Buying products from countries that enslave and murder natives in response to increased demands ... and shipping those products polutes air land and sea, does not "raise the median standard of living for all humans." Your logic, if unqualified, results in the destruction of rain forests and the murder and enslavement of the people there.
Not necessarily. I was challenging the idea that buy local is always better. That doesn't mean necessarily purchasing only on the criteria of lowest cost and highest quality, nor does it mean ignoring squalid working conditions entirely. Taken without the national boundaries, should you support the corner grocery, or Costco? Costco is probably paying employees better, on-time, in safer working conditions than many corner groceries.
Note also, I said raise the median. So if someone goes from being a street beggar to working in factories with no ventilation for 18 hours a day... as long as the quality and opportunity go up, you may raise the median. Also, lets say 25% are worse off than before but 75% are better off. This also raises the median. Especially if the people who are "losing" have not dropped below the old median, but perhaps lost 10% of what they used to get.
The median model isn't really fully sufficient but its an easy placeholder for the experiment that avoids value judgements about the well-to-do and sufficiency.
I understand what you meant to say. That's why I said : Your logic,
if unqualified, results in the destruction of rain forests and the murder and enslavement of the people there." In other words, your argument, while valid to a point, requires qualification to avoid promoting something monstruous:
You said (and I italicize): "I can't see the problem of a level playing field that ignores geography, industry, size, or
any other factor." Can you see how the last phrase, if implemented, accelerates destruction of rain forests and the murder and enslavement of the people there, as currently occurs in Brazil, central africa, and Pacific rain forests, mostly to meet the demand of the growing Chinese middle class?
