Editor, The New York Times
To the Editor:
Jeremy Weir Alderson says that "the No. 1 reason for imposing higher labor standards on imports isn't to improve living standards abroad but to maintain them here" (Letters [1], Jan. 19). It's true that the real motive for such standards is to protect certain producers in
The greatest source of lower-cost competition for American producers over the years is not cheap foreign workers; it's machinery and technology. Local butchers in the late 19th century could not compete with
Lower-cost sources of output do not cause poverty; they alleviate it.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Don Boudreaux is the Chairman of the Department of Economics at George Mason University and a Business & Media Institute adviser.