House of Paine

immigration for jobs

just visited this blog for global unionization

it was trying to build a case for immigration quotas 
based on  wage rates and job market swamping 
ie classic  national protectionism 
 from the  tentative and checkered results

the guys are obviously tormented
by their tols on "  native " labors behalf 

given their  demand is  dirty pool

greater  barriers to entry....

why thats 
like  stringing  barb wire round  lady liberty 
taking that welcoming torch from her hand
and set up a search light to dtect   border crossers 

such skunkery
 is   hardly these  swell..." play up" type
         merit bedazzled  
                one worlders  druthers eh???
                                   
                     of course not ..

======================================== 


my answer  to them at their site:


"hey why butt heads here

over  varying perspectives

 on justice and morality

when the whole set up 
is so rigged and unfair
 no american wage worker 
has a chance to compete 
 against emerging nation workers 
no matter how hard or cleverly he/she works

in fact
this rig all by itself
could  continue to determine  
 the direction
 of  both
  international migration
           and trade  flows
no matter what other fairness moves are taken
on the "other side"
to level the playing field

it can't be leveled
so long as this rig can re tilt it again...

      

------------------------------------- 

geentlemen and ladies

i'll take  your example

the  troubling wave of immigration from latin america

there would be no mass of illegal  immigrants

coming across  the mexican  border

if the peso and the us dolllar exchanged at something closer 
 to  a neutral rate 

what do i mean..

well 
 there's not enough time in any activists life
to go thru 
all the text book wonkery 
 behind a full understanding 
 of national comparative advantage  trade theory

suffice it to say

when it comes to the real world
 u can throw away the text book 
and all its beautiful 
 progressive  
 and in the long run fair 
international growth dynamics 

 cause
 these advantages are not what  drives
the actual  international trade system 

  no  not comparative advantage

but  exchange rate advantage drives  real international trade 

and exchange rate advantage is a perverse artificial rig job

that in a totally unfair fashion

  facilitates the making of  corporate profits

 and the losing of well paying  american jobs 



grasp this get all other well intended sorts to grasp it too
and i claim
you'll be  saying
             good bye to moral  grapples 

with

 well meaning " liberal-progressive"  one worlders

hey with your own inner goo goo too 

all you need do

  is show  yourself and them 
  how the present system is rigged:

 how its  unfair from jump street 
       and we'll all be lustily singing
in  the nafta no chorus 

this may seem  an excessive boast

it isn't

nor   i regret to say
 does it provide  a  realistic panacea 

 to do more then point outthe tilt
to actually rectify it 
 would require a massive  political upheaval

ie at a minimum

a people's dollar

and 

a people's   euro  

so then what is the immediate result
one can expect
 from all us nice guys
 seeing the global exchange rate tilt for what it is 

only this mates  :

free trade in todays system 
is not fair trade
  and furthermore
         can not be fair   

 because the source of this unfairness 
is embedded in the system itself 

 a pervasive   persistent self reproducing
                  deep deep   distortion 

a  drastic warp  in the global currency  exchange rate system 
so hideous no high wage anywhere
          will ever be safe for long


-----------------------------------------

ever heard of purchasing power equalization..????



well that  is an accounting calculation

that equalizes the  prices between two nations 

 of some  bundle of  tradeable products and services 

by calculating

  an exchange rate  between the two  nations currencies

      that  brings   the two  sets of prices

            into aggregate allignment  

now there's many "correct"  ways to do this

  but here's the glaring result:

  all reasonable methods show one very obvious over all pattern  when the worlds various

real market  exchange rates 

are compared to these equalizing  exchange rates

the rewal market system is systematicaly over valueing north country currencies(ie the us dollar the yen the euro)

and undervalues south currencies 

(the yuan the rupeee the baht the peso )

the  present  market system  is rigged

of course  enquiring minds  want  to know how it gets rigged 

but first here's  why 

under this system  northern  based tran national corporations  make out like bandits  

cause it gives em both a capital export and a  product import advantage... a tail wind ...

 under the present set of distortions capital investments sailing south  buy  more   and south products and services  sailing back north can sell for less 

it gives em a nice profit pop this two way trans  national   freeway

till a new global monetary system ends  this exchange rate based tilt 
selective north country  protectionism should be used to save unfairly destroyed jobsbecause its a righting of a wrong not a a wall safe guarding indolence and carelessness