[xzins]

So, if you run a fruit stand, you’re ahead if you buy more goods than you sell? That doesn’t makes sense to me.

[Lord Castlereagh]

It makes perfect sense. It’s not really possible to do, but if you could do it, you’d be in heaven.

[1rudeboy]

So, if you run a fruit stand, you’re ahead if you buy more goods than you sell? That doesn’t makes sense to me.

How about you, specifically? Do you buy more goods then you sell?

[mlo]

"So, if you run a fruit stand, you’re ahead if you buy more goods than you sell? That doesn’t makes sense to me."

If you can buy more goods than you need from what you sell, then you're ahead.

[AndyJackson]

So, if you run a fruit stand, you’re ahead if you buy more goods than you sell? That doesn’t makes sense to me.

That's free trade. You just finance the difference with a mortgage on your house. What's the problem?

[arrogantsob]

That isn’t Friedman’s point. His point is that if you sell three apples and get back ten lemons you are better off that if you sell three apples and get back eight lemons. He is talking about the terms of trade in a free market not necessarily in state managed trade.

[pgkdan]

So, if you run a fruit stand, you’re ahead if you buy more goods than you sell? That doesn’t makes sense to me.

That Friedman quote makes sense in feudal Russia where the serfs were forced to grow food for the nobles to sell to someone else with the serfs gaining no advantage and not enough to eat. In a modern economy we're depriving ourselves of nothing due to exports. Are we all driving 40 year old cars because American auto companies want to sell some overseas? Are we going hungry because other countries buy our wheat?