Freely Accessible Online Information is the World’s Bastion Against Economic Protectionism

Abstract

Online search has become the most convenient and increasingly important method to search for products. In essence, an online search induces demand, and when aggregated over a city’s or country’s population, the aggregate demand can be substantial. The key idea is that the search must be unbiased, and only returns the most visited websites of products in a particular category. A free Internet is thus essential to equilibrate demand for all products in a fair manner and is useful for inducing demand for less well-known products that allow them to compete fairly. This step fights economic protectionism, and helps avert warfare over trade and economic issues. It also delays or reduce the extent of trade surplus from building up, which has become a thorny issue in foreign affairs such as the trade war between the United States and China.

Keywords: economic protectionism, induce demand, trade war, online search, equilibrate demand