1. So it's been 60 years since WWII ended and you have the two main Axis powers whose economies were in desperate need of reform. Japan is currently implementing and pursuing further reforms while Germany is sitting on its ass. I predict in as little as 5 years time there will be a drastic difference in the two's standards of living.
2. OK, so I figured out an ultimate poetic justice scenario. The unions and their "legacy costs" (read pensions for old, retired union members) have renders their employers uncompetitive against their foreign and immigrant labor competitors. So as a way to help employ all those laid off union members from Northwest Airlines, United, and soon to be Delphi, GM and Ford, I have the perfect job for them;
Bounty hunters.
But not any normal bounty hunters. Illegal immigrant bounty hunters.
We put a bounty of $1,000 for every illegal immigrant. The recently laid off union workers whose jobs were eliminated by cheap foreign labor (overseas or illegally domestic) can get training in bounty hunting and recoup their lost wages by hunting down those who are partially responsible.
It's a TV reality show in the making.
7 comments:
Bounty hunters, huh?
That job would actually pay better than any union job. They'd have incentive to quit and become bounty hunters.
Such a bounty hunter with a $1000 dollar reward per head would make AT LEAST $50,000 near where I live just on Monday morning by going down by the garden store and picking up all the illegals loitering there.
Then, on Tuesday, they could go to another little town and make another $50,000 by the railroad tracks where another bunch of illegals hang out waiting to get picked up for odd jobs.
All you'd need to do is rent a big van....
Yeah, I was listening to Chertoff say he's going to get rid of "every single illegal" in the US.
Not without having the market work for you he's not.
Capt, I agree about unions - they suck, literally. They suck the iniative right out of people. I've seen first hand the perils of unions. The workers are lazy and sometimes companies had to hire say plumbers when they didn't even need any just to fill some union quote system in that area.
However, at the other end of the suck spectrum is insourcing and outsourcing. Instead of our government lowering taxes and requiring foreign governments to pay "reasonable" wages to their workers, our government had done the opposite - tax us to death and cower tothe likes of China. I respect the Chinese (oriental) culture because they work their asses off. I've seen documentaries where the workers wear the same uniforms and do group cheers for the mother land. America lacks that. However, paying Ling Lee 33 cents per hour, in my non economist perspective, isn't reasonable, even if the cost of living over there is less. Free trade with non free peoples of nations like China perplex me and make me doubt whether we should use the term Free Trade.
Our government refuses to demand anything from the likes of China so what is America left to do? Open our borders to millions of illegal immigrants who WILL work for 33 cents an hour, and increase foreign work visas to foreign professionals who WILL accept 10k per year for an engineering job instead of 40k.
I remember when drywallers would make 15 dollars per hour. Now with illegal immigration, making 10 is normal. Anybody who's laid drywall knows that 15 dollars an hour is fair and in no way some inflated union rate.
I'm ranting here, but I hope you understand what I'm trying to say. From an economist's perspective, let me know where I'm going wrong here.
REgards
Bucktowndusty
You're right Bucktown. But you see, and this is key to understand how I (as well as how I recommend) approaching economics;
What are you going to do about it?
You see, businesses and investors are going to set up shops where it's cheapest to do so. There's nothing with the US government can do about that, unless it decides to become dictatorial and ban people from investing there.
Secondly you're forgetting about a huge benefit in all this which is based on Ricardian trade theory, we're getting cheaper goods from China which increases our purchasing power. So drywallers may only make $12 an hour, but costs for many things have gone down because of foreign labor (here or overseas).
This further highlights the need for Americans to get good educations that are on the cutting edge of development and innovation, and which is why I rant so much against the stupid kids getting degrees in sociology and feelings and peace studies.
Read the post I did on foreign labor, I think it will bring in some insight to your thinkign.
Capt,
The only thing I can do is rant each week on my site really - that and join organizations and read sites that I feel deal with these issues.
Other than that, corporations and our leaders seem not to care about anything but the bottom line.
I despise socialism. I understand comparative advantage and free trade, but everything has a cost, and I see social costs that probably don't show up in any charts (just in places like my hometown that I no longer recognize due to illegal immigration. That and in countless communities accross America, if you're not bilingual, you don't get the job).
Tell me if I'm wrong, but there is a lopsided transformation occuring within America's economy. Our commodities that we purchase at walmart are getting cheaper, but mortagages are not. Worker A who makes widgits purchases House A that he can afford on salary A. Widget companies oursource decreasing the price of widgits and thus salaries for widgit workers. Before long, worker A either looses his job or his salary decreases making walmart a necessity where before it was a novelty. Yes all things are relative - except for the housing issue. So Worker A can no longer afford House A and must search for house B. Worker B decides to get higher education to compete in emerging technologies and afford House A still- the only problem is India and China graduate 10 times the number of tech graduates who will work for substancially less money. Worker A now has a school debt based on Price A that he must pay off with a Walmart or Widget job still now paying Salary B. The squeeze is on. '
This is all too confusing for me.
Well, the simplest way to put it is;
1. We're hosed.
2. Buy some Yuan
3. Invest in Estonia
4. Learn some Mandarin
5. Try to find a place to move before social security destroys us and throws the country into socialist revolution
A comment on the asians and productive degrees. I've been in school over tha past 20 years working my way thru undergrad and, today, almost completing my grad school work. Today, while the majority of the students in the engineering areas are either Indian or Asian on my campus, I'm seeing more of them who, when you talk to them admit they are really in engineering and sciences because of the ticket it represents. They are realizing that other professions exist (including fill-in-your-favorite-studies). I've seen article where Indians express hope their children have the chance to become artists and actors.
I somehow suspect that it is only natural for a very small fraction of the population in any culture to naturally aggregate to intellectually tasking work that is subject to a right and wrong answer. Today there is disequilibrium.
I'll bet that once India and China move through their leap from 3rd world to at least European standards of living, their fraction of population delving into less value added work will dramatically increase. At this point, they too will begin to have similar problems we will encounter.
One thing is constant across the ages and culture, the human desire for a free ride while being able to posture on how hard one earn's ones living.
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