Another classic fallacy: trade is more complicated than the basic picture of comparative advantage you got in Econ 101. If America had kept pursuing its comparative advantage, we would still be trading beaver skins to the British for manufactured goods. Instead we took a protectionist stance and allowed our fledging industry a shield from foreign competition so that it could develop. This is what every industrialized nation has done, even all of the "Asian Tigers." The only places that haven't done so have been forced into "free-trade" under colonialism or quasi-colonialism, where they get to do great things like send all of the countries bananas out to another power in exchange for a few luxury cars for the elite ruling few. Back when Ireland was in a colonial type situation, it had the distinction of being a net exporter of food during The Great Potato Famine.