What I'm really asking is are the advanced countries maintaining their standard of living by extracting more from trading partners than they are returning in trade? If they are then they are international brigands and trade is just a cover for this.

It is quite possible for trading partners to each extract more in trade than they are returning trade, when evaluated from a baseline of their self-sufficiency. So a trading partner extracting more in trade than they are returning in trade evaluated from the baseline of self-sufficiency is not in and of itself proof of international brigandage.

I would argue, in other words, that a different baseline is required to detect the international brigandage.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.