> you did not understand correctly if your eyes read "cheap currency" and your mind read "cheap labor". i actually read "expensive consumer goods for their pop

> you did not understand correctly if your eyes read "cheap currency" and your mind read "cheap labor". i actually read "expensive consumer goods for their populations" and concluded "cheap labor", as i pointed out. suppose you ask citizens from nation A and nation B how many hours they'd have to work to be able to buy a certain good. if both answer the same number, then how can you say that the good is more expensive in any one of the nations? and if citizen from nation A answers a larger number than citizen from nation B, so that the good is more expensive in nation A, then how does A not have cheaper labor than B, as one unit of the same good literally buys your more labor from A than from B? i'm still digesting your apple example. i'd be interested if you could cite a real case of this happening, because it doesn't agree with everything that i have seen. for example, sometimes the apple business in BA will simply die. this is what i was getting at when i mentioned that "underdeveloped countries are still net importers of complex goods". if you take a mildly complex good like refrigerators or office chairs, chances are that a random not-so-developed country has some local manufacturers. but they're just struggling, not exporting proportionally larger quantities. indeed the only way they'd export K>1 refrigerators for every Samsung imported is if there were 0 exports and 0 imports (so the country is so poor no one has a good refrigerator). also, suppose that BA produces a total of N apples per year per capita. if the people in GA work the same hours, then GA produces the same number, N, of apples per year per capita, because they are both equally good at picking apples. since trade is balanced, it does not affect the level of value/utility/wealth on each side, whatever the amount of trade. so in the end, for the same hours worked, BA has a total product of N bad apples per year per capita, which is 10 times less than GA, which has a total product of N good apples per year per capita. people in BA are poorer. assuming people in this economy just buy/sell work and apples, the people in BA must work for less value, i.e. they are cheaper labor. if labor in BA is more or less than 10x cheaper than in GA, then apple orchards will simply close in BA and reopen in GA or vice-versa until it gets 10x cheaper, at which point there's no point in switching. this is moreover compatible with the real anecdotal examples i mentioned i have seen. i'm open to recommended readings.