QotD: "If the purpose of international trade is to create jobs, then why bother accepting anything at all in return from foreigners?"

"If the purpose of international trade is to create jobs, then why bother accepting anything in return from foreigners? As Bastiat pointed out, more jobs in export industries would be created if the government arranged for all workers in export industries to produce tons of goods, have all of these goods loaded on to ships, and then have all of these ships and all of their cargoes sunk in the middle of the ocean."This ... ‘sink-all-fully-loaded-cargo-ships’ logic is the logic of protectionism – or, rather, the illogic of protectionism."~ Don Boudreaux, from his post Myths & Fallacies of Trade

PS: Follow-up question: So what's the optimum number of cargo-ship-sinkings?

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