Global economy is a two-way street

Re: David Lazarus’ consumer column “Proudly driving U.S. sock makers out of business,” May 13:

David Lazarus laments the job losses associated with outsourcing but ignores the benefits: lower prices, better goods and opportunities in new and different jobs.

The pain he cites is real, but this is an argument for providing unemployment assistance and job retraining, not for prohibiting consenting adults from engaging in free exchange of goods and services.

And if outsourcing is such a negative, would we be better off if BMW and Toyota closed down their assembly plants in South Carolina and Kentucky, fired all the workers and sent those “outsourced” jobs back to Germany and Japan?

Weston Wellington

Santa Monica