I have no idea why many people keep saying that there are no winners in a trade war.
I think they are saying that because in their point of view, a trade war causes all sides to suffer, and the fact that all sides suffer means there are no winners in trade wars.
This to me is equivalent to saying that there is no winner in a boxing match, because everybody in the ring is going to get punched.
If this proposition is true, then why do we call Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson or Evander Holyfield champions? Did they not win glory, victory and a handsome purse by stepping into a ring and remain standing while their opponents bit the dust?
In the same way, I have no doubt that there will be a winner in a trade war.
The one that will win will be the one that will be able to take their share of punches while delivering punches that their opponents cannot handle.
Whoever succeeds in winning a trade war, just like whoever succeeds in winning anything, will then get the lion share of what everybody wants. They will win the prize, the fame, the glory, the attention, the bragging right, the most important seat in the assembly and the best cut of meat in the feast.
I don’t know who we are trying to fool by thinking that there will be no winners in a trade war, but I am quite confident that even if we repeat the line that there are no winners in a trade war until the cows come home, we are not going to fool Trump.
Trump knows there is a winner in a trade war – that is why he launched one in the first place and is asking his fellow Americans to take to the mattresses until they have won.
If he wins, and there is a great likelihood that he will win, he will take the spoils of war. With the spoils of war, he will also hog the glory, fame, attention and the bragging rights.
If that were to happen, what would all these people who are suggesting that there are no winners in a trade war have us do? Are we supposed to continue to believe that Trump didn’t actually win although he is taking from us everything that we want? That true victory actually belongs to us because we occupy the moral high horse, although Trump is the one that has all the glory, prize, attention and spoils of war?
Who are we pretending to be here, saints? Are we supposed to be content with inner peace, while the winners and those who betted on the winners take the spoils and climb above us in status and position?
If you don’t know the world, you are a fool, but if you don’t know yourself, you are ignorant.
If you are a fool, that is ok, because a fool can learn.
If you are ignorant however, even the gods will give up on you, because how can anyone help a person who doesn’t even know themselves?
If we are worldly people, but we behave as if we are saints, and continue to believe that there is no such thing as a winner in a trade war, we are ignorant, for thinking that we are something that we are not.
Rather than do that, we might as well accept the truth, which is that as a worldly people, things like status, position, wealth, attention, respect and connection are of utmost importance to us.
If we become poor, or if a country that is lower in status than us like Cambodia or Bangladesh climbs above us in status, because they connected with the winner of the trade war while we were busy lying to ourselves by saying such things as there is no winner in a trade war, then we are going to end up miserable and wretched.
So rather than continue to delude ourselves with such ridiculous proposition as there are no winners in trade wars, we might as well wake up and smell the coffee, and realise that of course there are winners in a trade wars, and do what is necessary to be on the winning side, so that we can keep our wealth, respect, position, status, respect and connections, and not end up as losers, who will have to contend with being poor, miserable, oppressed, ostracised and targeted.
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