Variety is Beneficial

One of the benefits of trade is that variety is good. Bryan was telling me that when the Berlin Wall was torn down, Eastern Germany had oranges and apples for the first time. The introduction of these fruits being a benefit of trade. I still wasn't convinced that it was a benefit, this new introduction of fruit. Because how could people who had never had oranges and apples consider these new fruits a benefit? They had never tried them before, and maybe they would never miss them.

Apparently, it's even simpler than that. Bryan broke it down to something I could understand: chocolate. We have one bag of chocolate that is all milk chocolate truffles, and we have another bag of chocolate that has four flavors. If you eat one piece of chocolate from the first bag, it's delicious. If you eat a second one, it's delicious. If you eat a third, it's delicious. At some point, it's going to get less delicious. However, if you eat from the second bag, you will eat perhaps a white chocolate truffle. If you have another truffle, it might be dark. If you have another, it could be milk chocolate. And so on. Because you have four different varieties, the rate of diminishing marginal returns is spread across all four, resulting in a better experience, or a benefit of trade.