Skepticlawyer

Last year, I discussed efforts to ensure that Adam Smith had an appropriate memorial in Edinburgh, where he was a central figure in the Scottish Enlightenment.

I’m pleased to report that Smith’s statue is now up. Unusually, the statue was built entirely by private subscription, with particular input from Britain’s Adam Smith Institute, and was officially unveiled earlier this month.

When I took the photo accompanying this post (yesterday), Adam had already been christened by one of Edinburgh’s many resident gulls. He’s also been pre-greened – presumably the effect spreads unevenly otherwise. (I have strong memories of the very green Queen Victoria in Brisbane’s George Street, something that periodic clean-ups never remedied).

UPDATE: I’ve just realised that this post is sadly appropriate in light of the news that the Doha Round of trade negotiations have collapsed over the desire of certain countries (both developing and developed, alas) to retain agricultural protection. As I commented over at Larvatus Prodeo, I’m pretty sure it was Abba Lerner – way back in 1936 – who demonstrated that a tax on imports is exactly equivalent to a tax on exports. Raising tariffs is an exercise in shooting your own economy in the foot.

I’m not pretending that free trade and technological change are ‘costless’ – there was a reason why the Luddites engaged in ‘frame-breaking’ – but interest groups who oppose free trade have greatly overblown its effects. Some cliometrics: between 1993 and 2002, almost 310 million jobs were lost in the US. Over the same period, more than 327 million jobs were created. Nearly 18 million more people had jobs in 2002 than in 1993. Each of the 310 million times somebody lost a job, that person was entitled to sympathy and help, whether or not foreign competition had anything to do with it. The solution has never been to ban technology or to restrict trade.