ideogenetic: Is conservative economics doomed to fail since the free movement of labor is prohibited by law?
Laissez-faire economics can only work if capital & labor are free to move where the best returns/jobs are. International borders prevent the free movement of labor. This means conservative economics can’t work. I’m surprised conservatives aren’t calling for OPEN borders to give their Utopian economic theories a chance to work. Instead, they embrace irreconcilable economic contradictions without realizing it.
Answers and Views:
Answer by Derek
Laissez-faire economics led to the Great Depression, the recession of the 80’s, the Savings and Loans Crisis, the financial collapse of the late 00’s, and the recession.
Why don’t we all direct the illegal aliens to your house then if you don’t seem to care about borders and security.
Just put a sign that says criminals and terrorists welcome. Please help yourself….
Answer by Drive 1.0We do not live in a laissez fair economy. We live in an economy with central economic planning through the federal reserve banks and trade agreements like NAFTAAnswer by Bob O
Great point. In fact the real reason that we have an immigration problem in this country is that certain business in this country would rather hire illegals because they work for LESS. I even heard a conservative talking head make the statement that the GOP is equally at fault for our immigration problem. I did not catch his name but he subbed for Sean Hannity on Mon. this week. He made the statement, “Democrats want cheap votes, and Republicans want cheap labor”. Later he had Dick Morris as a guest who made the statement that “Democrats want immigrants to vote and not work, and Republicans want immigrants to work and not vote”. I applaud that kind of honesty in a political commentator.
American middle class who have been tricked into supporting conservatism had better consider that besides illegals from Mexico that American labor has to compete with tens of millions of laborers from China and India many who work for the American equivalent of one dollar an hour. Couple that with the hundred of thousands of slave laborers who are forced to work for free from the Chinese prison system and you have to understand that we CANNOT allow the free market conservatives gain any more power in this country if we want to maintain our comfortable middle class lifestyle!
Answer by Martin LYour question is plagued by two patently false premises. First of all, you confuse “conservative economics” with laissez-faire economics. “Conservative Economics” is essentially some mix of supply-side tax cuts with (often fallacious) promises of increased tax revenue and spending cuts.
By contrast, Laissez-fair Economics advocates the SEPARATION of State and Economics, to the extent possible. This means no forcible redistribution of wealth: not downward, in the form of the Welfare State and Medicaid, and not upward, in the form of Corporate Welfare.
Those who believe in Laissez-Faire Economics (as opposed to Conservative Economics) DO BELIEVE IN OPEN BORDERS. See, for example, what The Ludwig von Mises Institute (a Laissez-Faire think tank) said about immigration in 2005:
“These days, with Bush’s Americans First program and tightened borders at taxpayers’ expense, it seems the state is reaching its licensing climax. To a nation built on immigration it should seem strange to have a president investing in keeping foreigners out, and considering fines on employers hiring immigrants, but the objective is not a healthy, vigorous society: with border controls come easier surveillance, regulation and control. The Europeans are leading the way in their attempt to secure inbreeding and economic stagnation throughout the continent, through what has become known as “Fort Europe.” No one enters, no one leaves.
“Immigration is not different from other kinds of licensing even though it has been awarded a special name. Licensing has the same result regardless of what is licensed: licensing of physicians causes poor health care at higher cost just as licensing taxi businesses causes poor and untimely service at high cost — licensing on movement means restricted freedom and higher taxes for people (whether “citizens” or “foreigners”). From a libertarian point of view it should be clear that all licensing needs to be done away with, including immigration.”
As further proof, listen to what the Ayn Rand Institute had to say about immigration:
In essence, Ayn Rand, a STAUNCH defender of laissez-faire capitalism, was also a STAUNCH ADVOCATE OF OPEN BORDERS. The statements of Dr. Yaron Brook, President of theAyn Rand Institute (linked above), reflect the same ideas about immigration that Ayn Rand espoused in her life.
Next, read this article by another Randian commentator:
https://capitalismmagazine.com/?news=4620
The article is entitled “Immigration Quotas vs. Individual Rights: The Moral and Practical Case for Open Immigration.” Here is an excerpt:
“An end to immigration quotas is demanded by the principle of individual rights. Every individual has rights as an individual, not as a member of this or that nation. One has rights not by virtue of being an American, but by virtue of being human.
“One doesn’t have to be a resident of any particular country to have a moral entitlement to be secure from governmental coercion against one’s life, liberty, and property. In the words of the Declaration of Independence, government is instituted “to secure these rights”–to protect them against their violation by force or fraud.
“A foreigner has rights just as much as an American. To be a foreigner is not to be a criminal. Yet our government treats as criminals those foreigners not lucky enough to win the green-card lottery.”
So, your first mistake is that you don’t recognize the difference between real capitalists and conservatives. But many on the left don’t want to acknowledge that difference because it would eliminate an easy straw-man argument against capitalism and for statist policies…which brings me to your second mistake: believing that, if statist policies are crippling another country, we have to cripple our own country with statist policies of our own in order to compete with them.
But this is long enough already. If you have not chosen a “best answer” by tomorrow, I’ll add more on the economic fallacy then. (But for now, back to work!)
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