There’s a very narrow sense in which it’s true: immigrants are willing to work harder, in worse conditions, for less pay… and therefore your life gets harder when you have to compete against them in the labor market.
But to keep the blame right there, you have to be a profoundly uncurious person.
Not just why they’re able to successfully undercut you, but also why they are incentivized to undercut you and why they’ve even been forced to relocate to your labor market in the first place.
In particular, thinking that more dramatic threats to the immigrant population (via increased enforcement) is going to make them a less exploitable labor competitor is uhhh… quite a remarkable delusion.
I prefer a global minimum asset* tax for all who own and earn three or more times than someone from the poorest 10% in all countries they have assets in. Let’s start at 99.99999% tax over what’s beyond that net worth.
* Income, non-cooperative stocks, inheritance, wealth, bonuses, land, housing, etc.
And forced lifelong community service at conditions of their worst off employee (or worst off consumer), if they do not comply. This will continue for all who have that much wealth until the assets are fully given back to society.
Boycot tax havens, like the US, which demand US citizen tax data abroad yet refuse to share their own. If the US wants tax data it should give its own too. This requirement should be backed by defence, financed from the state (not private), and the defence should be everyone.
And global labor and environmental protections. Really whatever the IMF says poor nations have to do when in debt, I want them to do the opposite and for rich nations to help them be built up
The underlying idea that people can only ever seek to undercut is a problem of non-starter proportions, and also, refreshingly, just not correct.
By assuming otherwise and plowing ahead, nothing can help us.
Literally zero things on earth are forcing humans to lie, cheat, steal, and attack. Everybody who wants to stop, does, and everybody who thinks about it for two seconds wants to stop.
Notably, “doubling down on something thoughtlessly” isn’t “thinking about it for two seconds”, and thus will produce different results every time.
The underlying idea that people can only ever seek to undercut is a problem of non-starter proportions, and also, refreshingly, just not correct.
Yeah, I sometimes wonder if it’s even worth engaging on the grounds of like “Okay, by your own market-based logic, this situation makes no sense and a more cooperative approach would be more profitable to all” when we know for a fact that the “tragedy of the commons” is bullshit and we don’t actually need markets to mediate vital resource allocation.
Sometimes it seems easiest to push on the ways that the capitalist delusion is self-defeating, but other times it feels like why even bother indulging?
Also, the rest of your comment reminded me of this quote:
A moment’s thought would have shown him. But a moment is a long time, and thought is a painful process.
There’s a very narrow sense in which it’s true: immigrants are willing to work harder, in worse conditions, for less pay… and therefore your life gets harder when you have to compete against them in the labor market.
But to keep the blame right there, you have to be a profoundly uncurious person.
Not just why they’re able to successfully undercut you, but also why they are incentivized to undercut you and why they’ve even been forced to relocate to your labor market in the first place.
In particular, thinking that more dramatic threats to the immigrant population (via increased enforcement) is going to make them a less exploitable labor competitor is uhhh… quite a remarkable delusion.
This is why I advocate for a global minimum wage.
I prefer a global minimum asset* tax for all who own and earn three or more times than someone from the poorest 10% in all countries they have assets in. Let’s start at 99.99999% tax over what’s beyond that net worth.
* Income, non-cooperative stocks, inheritance, wealth, bonuses, land, housing, etc.
And forced lifelong community service at conditions of their worst off employee (or worst off consumer), if they do not comply. This will continue for all who have that much wealth until the assets are fully given back to society.
Boycot tax havens, like the US, which demand US citizen tax data abroad yet refuse to share their own. If the US wants tax data it should give its own too. This requirement should be backed by defence, financed from the state (not private), and the defence should be everyone.
And global labor and environmental protections. Really whatever the IMF says poor nations have to do when in debt, I want them to do the opposite and for rich nations to help them be built up
Do you advocate for a global currency as well then?
The underlying idea that people can only ever seek to undercut is a problem of non-starter proportions, and also, refreshingly, just not correct.
By assuming otherwise and plowing ahead, nothing can help us.
Literally zero things on earth are forcing humans to lie, cheat, steal, and attack. Everybody who wants to stop, does, and everybody who thinks about it for two seconds wants to stop.
Notably, “doubling down on something thoughtlessly” isn’t “thinking about it for two seconds”, and thus will produce different results every time.
Yeah, I sometimes wonder if it’s even worth engaging on the grounds of like “Okay, by your own market-based logic, this situation makes no sense and a more cooperative approach would be more profitable to all” when we know for a fact that the “tragedy of the commons” is bullshit and we don’t actually need markets to mediate vital resource allocation.
Sometimes it seems easiest to push on the ways that the capitalist delusion is self-defeating, but other times it feels like why even bother indulging?
Also, the rest of your comment reminded me of this quote: