Trading up . . . to your Dreams

It took only about one year (!) and 15 trade-ups to go from a paperclip to a house. On the eleventh trade, he traded one afternoon's worth of activities with Alice Cooper for a KISS snowball. On the merits of this trade, on how the heck this qualified as a "trade-up," Kyle explained it this way:

Well, I'm not exactly sure if I'm in a position to plead for my sanity here - after all, I am trying to trade one red paperclip for a house. But I must re-inforce what I believe the one red paperclip project is all about: relative value. What's more important to a man dying of thirst in the desert - one million dollars or a glass of water?

To ameliorate any hurt feelings on Alice's part, Kyle created The Induct Alice Cooper into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame petition that will be sent to the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. You should sign the petition now before Alice welcomes Kyle to his Nightmare.

This trade exemplified a central lesson for Kyle -- that different things are important to different people for different reasons.

Hummm . . . I think I finally understand, or at least better understand, comparative advantage, a central principles in economics that explains the basis of trade.

This Positive Thinking article caught my attention because it bound together the story of how one person was able to achieve their dream and an external circumstance technically beyond Kyle's control that made it possible, i.e., the ability to rationally trade with another human being.

It might be easy to take this external circumstance for granted, but -- perhaps we shouldn't: See Dark Days Ahead by Daniel Ikenson, associate director of the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies.

There's been much understandable worry about globalization and trade liberalization in the last few years, but what are the opportunity costs of trade restriction?

Question: while protectionism would protect us against cheap foreign competition, against risk & challenge, might it also cost us one very precious thing -- a decreased ablity to pursue our dreams?.