the ideal export to import ratio is 1, BTW. Anything else is an imbalance and a ticking bomb. The internal trade imbalances in the EU have already blown up once.
Even if it is 1 at the national level, at some level of granularity it will not be 1. This seems to be a system that cannot be in a consistent stable state. I would rather aim for controlled periodic fluctuations, but even then I don't think it is possible to avoid areas of economic bloom and economic blight.
1? really? i guess you mean reinvesting your net positive export income into efficiency improvements and innovation and maintaining infrastructure? ok, i can agree with that. but one still needs save for a rainy day (emergencies, downturns) so maybe the ideal is slightly greater than 1.
Flip the import/export and mercantilist attitude around and see what happens. Imports simply mean that you are getting what you want from external producers. There is nothing inherently bad or good about this. You could also just as easily say that the US has now offshored a lot of our (dirty/unpleasant/etc) manufacturing requirements to other countries and gets to reap the fruits of their labor.
