For the US income tax example: generally speaking, (monetary) income comes from people trading with each other, and that generally wouldn’t happen without comparative advantage between the two people trading. No comparative advantage ⇒ no trading ⇒ no income to tax.
I think part of the confusion is that I am NOT claiming that the people/organizations making a profit have a comparative advantage. People can totally make a profit by seizing that profit from someone else. But without comparative advantage, there’s no profit to seize (relative to a world where goods never change hands). If the profit requires goods moving bidirectionally between people, then there must be an underlying comparative advantage.
Now, it’s possible to find someone operating in isolation (i.e. collecting their own salt) and seize part of what they’re producing. Then comparative advantage won’t play a role. (Of course, that’ll be hard to enforce—it’s not easy to prevent people from producing things for their own consumption in secret.) The key point is that this scenario does not increase the total amount of goods produced relative to everyone operating in isolation. Comparative advantage is about changes in total production, not changes in distribution.
But without comparative advantage, there’s no profit to seize (relative to a world where goods never change hands).
Just because there’s no profit to seize doesn’t mean that goods won’t move from one person to the other if the person who wants to use the goods uses coercive force.
While I’m not certain to what extend it’s true, from time to time I heard the claim that the British didn’t get net profit from colonization. It’s possible that they still did it because they believed it would be good for them even when it wasn’t profitable.
Just because there’s no profit to seize doesn’t mean that goods won’t move from one person to the other if the person who wants to use the goods uses coercive force.
Right, this is exactly why I talk about goods moving bidirectionally. If someone is just straight-up seizing goods by force, then there’s no reason for goods to move back in the other direction. So, if the profit requires goods moving bidirectionally, then that indicates some relative advantage is involved somewhere.
For the US income tax example: generally speaking, (monetary) income comes from people trading with each other, and that generally wouldn’t happen without comparative advantage between the two people trading. No comparative advantage ⇒ no trading ⇒ no income to tax.
I think part of the confusion is that I am NOT claiming that the people/organizations making a profit have a comparative advantage. People can totally make a profit by seizing that profit from someone else. But without comparative advantage, there’s no profit to seize (relative to a world where goods never change hands). If the profit requires goods moving bidirectionally between people, then there must be an underlying comparative advantage.
Now, it’s possible to find someone operating in isolation (i.e. collecting their own salt) and seize part of what they’re producing. Then comparative advantage won’t play a role. (Of course, that’ll be hard to enforce—it’s not easy to prevent people from producing things for their own consumption in secret.) The key point is that this scenario does not increase the total amount of goods produced relative to everyone operating in isolation. Comparative advantage is about changes in total production, not changes in distribution.
Just because there’s no profit to seize doesn’t mean that goods won’t move from one person to the other if the person who wants to use the goods uses coercive force.
While I’m not certain to what extend it’s true, from time to time I heard the claim that the British didn’t get net profit from colonization. It’s possible that they still did it because they believed it would be good for them even when it wasn’t profitable.
Right, this is exactly why I talk about goods moving bidirectionally. If someone is just straight-up seizing goods by force, then there’s no reason for goods to move back in the other direction. So, if the profit requires goods moving bidirectionally, then that indicates some relative advantage is involved somewhere.
You need to go to another place to loot the place and that usually involves transporting personal, weapons and equipment.
Most wars where there’s no net profit but a lot of capital lost include some bidirectional flow of goods.