Bad ideas seldom stay dead for long. They may receive an intellectual decapitation, but they often come back to life, resurrected by people who find them useful.

Mercantilism is a prime example. Adam Smith slew its doctrines, and several generations of economists used his writings as a springboard to show how trade interferences can only enrich a few at the expense of the many. But in 2022, we still hear cries for mercantilistic policies.

In this excellent AIER essay, Samuel Gregg reflects on the current clamor for trade interventions, coming largely from conservatives who think we need to put the interests of workers (some of them, anyway) and firms (some of them, anyway) ahead of the “materialistic” concerns of consumers.

Here’s a great paragraph:

What economic nationalists downplay or ignore is that it is precisely through serving consumers in a competitive market that businesses produce wealth. In these conditions, companies must constantly innovate, find efficiencies, and reduce their margins to outpace their competitors. In the process of doing so, they create new wealth. That same wealth allows businesses to employ millions of people, thereby providing individuals and families with the salaries, wages, and benefits that enable them to pursue numerous non-economic goals. How, I ask, is this materialistic?

Read the whole thing, and share it with people you know who may be swayed by the meretricious claims of the mercantilists.