I'm willing to put up with higher costs of goods now if that allows my economy to develop in the long term

You see the link between those to things

I do not understand

Decreased costs means increased capital accumulation

meaning more investment expenditure

increased roundaboutness of production

and therefore more supply over the long run

and better supply

Not what actually happens. As you save money from cheap imports you receive lesser wages, capital moves abroad etc.

How does increased costs do that without hindering standards of liviing?

"As you save money from cheap imports you receive lesser wages"

What the fuck

How

You increase the net quantity of capital and supply and therefore increase wages as each worker increases in marginal value

You get cheap imports because people in your countries are losing work in favour of a country with cheaper labour costs

Yeah, but people get new jobs with the freed up capital

new investments

Creative destruction

Doesn't necessarily follow

What

Capital moves overseas

Yes

More profit in cheap exports

Capital moves everywhere all the time

No

Capital in the last decades moved to very specific places

Like China

Please tell me you're like 16

Do I have to dig up which countries received the most foreign investment in the last decade

Have living standards got better or worse during this time of decreased national capital flow (of which I'll grant) or not?

Wages have mostly stagnated but technology and the like have advanced so overall it has gotten better

Yeah, exactly

How do you improve technology?

By having industries in your country and RnD

This is what happens

you decrease costs

increase supply

increase capital accumulation

increase investment

that furhter decreases costs

increases supply per inputs

increases capital

I dispute RnD has increased in the last decade within western countries

increases investment

I don't think you realise just how wrong you are right now mate

There'd be more investment in our own countries if we didn't trade freely

Idk about investment overall but we'd be better off

I'll say free trade has been a very good thign for China

Though they don't practice it themselves

Continually devaluing their currency to encourage exports

Having tariffs and subsidies

Because the shere volume of investment and western purchasing power that has been siphoned off is astounding

My head hurts

I'm gonna assume you're a young guy and you'll learn with time

When you have an actual argument against free trade that doesn't break a logical law ping me

I understand the pov of free traders but it's just wrong

Marx

John Maynard Keynes

Freidman

Hayek

Mises

All of them

everyone

they all agree on two things

free trade is good

rent controls are bad (not Marx for this one lol)

I recommend constructing a well thought out argument

Doesn't matter since western and oriental countries industrialized using policies like ISI

Okay?

Do you think Japan would've been better off not developing it's own car manufacturing?

They could've saved some money buying cheaper American cars

According to an apodictic logical law

Free trade, increases net supply of goods with the same amount of inputs

Do you dispute this?]

It's very simple

The net supply of goods in a given moment doesn't dictate prosperity in the longterm

People have more money now and access to more goods now

The question is about longterm development

So at some point the logical law is broken?

In the future increased supply is bad?

It's wrong to say it directly translates into more supply in the longterm

That doesn't make....any sense

People get to consume more now but production will not grow as much or at all

What

How

Destroying your own productive capacities is just enslaving yourself to those of others

Look at how easily you can destroy global production chains by just taking china out of the equation

It doesn't matter if you can buy cars now from some foreign company at a cheaper rate if your countries' potential productive capacity isn't made use of

HOW DOES HAVING MORE GOODS AND SERVICES AT A LOWER PRICE MAKE YOU LESS PRODUCTIVE?

Because it prevents the development of industries in your own country

You're not producing more just consuming more at a cheaper rate

Which makes barriers to entry for developing industry in your own country higher

If I live in country X and we lose all of our jobs in the iron industry from foreign competition, all the goods in our country that are made with steel will see lower costs

thats an increase in productive capacity

Net productive capacity increases

I don't disagree that importing iron is good

Because it makes manufacturing more competitive

It doesn't make economic sense to be autarchic in that

You're starting to make sense

However usually this looks more like this
Your country is stuck with an economy primarily about the primary sector
You trade away what little capital you earn thorough it for cheaper foreign manufactured products. Industry deosn't develop unless foreign capital decides to invest or your country decides to institute some tariffs and kickstart industry