In a trade balance sense, where imports are perceived to reduce the economic viability of an area and exports are perceived to increase it? Or are you saying that businesses that pay low wages are harmful compared to businesses which pay high wages, sell the same amount of the same product (at a higher price), make the same profit, and distribute that profit the same way?
The trade balance perspective is a pretty interesting one :P If the locals spend money at your store, how does it get back to the locals so they can buy more stuff? Is the entire cycle good for the locals (typical import/export), or is there a tragedy of the commons problem (the people hurt aren't necessarily the same ones who shop at your store)?
But what I was mainly thinking of was labor distribution. The economy is (from the pragmatist perspective) a system for distributing goods and labor to where they'll benefit people, better than a central planne...
Today's post, Traditional Capitalist Values was originally published on 17 October 2008. A summary (taken from the LW wiki):
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