Unfair for Whom?
16 December 2006
Editor, The Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10281
Dear Editor:
Peter Navarro insists that China's trade practices are "unfair" (Letters, Dec. 16). Unfair for whom? Not for American consumers. We get lower-priced goods and - because trade with China releases our own resources to produce things that would otherwise be too costly to supply - more innovative products. Not for American producers, for an essential rule in a market economy is that no producer has any right to consumers' patronage.
Any unfairness in this picture is suffered only by Chinese citizens who are taxed and regulated to make Chinese exports more attractive. Even here, though, the picture is unclear. The lifting of hundreds of millions Chinese out of poverty over the past quarter-century is powerful evidence that that country relies less and less on government intervention and more and more on the rules of the market.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Editor, The Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10281
Dear Editor:
Peter Navarro insists that China's trade practices are "unfair" (Letters, Dec. 16). Unfair for whom? Not for American consumers. We get lower-priced goods and - because trade with China releases our own resources to produce things that would otherwise be too costly to supply - more innovative products. Not for American producers, for an essential rule in a market economy is that no producer has any right to consumers' patronage.
Any unfairness in this picture is suffered only by Chinese citizens who are taxed and regulated to make Chinese exports more attractive. Even here, though, the picture is unclear. The lifting of hundreds of millions Chinese out of poverty over the past quarter-century is powerful evidence that that country relies less and less on government intervention and more and more on the rules of the market.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Saturday August 25, 2007 at 4:08pm