The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

208 THE FREEMAN Aprileither force the bloated wage leveldown or engender institutionalmass unemployment.The apparent solution for suchproblems is a policy of autarchy,viz., economic isolation, as bestmanifested by recource to tariffand migration barriers, exchangecontrols, and the· like.International Ramifications: WarIt should now be evident that acountry intent upon controllingwages and prices cannot permiteither imports .or immigration.Such penetration would easily andobviously frustrate the planners.Statism, therefore, becomes synonomouswith autarchy. With thepossible exceptions of the U.S. and.U.S.S.R., hardly any nation is adequatelyblessed with the means ofself-sufficiency; statism and autarchy,. therefore, .must manifestthemselves as a policy of aggressivenationalism. As Lionel Robbinsobserved: "It is really ridiculousto suppose that such a policyis possible for the majority....To recommend autarchy as a generalpolicy is to recommend waras an instrument for making autarchypossible."It may be well to consider thispassage further. In the. long run,exports must always equal imports.The only reason one givesup an object in trade is to acquirethat which he does not possess butvalues more than· what he is givingup; similarly, the only needfor exports is to pay for the requiredimports. Thus, the greaterthe imports demanded for subsistence,the greater the exportsrequired to pay for them.A nation, in endeavoring topreserve domestic wage and priceincreases through recourse to tariffand migration barriers, therebyeliminates the possibility ofexporting its surplus co~moditiesand thus acquiring the foreignexchange necessary to purchaseimports. There are only threeways to procure the necessities oflife: (1) to produce them at home,(2) .to trade for them, or (3) togo to war and take them. If anation does not possess the kindor the necessary quantities of naturalresources, and if it does notpossess enough fertile agriculturalland to provide for its population,then it must trade for these necessities.If it erects tariff barriersand prohibits imports - orif other nations erect tariffs thatprohibit exports - a nation is thenunable to trade for its necessities.Unless one subscribes to the unlikelyproposition that the peopleof one nation will passively acquiescein permitting either starvation.or a substantial reductionin their standard of living, thereis .only one recource left: war.World Wars I ·and II are replete