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I would ask you to consider why labor costs are $20/hour in some countries and $0.20/hour in others. Many jobs being done in the US could easily be outsourced t
by bko 11y ago
I would ask you to consider why labor costs are $20/hour in some countries and $0.20/hour in others. Many jobs being done in the US could easily be outsourced to these lower cost countries, but are not. If the $0.20/hour was equally as productive as $20/hour, the $0.20/hour would be bid up. High price tag of American labor is not expensive because its American, its expensive because its very productive. The reasons its more productive is complicated, but it must be or in a competitive marketplace, the employer who is able to use the lower cost labor would have significantly lower costs than competitors.
Also, on a moral front, why should the accident of geography determine how you can make a living? Arbitrarily denying jobs to Mexicans living in America would be undoubtably immoral. But somehow denying Mexicans jobs in Mexico in favor of more expensive American workers is applauded by politicians. Why shouldn't Mexicans have an opportunity to compete with Americans?
- fixxer 11y agoLots of other things to consider beyond the folksy idea of worker productivity (which I would argue doesn't scale uniformly across job type). If we include the full cost of labor in that $20, then it is cheaper in locations unhindered by, say, insurance requirements. That is a very big difference between US and 3rd world (China, for example) labor markets. Insurance is just one issue. Requirements for safe working conditions are another. There are factories in China where dioxin levels are several orders of magnitude above US EPA limits. I've only been near them and I sometimes wonder how much my cancer likelihood has increased. At no point have I made a moral argument. I don't care about that argument. What I'm amused by is how the free trade argument can be morphed into a social justice claim for foreign economies... What would Adam Smith think of that?