A man works in a Gary, Indiana steel factory. His high school son contemplates his future. The factory may close due to competition from cheaper imports. If so, jobs will be lost and people hurt. Should we let the factory go under or protect it with tariffs or quotas? The answer doesn't come from tallying jobs saved or lost. It's far more subtle and complex.

Opponents of "globalization" want us to believe that international trade is a zero sum game in which American jobs are sacrificed for cheap foreign goods. At best, this is an incomplete answer. If we view economies as we do ecosystems, we can do much better.

A dynamic, open economy creates opportunity for some and hardship for others.

International trade lets us use our highly skilled labor force to focus on what we do best and on the dynamic future rather than a static past. Russell Roberts explores these issues in his challenging novel, The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protectionism.

Here's an example: entrepreneurs succeed by creating products that improve social well-being. They specialize in moving resources to higher valued uses. If they're successful, they'll attract both human and financial capital from other places. This process transforms lives. The revolution in information technology (i.e., from the printing press to the Internet) closed factories and displaced workers, just as international trade does.

Korea makes some high quality steel more cheaply than America. Shall we buy it with the money we earn doing things we do well-like writing computer software? Or shall we "keep it out" and buy more expensive American steel?

We see that when we buy foreign goods, Americans in the competing domestic industries will lose jobs. Unseen is the power of foreign competition to induce our domestic industries to innovate. Unseen are the opportunities and jobs created in health care, entertainment, and the other sectors of the economy where American skills and creativity produce the best products in the world.

There are two major ingredients in a nation's recipe for wealth. First, it must use its resources wisely. Far more important than natural resources (e.g., oil, land, and minerals) are the talents, educational levels, and ingenuity of it's people. Second, political and social institutions must be in place to give people incentives to work hard, to innovate, and to take risks.

Back to Indiana. A tariff on steel protects the father's job. And it makes the choice of working in the factory more appealing for the son. But this course has costs. Among them: it eliminates opportunities for foreign steel workers, keeping them poorer; further, expensive domestic steel increases car prices, hurting American consumers and reducing the number of autoworkers; and finally, protecting the factory limits the boy's future.

But how will this boy prosper if his dad is out of a job? Allowing the factory to die forces the boy to seek a different future. Perhaps he'll attend college. It may be a state school rather than an Ivy, but if he has ambition, he'll find a way to fulfill it. Looking at how past generations managed to survive and thrive in a dynamic economy is helpful.

In 1900, 30 percent of Americans worked in agriculture. Today the number is around 3 percent. As technology improved, some farmers incomes fell. Others sold out to more efficient operations. But the biggest changes were in the dreams of the farmer's children. They saw a future in agriculture was not as bright as it had been for their parents and grandparents. Hence, they made plans to become salesmen, teachers, and doctors. This is exactly the process that is underway today in much of Montana.

It's hard to imagine how limited the opportunities would have been, for a generation of farm kids, or how much poorer we'd be today, had we decided in 1900 to preserve the size of the farming industry in the name of saving jobs.

We can't know the opportunities that will arise for that boy in Indiana if the factory fails. But they will arise. What they will be depends on the talents and ambitions of the next generation of entrepreneurs, investors, and workers. Place your bets on a dynamic future rather than a static past.