In today's column (Times Select) John Tierney asks what organization has lifted more people out of poverty than Wal-Mart. He points to the large number of poor people in the developing world who have seen substantial improvements in their living standards because they were able to work in factories producing goods for export to rich countries. While his counterfactual is a bit skewed (most of these people still would have been producing goods for export to rich countries even in the absence of Wal-Mart), his column should again remind real free-traders of the great humanitarian good that could be filled by the Wal-Mart Times. If only the proponents of free trade would eliminate the barriers that protect high paying jobs in rich countries for people like Tierney and Thomas Friedman, as well as the high-paying jobs of doctors, lawyers, and the other professionals who occupy the top ranks of the pay scale in the United States, hundreds of millions of people in the developing world could quickly be lifted out of poverty. Not only would poor kids in the developing world have the opportunity to fill these jobs, but the money that they would repatriate to their home countries (along with taxes to ensure that home countries are compensated for their education) would provide a huge boost to development. But, the likes of Tierney and Friedman only think that autoworkers, textile workers and dishwashers should have to compete with low-paid workers from the developing world. They want and get protectionism. So, the answer to Tierney's question is that as soon as people like him begin to support free trade in highly paid professions, there will be many institutions that lift more people in the developing world out of poverty than Wal-Mart.
--Dean Baker