Globalization and rising standards of living

Check out Safire's editoral, "My Anti-Stump Speech," discussing globalization and the impact it actually has on standards of living:

"[W]orkers have better tools and software to help them produce more in the same time, and because cheap clothes from overseas help keep prices down. Those dirty words — "productivity" and "outsourcing" — are raising Americans' standard of living."

I happen to think Safire is right about the actual impact of global markets. That aside, I also think that he has some pretty powerful rhetoric in the article, that strikes me as capable of surviving in the political arena. If Bush is attacked on his free trade platform, he shouldn't be apologetic...