when I make a purchase, I’m consuming labor and resources that could’ve been used for other things. I and my trade partner may be better off, but there’s a negative externality of using up some of civilization’s finite productive capacity.
That is, there is a negative externality of production, consisting of not using those resources in any of the other, better ways that they might. And I pointed out where this leads.
I disagree that believing there’s a negative externality of production leads to the position you’re arguing against—for instance, I might think the negative externality is very small compared to the positive gains from trade. But I appreciate you pointing out exactly where you disagree with my framing.
You wrote this:
That is, there is a negative externality of production, consisting of not using those resources in any of the other, better ways that they might. And I pointed out where this leads.
I disagree that believing there’s a negative externality of production leads to the position you’re arguing against—for instance, I might think the negative externality is very small compared to the positive gains from trade. But I appreciate you pointing out exactly where you disagree with my framing.