And what were the welfare policies of those countries when Adam was with us?
With your point, we really have to allow unlimited migration, because, well, companies need to benefit from the cheapest labor.
My point is that the more we micro manage this, we do as much harm as good. If we allow the free market to work, it will arrive at a better solution than govt.
Even Adam Smith allowed there was a need for some government and even a few lawyers. The discussion was how much.
My issue is that the solution to all problems is more laws, whether liberal or conservative. Can we at lease consider human nature and the Invisible Hand?
Tariffs are simply taxes. Taxes are penalties. It is far worse to penalize reportable income than products and services that came from elsewhere and whose manufacture contributed nothing to your economy through taxes or employment. The local stuff is already loaded down with penalties.
Which brings us back to H1-Bs and their supposed “need.” As countries are first to be accountable to their citizens, any allowance of something from outside must be weighed against benefit for that sovereign country.
As I am a promoter of free trade, I believe people should be allowed to hire foreigners and buy foreign products. However, there should be a bar to jump to do so. That bar should be financial and merit-based.
We have large companies that hire and hold H1-Bs as “consultants,” which get paid quite a bit less than the prevailing wage. There is an “indentured servant” situation with all H1-Bs, which is a moral issue of its own. As companies claim they can’t find any talent in the US, that must logically equate to an extremely high rate of pay to the foreign worker, or it was really a lie and the worker was only hired because she was much cheaper than US workers.
How can the Invisible Hand work in a sovereign country if we do not allow citizens to become capable of meeting the growing demand of its companies? How do we grow our populous into what we need when we hire from elsewhere for less than those talents cost here? There can be no supply of talent to demand for talent when companies sabotage the incentive to learn a profitable trade or talent!
Sir, the Invisible Hand was broken first by hiring and buying from outside our borders. If the labor and materials markets were allowed to adjust as they once did, we’d see the Invisible Hand having worked quite nicely.