World Peace through Codependency? :: Essays Papers

World Peace through and through Codependency?Im writing my second paper on how free trade (not just trade) can ternion to world peace. This is a pretty hefty goal to put on free trades shoulders but it is only an ideal. Its what freer trade tends toward. I will break the paper down as followsRicardo is a favorable StartWhy Free Trade?Patrick McDonalds ThoughtsConclusionRicardo is a Good StartWhen I first thought of writing this paper I was thinking very simply of specialization leading to world peace through codependency (hence the title).Basically, David Ricardo talked about gains from trade through comparative advantage and specialization. When countries specialize in goods that they have a comparative advantage in, each country benefits from trade. This statement is too a way that specialization could lead to peace through codependency. For example Guns and Butter lets say that Japan has Comparative Advantage (CA) in making guns and the U.S. has CA in making butter. The U.S. wo uld tend towards making more butter and exporting it to Japan and Japan would do the same with guns. If this were to go on unchecked then Japan might make all of the guns and the U.S. might make all of the butter. Guns are obviously tools of intimidation and butter is harmless hitherto necessary for food. In this example, once the U.S. completely stopped making guns and devoted all of its resources to butter Japan could just point their guns at the U.S. and demand butter for free. This example is of course extreme but it has historical significance. Is the example of Japan turning their guns on the U.S. for free butter much different than the story of Cortez and the Aztecs? I dont think so. I know that given current technology and current politics this situation seems preposterous but Im sure the Aztecs felt the same way before they were killed. What Im getting at is a point made by Adam smith who believed that certain industries need to be protected for the sake of national defe nce. We cant allow another nation to make all of our weapons or defense systems. But, if you change the two goods in this example to something else like automobiles and computers or sieve and corn the potential results arent as catastrophic. If Japan made all of the rice and the U.S. made all the corn wed each have monopolies but desire for the others product would push prices down to a probable level.