Who do you trust to look out for children: the government or their parents?
Labor Day 2022 – MLLG Special Posting . . .
Economic Liberty – Not Government – Creates Wealth
By: George Noga – September 4, 2022
I hope you enjoyed summer. We begin with a preview of coming attractions. This fall we take on some radioactive issues such as homelessness, guns and schools, the 1619 project and slavery. There will be provocative posts for Columbus Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. We will present our fearless forecast for the November election. We also revisit our three signature issues of climate change, spending crisis and school choice – each with new insights and analysis. My favorite post compares progressives to the collective hive of the Borg – you will find the similarities downright scary.
Economic Liberty and Cheap Third World Labor
On Labor Day we rightfully celebrate the dignity of work. We also should celebrate capital, which makes labor more productive and raises wages. Labor alone has wrought only poverty; but when capital alloys with labor, it puts labor on steroids and ends poverty. Labor Day also brings predictable condemnations of cheap third world labor from labor leaders, the media and progressives, who believe all of the following.
- Capitalists choose to pay subsistence wages amidst deplorable conditions.
- Profits could be used for higher wages and better working conditions.
- Child labor always is exploitative and condemnable.
- Globalization and free trade harm the poor in the third world and the US.
- Boycotts of companies using third world labor help foreign and US workers.
All the above beliefs are economically illiterate. Third world workers already are at subsistence; anything that increases the cost of employing them is at their expense. The higher the price of anything, the less will be bought; this applies to labor in developing countries. Improving the condition of workers requires economic liberty and minimal interference from government. Third world workers voluntarily (even eagerly) take low paying jobs because they are preferable to the devastating rural poverty they fled.
Time and time again, in Hong Kong, South Korea, India and China, workers are much better off after only one generation. Even Japan once was a third world country; I can remember when “made in Japan” was an eponym for shoddy and cheap. Dickensian England was indeed grim, but after one generation wages exploded, life expectancy and literacy soared, child nutrition and mortality improved, child labor receded, school enrollment surged and great prosperity, continuing to this day, was unleashed.
Third world workers (yes – including children) are better off working than the life they left behind. It was no different in the United States. My uncle began working in the coal mines at age six because small children with lithe bodies could crawl into small spaces. Child labor was not uncommon in early twentieth century America, but parents always remove children from the labor force just as soon as humanly possible and long before child labor laws are enacted, which was not until 1938 in the USA. Who do you trust to have the best interests of children at heart – government or their parents?
Globalization and free trade benefit the poor in third world countries and in the USA. Boycotts are the province of economically ignorant, virtue signaling progressives. Great harm would befall displaced third world workers trying to lift their families out of poverty. Low-income Americans likewise would be harmed by being forced to pay more for many products. Walmart and similar stores, which sell goods manufactured in developing countries, save the typical American family about $200 per month.
Economic liberty, combined with capitalism, has lifted billions of people out of poverty just in our lifetime. Extreme poverty has plunged from 45% in 1980 to under 10% today; during that same time, world GDP more than tripled. Workers in developing countries are on the first rung of the economic ladder to success. They need economic liberty without government interference to continue climbing the ladder.
It wasn’t that long ago when America was a developing country utilizing child labor, particularly in mining and agriculture. By the way, my uncle, who worked in the coal mines beginning at age 6, later became an electrical engineer and lived to be 101.
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Next – Shocking links between the Borg (from Star Trek) and progressives
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More Liberty Less Government – mllg@cfl.rr.com – www.mllg.us
