Free Trade's Victims?
Or ask: If the New York Times loses market share to Internet cites, would it be appropriate for its owners to claim to be victimized by freedom of the press?
...............
20 January 2008
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Taking Steven Landsburg to task for showing no "compassion" for those "who have fallen victim to the deleterious side of free trade," Alan Ross completely misses Mr. Landsburg's point (Letters, January 20). Free trade, as Mr. Landsburg eloquently explains, has no victims. In the long run, it benefits everyone - even those who today lose their jobs to foreign rivals. The vitally important insight is that almost every job that Americans today worry about losing was made higher-paying, and even possible, by trade. For any worker to complain that he is victimized by trade would be akin, say, to Elvis Presley complaining that he was victimized by radio because that medium did so much to make the Beatles more popular than him.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
...............
20 January 2008
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
Taking Steven Landsburg to task for showing no "compassion" for those "who have fallen victim to the deleterious side of free trade," Alan Ross completely misses Mr. Landsburg's point (Letters, January 20). Free trade, as Mr. Landsburg eloquently explains, has no victims. In the long run, it benefits everyone - even those who today lose their jobs to foreign rivals. The vitally important insight is that almost every job that Americans today worry about losing was made higher-paying, and even possible, by trade. For any worker to complain that he is victimized by trade would be akin, say, to Elvis Presley complaining that he was victimized by radio because that medium did so much to make the Beatles more popular than him.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Saturday June 14, 2008 at 10:34am