Free Trade, Unilaterally, from Donald Boudreaux
Mercantilism is a cancer of the mind.
9 May 2007
Editor, Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071Dear Editor:
Robert Samuelson argues that free trade benefits Americans only when foreign governments practice free trade ("China's Trade Time Bomb," May 9). Not so. The case for free trade rests on the recognition that prosperity is enhanced by permitting consumers to spend their money as they choose. When foreign firms are subsidized, those subsidies (while they hurt foreign taxpayers and foreign economies) benefit American consumers and the American economy just as surely as when the attractive prices and qualities of foreign products result from foreign-producers' comparative advantage.
Sincerely, Donald J. Boudreaux Chairman, Department of Economics George Mason University