How to Deal with Strangers; B. Summers

Societies have developed along similar lines. In the earliest socie ties, people lived pretty much by their own wits. Later, they turned to their immediate neighbors for help with hunting, harvesting, and mutual protectibn. Strangers, however, were to be feared and driven away. Only in recent times have people realized that strangers have some thing to offer. Let us review what has been learned about dealing with strangers, in the hope that we won't repeat past mistakes. Strangers are different. They look different and sound different. They also produce different goods and ser vices. They have different skills, dif ferent natural resources, and grow their crops in different climates and soils. Ifwe want to share in the many Mr. Summers is a member of the staff of The Foun dation for Economic Education. things the world has to offer, we will have to deal with. strangers. It's harder to go it alone. Some times a stranger will offer a product that we Can make in our own com munity. But perhaps he can make it for less. We can get more goods and services by spec~alizing in what we do best, and trading for the products that others make best.

The carrot is betterthan the stick. If we want to get what a stranger has to offer, it i$ best 'to offer some thing in return .• We can take what he has by·force, but then he will stop producing. Weean place heavy bur dens on his output, but then newil1 trade with others. Some strangers are very smart. They try to figlllre out what goods. and services weiwill want,and then do their best to cut the costs of pro duction. When they fail,· they some times suffer great losses. But when they succeed, they often become rich. And because we are the ones who use and enjoy their products, we also benefit. It is smart for us to let oth ers work in freedom. We are all str&,ngers.Our customs and ways differ~rom those of every one else. But just as other peoplecof· fer their goods apd services to us, we offer our products to them. When we rely on someone as a trading part ner, he also relies on us. In free trade, each person provides for his own needs by helpilng provide for the needs of others. i Douglas Wentz The "Right" to Education I am a graduate student at an ex pensi ve Ivy League uni versi ty. The federal government's guaranteed student loan program already has fi nanced $5,000 of my educational costs, and substantial additional debt looms on my horizon. My father, an honest, hard-working bookkeeper, earns substantially less than does my mother, a public schoolteacher. Cer tainly I, if anyone, should join the ranks of those who, in their own self interest, have marched on Washing ton to protest cuts in aid to students.