Buying Local

Pratt's post on buying local reminds me of the statement made by Abraham Lincoln about purchasing steel rails from Britain. He said if we buy the rails from Britain we have the rails but they have our money. If we make the rails here in the US, we have both the rails and the money. Buying local is simply another attempt to ignore the fact that specialization according to comparative advantage followed by trade leads to gains. Restricting trade is perhaps beneficial to a special interest, but leads to losses overall.