Source: EconLog
by Pierre Lemieux
“That nationalism is a kind of collectivism or modern-tribalism is illustrated by a current phenomenon: foreigners seem so disliked that, in some people’s views, ‘we’ should neither import from, nor export to, ‘them.’ On the import side, foreigners — foreign producers or their governments or the latter’s taxpayers — are disliked because they produce goods at such a low cost that ‘our’ producers can’t compete. As for ‘our’ greedy merchants who import things that ‘our’ consumers want, all are greedy non-patriots. Since the 17th or 18th century, an important dimension of progress has been to economically and morally smother these emotions, or so one may have thought. On the export side, consider tourism, where a new protectionism seems to be rising.” (10/01/24)
https://www.econlib.org/here-we-sell-only-local-collectivist-or-tribal-protectionism/