This is the Katori Daily Podcast for Wednesday, December 27th,

2023. I'm Caleb Brown.

One unsung benefit of globalization,

in addition to delivering the goods the world wants, the

relatively free exchange of goods and services gives us more time.

Cato's Gabriella Beaumont Smith explains.

Even people who are largely opponents of globalization

or at least want to place some significant restrictions on people's ability

to trade freely across the globe. Even they acknowledge that

globalization delivers the goods. That is the stuff that we get from around the

world is unmatched in all of human history.

But we get more than that and that's sort of what your essay deals with.

Yes, that's exactly right.

I talk about how trade is about much more than cheap t-shirts and arguably the greatest benefits provided by trade liberalization and globalization are actually non-financial and intangible.

We don't just get good, so we also get services and we get time.

And in terms of time, how does that free time suddenly manifest itself?

I'm the father of three.

I need to know.

People have been trading for thousands of years.

Before we had modern day currency, people bartered so they

exchanged goods and services for other goods and services. But by 3000

BC that changed into long distance trade and people were swapping materials

...