Dear NY Times: Poverty is No Solace
Editor, The New York Times
To the Editor:
Floyd Norris takes a shot at explaining "The Upside to Resisting Globalization" (Feb. 6). His shot, alas, is a blank.
While it's true that economies not integrated into the global economy do not decline when the global economy declines, this fact is poor consolation for the peoples in those economies. Their fortunes are not now falling simply because their fortunes never rose much to begin with. These people are today, as they have been for years, far poorer than even the hardest hit victims of the global downturn living in countries such as the
Mr. Norris's alleged "upside" of resisting globalization amounts to nothing more than the empty solace of permanent poverty.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Don Boudreaux is the Chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University and a Business & Media Institute adviser.
