The New York Times contains a very interesting article on the role of Western Union, the money transfer company, in promoting the migration of both money and people across international boundaries:

With five times as many locations worldwide as McDonald’s, Starbucks, Burger King and Wal-Mart combined, Western Union is the lone behemoth among hundreds of money transfer companies. Little noticed by the public and seldom studied by scholars, these businesses form the infrastructure of global migration, a force remaking economics, politics and cultures across the world.

I never knew that Western Union was so big, but it seems entirely logical.  A truly free market requires not just the removal of barriers to the freedom of trade of goods and services, as so often propounded by those on the right.  It also requires the free flow of the two most important factors of production: capital and labour.  That is, money and people must be allowed to cross borders, and Western Union is the best example of the two being entwined.

You can see the effect of capital crossing borders by the so-called ‘Golden Arches Theory‘ in war studies (or peace studies, as it’s known as Bradford University).  In his book The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas Friedman posited that no two countries that both had McDonald’s have fought a war against each other since they have each had McDonald’s outlets.

Some are quick to point out exceptions, but they are most certainly exceptions that prove the rule.  The ‘wars’ between the USA and Panama, Israel and Lebanon, and NATO and Serbia were not parochial nationalist conflicts, but interventions to further the cause of liberty by ending tyrannical regimes and combating terrorism.

No-one thinks that McDonald’s is a perfect safe-guard against war, but the spread of McDonald’s represents a greater principle of the movement of capital and of people, of liberal culture and of political ideals.  However, as today’s New York Times shows, a better representation is that of Western Union.  Whilst there’s no ‘golden nameplate’ theory - mostly because Western Union is so well spread across the world and is a service, rather than a franchise - it does mirror an interconnectivity of people and places like never before.

By analogy to Frédéric Bastiat’s famous saying, if money can’t cross borders, armies will.  So long as Western Union continues to facilitate the breaking down of borders between countries and cultures, it can help to maintain liberty, peace, and prosperity for not just the developed world, but the developing world as well.