The typical way that most people in America are compensated for work is by the payment of cash or cash equivalent. While there are people that will claim that they never trade at all, in fact, trading is part and parcel of our everyday life, for example, we trade the money that we make to purchase goods and services. Although most people look upon this as not being a trade, it is a very basic form of trading, where we are exchanging one thing that represents value for another thing that we need or desire. Trading is a very vital part of American life, because the efficiencies and logistics of America, allows certain industries and locations to effectively produce goods at prices that are substantially below what some other part of the country could provide, if they were even able to provide the good or service at all. The overall arching reason why goods are so affordable in America is the fact that "the invisible hand" of capitalism makes it so.
Nowadays, of course, the world has become a much smaller place, so that international dealing and trading is vital for any country of real worth. For instance, a lot of the economic growth that has been achieved by Southeastern Asian countries is fundamentally because they are exporting their goods to rich countries such as America. Americans are the beneficiaries of this trade because they receive goods at a cheaper price than they could be produced domestically and the foreign countries benefit because they are able to keep both their countrymen employed as well as the being the recipients of additional monies into their country.
In an ideal world, the best trading is done from strength to strength, that is to say, if the particular climate and technological knowhow as well as the labor forces are favorable to produce agricultural products within a particular geographic center of the world that is probably the right thing to do. At the same time, if another area of the world has large mineral wealth, than that part of the country would best lend itself to maximizing the worth of those natural resources. So that, if can be said, that it is typically of more economic value to specialize and to work upon the things that you are best suited for, as compared to trying to be all things to all men.
However, we don't actually live in an ideal world, and natural resources, brain resources, monetary resources, weather and geographical locations, have not all been equally provided to all countries in equal amounts. That is why some trades are inherently unfair, such as the trading of precious metals for trinkets, and other nonsense from generations ago. Yet, the nature of man doesn't change, so those that have knowledge and foresight typically have the upper hand over those that have neither of these, and consequently those that get the short-hand of the trading deal, suffer for it.
The way that trading should work, is that both parties should clearly benefit from the trade, that is what makes trading so vital and so good for the common welfare. A good trader has an obligation both to be fair as well as to be honorable to the other party, anything less than that degenerates into a "hustle", which isn’t right or just.