jpnpb, you have contributed so much good sense to this board that I hesitate to go against your statements on this issue, but I must.

Why don’t we stop buying goods from people with slanty eyes, or non-Christian religious beliefs, or black skin?

I think a certain small amount of loyalty to one’s one tribe is OK, but more than a small amount and our world can get really ugly really fast.

Even if we thought it was just fine to favor trading with people based on how close they were to us geographically or linguistically or racially or religiously, rather than the value of what they provided to us, does that help us? I don’t think so. I prefer some of my goods made by German firms; others, by French; others by American… It’s based on what I think they do best and selfish maximization of my own value, and not incidental characteristics of the people involved.