The Department of Labor should withdraw its proposed changes to the labor condition application.

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When I step back from this simulation, I muse that such a condition is unacceptable to business, labor, the unemployed, pensioners and even politicians.

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As I pointed out in an earlier column in Slate , the growth of labor-intensive exports from Third World countries, a development possible only because those countries are able to offset their disadvantages by competing on the basis of cheap labor, has brought about a huge improvement in the human condition, even if the wages look miserably low by our standards.

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The bottom line: A large population, a large labor force, and a dose of markets may be the necessary condition for leading the global economy.

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