Like the Bush administration, the Washington Post strongly supports a policy of selective protectionism. Their policy of selective protectionism gives the most highly educated workers, like doctors and lawyers substantial protection against competing with their lower paid counterparts in the developing world. At the same time, it tries to remove any barriers that provide similar protection to less-educated workers, like autoworkers or textile workers. According to economic theory, the effect of this policy of selective protectionism is to redistribute income from less-educated workers to workers with college and advance degrees, a process that we have actually seen clearly over the last quarter century. Since it is hard to find political (or economic) justifications for this sort of policy of upward redistribution, it is helpful to disguise it. Political proponents of this policy call it "free trade," concealing the one-sided nature of the opening to trade. The Post adopts the rhetoric of its political allies in two front page articles today. A neutral account would simply refer to "trade," an approach which would also meet journalistic concerns about saving space.
--Dean Baker
