Global Economy

   Regardless of what the current president says, we live in a global economy. And a major beneficiary of that globalization is himself, with his extensive investments in real estate worldwide, as well as his clothing lines made elsewhere and brought to the U.S. for sale for his profit.
   On its face, closing borders and shutting out others is a disastrous strategy, since it assumes that one nation can have a self-sustaining economy and stand alone, supplying all the needs and wants of its citizens, with well paying jobs and reasonable prices.
   It doesn't happen.

   Technology, automation and machines increase productivity, with the same number or fewer workers, even at higher pay for each. Total expense for labor and production is therefore lower. Also, greater output enables lower per-unit price, so the company still makes a profit -- even a higher profit.
   Meanwhile, workers let go in the process of increased efficiency move on to other fields, learning new skills with more education. Result: Higher pay, better hours and working conditions, less physical labor and more satisfaction for a challenging job well done.
   And because of this increased production at lower cost, the market for the product expands beyond a nation's borders. At the same time, each nation discovers what it is most efficient at producing, and focuses on that. By definition, this means a global economy, a situation outlined more than 200 years ago by Adam Smith in his book, "The Wealth of Nations."
   Moreover, this force, guided by what Smith called the "invisible hand" of a free market, operated in a global economy.
   So to close a nation's borders to protect its markets, even as these protectionists praise the virtues of a free market, is contradictory at best and downright silly at worst.
   You can't have it both ways. Yet that seems to be what many politicians in Washington seem to be aiming for: A fully free market economy, entire of itself, with tight borders to keep out others producers even as it aims to keep its export markets.
   Ain't gonna happen. It will only mean other nations will also raise tariff barriers to protect their producers, and everybody loses.