. They have been exploited by their own governments, especially in the north. Southerners survived the American-led war against communism, but it would not have been fun had they been victims of communism in Russia, China, or North Vietnam before. The South was eventually abandoned by the American government, and all Vietnamese have lived under communism ever since, although the regime is now softer than before. The Vietnamese government allows some degree of entrepreneurship and free enterprise to help poor Vietnamese people escape poverty.
There are three ways to get rich, or even richer. As long as the rich are rich, you can rob the rich. You can also plunder the poor, which is what collectivism called communism does best. Or you can trade with the rich and the poor. The third way is how Americans in general, or Americans individually, became rich. Thirty percent of the growing income of Vietnamese people comes from selling goods to Americans, rich or not. More recently, Vietnamese people have benefited from the trade war between the United States and China (which has a per capita GDP of $24,558), with some exports from China to Americans becoming legal or illegal. was replaced by Vietnam’s exports. Don’t focus too much on the illegal part. At the time (I’m thinking of the 1808-1909 embargo) Americans were also excellent smugglers. Many people still do this. Smuggling refers to attempting to circumvent government-placed obstacles to trade between individuals.
A GDP per capita of $15,194 does not mean dire poverty, but it is still poor by the standards of the rich world. The report places Vietnam in the World Bank’s lower middle income country category (among four categories: low income, lower middle income, upper middle income, and high income). Using the longer Madison Project series on GDP per capita (estimated in constant dollars, no PPP) suggests that Vietnam is now approximately where the United States was at the end of the 19th century, but without the PPP correction, the difference is is exaggerated. Like China and many poor countries, Vietnam rose to lower middle income status not because it had a liberal government, which it did not previously have, but because its population was partially allowed to participate in world trade. It is. According to the first year available in the World Bank’s GDP per capita series, Vietnam’s GDP per capita at the time was only 5% of America’s level (and about the same as China’s). Opening the door to international trade for residents of poor countries has had a significant impact on poverty reduction. It’s not that Americans have become poorer; quite the opposite; the inhabitants of these poor countries have become less poor.
Regarding the lack of human decency and shame, consider the following (A. Ananta Lakshmi, “Vietnam’s largest import partner is China, but the United States is its largest export destination”, Financial・The Times, November 16, 2024).
President Trump did not mention Vietnam during the recent presidential campaign, but in 2019 he called the country “almost the single worst abuser.”
“Vietnam is using us even worse than China,” he told FOX Business.
These quotes and their underlying foundations are noteworthy. Why would the government of people who make $82,000 a year want to ban trade with people who make $15,000 a year or impose tariffs that limit trade opportunities? The economically ignorant excuse is that these people That means you’re making $15,000, but you’re running a trade deficit. To be sure, Americans and their intermediaries who are not forced to import goods from countries 8,000 miles away also benefit. Otherwise they wouldn’t have done it. For example, an engineer makes a profit by trading with a butcher, but the butcher also makes a profit. Otherwise, they won’t trade. According to economic theory confirmed by experience, a trade deficit between a group of people called Americans or engineers and another group called Vietnamese or butchers is of no significance other than that individuals in the two groups benefit. There is no gender.
Of course, all trade and competition disrupts some producers, but without it there is no wealth or progress. In the grand scheme of things, “protecting” some people from other people’s dealings usually doesn’t help the former, and certainly not their children. Because in such a perverted system their own opportunities are further limited to protecting others.
Why do some Americans trade with Vietnamese? Why do poor and rich people trade together? Poor people are less productive. That’s why they are poor. Wealthy people are more productive. That’s why they are rich. “Productive” means producing what some consumers (or producers of other goods) want at a competitive price. Poor people produce some things that wealthy consumers (or intermediate producers) cannot find elsewhere at comparable prices. The rich produce things that poor consumers (or efficient producers) cannot find elsewhere, at comparable prices. Each group of producers (remember, made up of individuals) has a comparative advantage. Imagine being prohibited from doing business with people who are poorer than you, such as garbage collectors. Or imagine that you are prohibited from doing business with people who are wealthier than you, such as doctors and many owners and executives at automakers.
But what about the wealthy and wealthier individuals who are disrupted by their fellow countrymen trading with poorer or poorer producers?Consider Mississippi, the poorest state in the Union. GDP per capita is estimated at $51,546 (in 2023 current dollars, not PPP), which is less than two-thirds of the national level. The interesting thing here is that Mississippi is poor compared to other American states. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average weekly wage in Mississippi in 2023 will be $930, 45% lower than California’s average weekly wage of $1,680. Mississippi certainly has a large trade deficit with California, but who cares if it can be reliably measured by constant customs and police surveillance at the border? Not the people in Mississippi who import iPhones from California (where most of the iPhone’s value is produced).
If there’s nothing wrong with Mississippi’s trade deficit with California, what’s wrong with its trade deficit with Vietnam? Aren’t Vietnamese born in Mississippi? Does that mean they haven’t moved to Mississippi? Californians sell computers to Mississippi for less than they can manufacture locally. Or is the problem that a few powerful, crony American corporations (and their unions) are being competed with, abused, and exploited by relatively unproductive and poor people living 8,000 miles away? ?
The Christian God should not be proud of humanity, and not only because of economic illiteracy.
*******************************************
God was disappointed in economic illiteracy and human lack of decency
