Thursday, June 19, 2008

World's Most Prosperous Workers?

Are these the prosperous workers Obama had in mind?
"Globalization and technology and automation all weaken the position of workers," Barack Obama said in this WSJ article, and a strong government hand is needed to assure that wealth is distributed more equitably.

As Don Boudreaux points out
on Cafe Hayek, if Obama is correct, "then some of the world's most prosperous workers must be the people in that newly discovered tribe in Brazil (see picture above) -- persons with absolutely no contact with the global economy or with modern technology. Less extreme cases, of course, include persons not so cut off from the world as these Brazilian tribes. Sub-Saharan Africans should be more prosperous than eastern Europeans, who, in turn, should be more prosperous than Americans and western Europeans."

15 Comments:

At 6/19/2008 7:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Senator Obama has the economic sense of a six year old...and that's probably being insulting to six year olds.

 
At 6/19/2008 7:57 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/3528

Obama is the far left fringe candidate. The media gloss over the anti-market, anti-business, anti-trade, collectivist rhetoric telling us that Obama will end up being a centrist like Bill Clinton.

We should be paying attention to what this candidate is saying and taking him at his word. He is starting to look and sound a great deal like Jimmy Carter.

 
At 6/19/2008 9:17 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Globalization and technology and automation all weaken the position of workers,"

So the flipside is: subsistence farming with nothing but crude hand tools strengthens the 'position' of workers.

The Obaminator would have that "strong government hand" securely around your neck.

 
At 6/19/2008 9:43 AM, Blogger Shawn said...

those dudes are orange. jus' sayin.

 
At 6/19/2008 9:49 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you read the article carefully, he is advocating government spending to help workers displaced due the invisible hand reallocating capital.

I am sorry, but I don't have a problem with that. If you think the Indians and the Chinese don't do this and are all born ready disciples of Milton Friedman or Hayak, you are seriously mistaken.

I don't see his position on helping workers are anti-anything...

For a professor, you are really pandering with sensationalist pictures and has really not told me anything new...

when you do start calling Obama gay and anti-Christian? I am sure you can be eloquent in your blog and somehow tie it economics.

 
At 6/19/2008 10:42 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

So what is the alternative to Obama? McCain admittedly doesn't know much about economics. Grrreattt!

On the other hand Obama doesn't know that much either. In fact I think one could call him somewhat sheltered and ignorant but he appears to be able to change his position if evidence supports it.

Did I mention that Obama didn't pander like Hillary and McCain did with the gas tax holiday.

The thing that makes Obama the man for the job in my opinion is the color of his skin. I believe that the mere presence of a half white, half black man in the Presidency will do more to heal the racial divides in this country than a hundred years of public service announcements.

A nation divided on racial lines as we are today in the U.S. can not compete as well as it could if it were united.

Obama may be lacking in credentials for the job but his ability to motivate people to action makes that a non issue. Who would you rather have as a coach Obama or McCain?

 
At 6/19/2008 10:56 AM, Blogger K T Cat said...

To the extent that he's talking about high school dropouts and thelike, Obama's exactly correct. Automation and globalization does indeed hurt them. Of course it helps them to in the form of lower prices for goods so it's kind of a mixed bag.

 
At 6/19/2008 1:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

alex, Obama knows what he's talking about. The problem is he's talking about you and you don't understand it because you're so...

 
At 6/19/2008 1:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who's going to vote for Obama, the well educated who understand economics & the role of globalization in today's environment or the blue collar couple living from paycheck to paycheck?

 
At 6/19/2008 3:56 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Last time, I checked Obama was connecting with them rich folks that he keeps telling us he plans to tax. Funnily, it was Hillary who was connecting with the blue collar couple, single moms, working women, (ie.the lower income folks).

Politicians tend to dance with the "one that brung yuh". That means 2 groups - rich, white folks and labour unions. A bit of a conflict of interest there.

I imagine that Obama will favor the unions because he cannot possibly replace their thousands of mobilized volunteers on the ground. Economics meets politics.

 
At 6/19/2008 6:55 PM, Blogger Craig Howard said...

"Obama may be lacking in credentials for the job but his ability to motivate people to action makes that a non issue. "

I don't know that I've ever read such a stunningly foolish statement.

 
At 6/19/2008 8:12 PM, Blogger David Appell said...

Mr. Perry, you are a professor somewhere? If a student made this kind of idiotic extrapolation, I would flunk him in a minute.

 
At 6/19/2008 8:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"On the other hand Obama doesn't know that much either. In fact I think one could call him somewhat sheltered and ignorant but he appears to be able to change his position if evidence supports it."

When it comes to the economic senses of a president, I'll take no ideas over a bunch of terrible ideas ANY day.

"Did I mention that Obama didn't pander like Hillary and McCain did with the gas tax holiday."

Obama may be correct on the gas tax holiday being a terrible idea, but did you miss his pandering to labor unions in the form of his frothing, intellectually dishonest, downright xenophobic rants against free-trade? His calls for "windfall profits taxes" on "big oil?"

"The thing that makes Obama the man for the job in my opinion is the color of his skin. I believe that the mere presence of a half white, half black man in the Presidency will do more to heal the racial divides in this country than a hundred years of public service announcements.

So what you're saying is that, in effect, you're a racist?

And will a man of any color with such divisive and radical positions really heal anything?

"A nation divided on racial lines as we are today in the U.S. can not compete as well as it could if it were united."

It's only divided because of people like you who seem to like it that way, in forming opinions based on race, and not on issues, such as above.

"Obama may be lacking in credentials for the job but his ability to motivate people to action makes that a non issue. Who would you rather have as a coach Obama or McCain?"

Since when was the president a "coach?"

 
At 6/20/2008 1:16 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

tony danza, you aren't saying that the college educated are the ones most likely to vote for Obama are you?

 
At 6/23/2008 9:27 PM, Blogger John B. Chilton said...

I agree with the economic points in the post.

Turns out, though, that the new tribe was a publicity stunt:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23911279-23109,00.html

 

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