The US has had a trade deficit since 1975, so is the US trade deficit really such a bad thing?
In: 436
The trade deficit is a *good* thing. To paraphrase Milton Friedman, exports are the cost of international trade, imports are the gains.
The people who complain about the trade deficit are making the mistake of thinking money, by itself, has value. That is not the case. Money is only as valuable as the goods and services it can buy. Imports increase the goods available to you, exports decrease those goods. This isn’t to say exports are bad, but *the purpose of exports is to help buy imports.*
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