Disclaimer: I am not an econominst. Well, an educated at one. We are all economists at heart, or in doth, thy brain, and in thy brain hath not heart and not heart a hath. Brain.*
A few days ago as I was walking through Montevideo and saw, graffitied on a wall, "100 años de Rodney Arismendi / Somos Antiimperialistas / Somos Comunistas". And, while I know nothing of Uruguayan government, I don't think they're communists...
While I found the graffiti amusing, it got me thinking. Perplexing. Analyzing. Doth. Over the course of my trip, I have been thinking about/considering the Argentine fiscal/economic policy of, and allow me to quote the law here properly, "taxing the everliving SHIT out of imports"** and how much I disagree with it. I think it's very stupid. You just hurt yourself. Your citizens can't buy the goods they want at a reasonable price of any sane amount of ease and you make it more difficult to build reasonable trade relationships because foreign companies can't easily import goods into your country. Additionally, when companies inside your country build versions of goods that can't be imported, they, or at least I imagine, won't be as good as the imported versions. Everybody loses because of volume.***
I then began comparing this idea to communism. But first, another disclaimer:
I AM IN NO WAY SAYING THE ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT IS A COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT. My comparison is merely to say, in a world of global trade, not trading with other countries is foolish.
Disclaimer over
Here we go.
Again, I'm not a highly educated economist, or a highly educated anything, but communism, economically speaking****, relies on an entire country to produce everything it needs. It treats everyone equally, so the guy who wants to be a doctor and would be good at it is a railway worker. It destroys motivation and morale. As much as you can say this doesn't work for so, so many reasons, mainly the other bad communist reasons, like censoring people, it REALLY doesn't work in a world (cue voiceover) with global trade and communications.
In a world of global trade, everyone country should develop a set of competitive advantages. Then everyone trades the excesses of the goods they make for the goods they need. Basic economics, right? Russia makes guns, trades them for butter from Switzerland. The US makes pop culture, trades with South Korea for Psy, gives Psy back for free with an unkind, handwritten note written in Mandarin about how what a dirty trick South Korea "played on us". John Kerry resigns. China grows and exports rice, trades with Japan for Playstations. Argentina trades cows with Guatemala for coffee. You get the picture.
In a world with global trade, if you try to do everything yourself, whether in a communist fashion or like Argentina by heavily restricting trade, you're fucking yourself, your government, and your own people. They don't get as good of options of choice, basically, the best choice, the best options, or simply enough options (i.e., variety), you don't make as much tax revenue, and then you lose even more money for your country by not exporting as much as you could.
So when I say communism doesn't work in the 21st century, what I mean to say is, not being part of global trade in a world with global trade doesn't work. You just fuck yourself. This is a square-is-a-rectangle moment.
I just hate communism. So, fuck communism.*****
*I'm really into Shakespeare for some reason this morning. I blame The Newsroom. Although I think they quote Don Quixote more often.
**I translated this myself. Pretty sure it's accurate.
***That is to say, you will sell more imports at a 10% sales tax than a 100% import tax. Hence, by volume, you could make more tax revenue with the 10% sales tax than with the 100% import tax.
****And this is the only way I'm speaking about communism in this post: economically.
*****One of the biggest reasons I love America: I can say "I hate communism" and not get thrown in jail for it. Fuck yeah.
A few days ago as I was walking through Montevideo and saw, graffitied on a wall, "100 años de Rodney Arismendi / Somos Antiimperialistas / Somos Comunistas". And, while I know nothing of Uruguayan government, I don't think they're communists...
While I found the graffiti amusing, it got me thinking. Perplexing. Analyzing. Doth. Over the course of my trip, I have been thinking about/considering the Argentine fiscal/economic policy of, and allow me to quote the law here properly, "taxing the everliving SHIT out of imports"** and how much I disagree with it. I think it's very stupid. You just hurt yourself. Your citizens can't buy the goods they want at a reasonable price of any sane amount of ease and you make it more difficult to build reasonable trade relationships because foreign companies can't easily import goods into your country. Additionally, when companies inside your country build versions of goods that can't be imported, they, or at least I imagine, won't be as good as the imported versions. Everybody loses because of volume.***
I then began comparing this idea to communism. But first, another disclaimer:
I AM IN NO WAY SAYING THE ARGENTINE GOVERNMENT IS A COMMUNIST GOVERNMENT. My comparison is merely to say, in a world of global trade, not trading with other countries is foolish.
Disclaimer over
Here we go.
Again, I'm not a highly educated economist, or a highly educated anything, but communism, economically speaking****, relies on an entire country to produce everything it needs. It treats everyone equally, so the guy who wants to be a doctor and would be good at it is a railway worker. It destroys motivation and morale. As much as you can say this doesn't work for so, so many reasons, mainly the other bad communist reasons, like censoring people, it REALLY doesn't work in a world (cue voiceover) with global trade and communications.
In a world of global trade, everyone country should develop a set of competitive advantages. Then everyone trades the excesses of the goods they make for the goods they need. Basic economics, right? Russia makes guns, trades them for butter from Switzerland. The US makes pop culture, trades with South Korea for Psy, gives Psy back for free with an unkind, handwritten note written in Mandarin about how what a dirty trick South Korea "played on us". John Kerry resigns. China grows and exports rice, trades with Japan for Playstations. Argentina trades cows with Guatemala for coffee. You get the picture.
In a world with global trade, if you try to do everything yourself, whether in a communist fashion or like Argentina by heavily restricting trade, you're fucking yourself, your government, and your own people. They don't get as good of options of choice, basically, the best choice, the best options, or simply enough options (i.e., variety), you don't make as much tax revenue, and then you lose even more money for your country by not exporting as much as you could.
So when I say communism doesn't work in the 21st century, what I mean to say is, not being part of global trade in a world with global trade doesn't work. You just fuck yourself. This is a square-is-a-rectangle moment.
I just hate communism. So, fuck communism.*****
*I'm really into Shakespeare for some reason this morning. I blame The Newsroom. Although I think they quote Don Quixote more often.
**I translated this myself. Pretty sure it's accurate.
***That is to say, you will sell more imports at a 10% sales tax than a 100% import tax. Hence, by volume, you could make more tax revenue with the 10% sales tax than with the 100% import tax.
****And this is the only way I'm speaking about communism in this post: economically.
*****One of the biggest reasons I love America: I can say "I hate communism" and not get thrown in jail for it. Fuck yeah.
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