Zach Weinersmith17h ago

So, two things I really value are free trade and open immigration. On reflection, weirdly, it's somewhat easier to make the open borders case to people, even though it's less popular overall. Why? Because to make a case for free trade, you have to argue the period from the mid 70s to Trump, where trade was getting more and more free, was broadly a good time. But that's not people's intuition, and in my experience, people don't usually accept macro stats.

(possibly this is specific to my bubble)

Show threadZach Weinersmith17h ago

I think you can make a strong case that politics is very frightening right now, and could get much worse very quickly, but it's hard to argue the world got economically worse during that period.

Part of why the case is also hard, btw, when you're talking to more right-wing people, is a very strong moral argument is to says "a billion Chinese people came out of poverty." Obviously doesn't work for everyone.

Show threadLarry17h ago
@ZachWeinersmith
I think the death of Mao and the succession by competent leaders had more to do with it.
Show threadZach Weinersmith
@quoidian Absolutely, but all the investments allowed by liberalization needed money and the expectation of a hungry world market.
10:34amWeb