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  • From: Jason Laughlin <jason AT jasonlaughlin.com>
  • To: internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] where your job is headed ...
  • Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 03:07:35 -0500

At 10:33 PM 1/30/2003 -0500, you wrote:
I really don't think either goods/services or the cost of living will go
down. I just think the divide between the classes will continue to expand.
I believe history teaches us that this is when revolution happens.

Unless you're French, in which case you can just go on strike again.

Come on people, one of the few things that both Adam Smith and Karl Marx agreed on is that the free movement of capital AND labor was a very good thing -- important to market efficiency and to the happiness of the workers. Sure there's some stickiness in the markets and we can't all move to the "next thing" as easily as we'd like, but ultimately the routine/drudge work gets either automated (by us) or passed off to other workers (interns, recent college grads, or, GASP, foreign workers) so that we can focus on the jobs that we are best at and exchange the money/goods earned for what someone else is good at. It's called comparative advantage, and protectionism works against it by subsidizing work that is no longer being done well/efficiently. Of course, if you don't want to do a new job, then you can follow your old job to the new country and hope that you can keep your old salary. I've long believed that the best arrangement possible would be to earn a US salary while living in a 3rd world economy (my father was in diplomatic/military service abroad, so I know this works well). I'd be more tempted to do it if I weren't broadband-addicted.

Jason





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