Joe,
This is a response to the the letter from your Swedish reader: European liberal prefers global meritocracy.
I worked for a number of Fortune 500 companies before going off to become a very small scale real estate pirate. I never witnessed anything like a meritocracy in any of these companies, other than being paid on straight commission as a sales rep, except that those who brown-nosed in the office always got the best territories, leads, etc., and were allowed to sell in other people's territories and steal their sales. My sales managers were almost always dolts and people with few human characteristics, and yet they were in their jobs because of merit?
Meritocracy is like Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage -- it makes the people on top feel a bit smug, since they are supposedly superior in some way -- but it, like comparative advantage, is mostly just a fairy tale.
Comparing the working class in Europe to the working class in the US is also a bit of a stretch. From what I understand, factory workers in Europe actually make enough to pay their bills and also have health insurance that actually covers their health care bills. They do have immigration in Europe, but not generally on such a massive scale. When workers are displaced, they usually have something to fall back on, retraining and so on. If you are fired, the government actually tries to make sure you land back on your feet. Here in the Land of Lincoln, good luck.
Another tidbit: in Europe, education is often free or very low cost, up to and including the Ph.D. level. Know anybody in the states who got a free Ph.D. lately?
In all, the real problem is in a system that continually demands higher profits by continually lowering costs and often raising prices. The problem is not in immigration or outsourcing per se, but in a system that demands continually higher profits to be obtained in any way possible. So we have immigrants pitted against locals, overseas workers pitted against locals. The free market and globalization fairy tales conveniently create higher profits for a time, until Guangdong Industries figures out how to market products directly overseas, thus putting the US companies out of business who created the Chinese manufacturing Frankenstein in the first place.
In this system right now, it basically boils down to whose fairy tale you want to believe. There aren't enough resources to extend the whole consumption mirage worldwide nor for it to last much longer.
Enjoy your stay in Belize. Perhaps I'll visit you there after I wander around southern Mexico a bit, in September or October, if you're still around then.
Take care,
Brent
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Brent,
I can add nothing to your astute observations. I am back in the States to fulfill contractual book promotion obligations, including a book tour of Australia, through about January. But if you pass through Hopkins, just ask for Luke Castillo (known as Pri in the village) and Marzlyn. They will treat you right. Just remember to chip in a little on food, etc.
In art and labor,
Joe
