Why Do Countries Trade With One Another?

Such was the question on my 2nd grade daughter’s homework assignment.

The correct answer is, of course, countries don’t trade with each other – people do.

That answer, of course, would have gotten her an incorrect answer once the economically illiterate teacher got their hands on it.

What to do with the brainwashing that my kids receive with a public school education?  Should I attempt to augment their education and risk confusing them with contradictory information?  Or more plausibly, get them pissed off at me for insinuating that their teachers are stupid morons that don’t know anything about how the real world works?

Or should I try to infuse them with critical thinking skills and hope that one day, when I start spouting libertarian gobbledygook that some of it will seep in?

I’m thinking that there isn’t a good answer.

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