The Intensifying Debate Over Food Security

One of the troubling ideas that seems to have gained traction is that nations should not care overmuch about the needs of their citizens and should accept market outcomes. This position is ultimately contradictory, since its proponents argue for the Reaganite “get government out of the way” position, when commerce depends on rights defined by and enforced by the state (thought experiment: would US companies have built factories in China, a Communist country which could expropriate assets, if the US were not a military superpower?)

This advocacy of “free trade” (when we in fact live in world of managed trade) runs two parallel arguments: the “free trade increases wealth and therefore we should all go along” and and the “more open trade is inevitable, you better be on this bus or you will be under the bus.”