If enough higher-paying jobs are lost by American workers to outsourcing, he calculates, then the gain from the cheaper prices may not compensate for the loss in U.S. purchasing power. In other words, the low wages at Wal-Mart do not necessarily make up for their bargain prices.

On the home front, the government could invest more in the creation of high-wage service jobs that America needs and that can't be exported - like better-paid preschool teachers and nursing home workers - and to raise the wages of all low-paid workers through higher minimum-wage laws and enforcement of the right to unionize.
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