Here’s a letter that I sent recently to the Washington Post:
Dear Editor:
The
moral of your report on the decline of family weavers in India is that
globalization and modernization are suspect because they eliminate many
ancient, home-based occupations ("An Ancient Indian Craft Left in
Tatters," June 6). And your quotations from out-of-work sari weavers
are indeed moving.
Nowhere in this report, however, do you
interview those Indians who now can buy machine-made saris at lower
prices – thus improving their standard of living by enabling them to
purchase other goods whose production creates new jobs for many Indians
who would otherwise remain mired in poverty. Yes, India has a long way
to go. But the notion that most Indians’ lives would be better if that
economy were frozen in its past ways is foolish.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
