To be honest, it appalls me how many good-meaning people misunderstand international trade. In normal times, it wouldn’t matter because the role of peaceful trade has been a largely settled intellectual consensus for close to a century. It is a background issue to most of our lives. Today, the consensus has vanished for all the wrong reasons. It wasn’t challenged on facts or theory. It disappeared because so many folks just don’t understand the issue and are succumbing to demagogues exploiting that lack of knowledge. I think a good analogy to this is vaccinations for polio. Within a generation of the last trade war, the polio vaccine radically altered the lives of Americans. Prior to that, young healthy people routinely died of a disease whose appearance led to citywide panics, and the closing of schools, parks and pools. That has not occurred for more than 60 years, so today only parents in their very late 80s or older recall the visceral fear of the disease killing or maiming their children. Today, demagogues spread lies about vaccines to a public rendered susceptible through ignorance. The number of children who avoid vaccines is becoming dangerously high.via