Outside the Beltway

Exploiting Mexico’s Poverty? Oh My!

· Tuesday, May 16, 2006 · 5 comments

SeeDubya has a liberal moment on the Junkyard Blog when he writes,

Right now the Right clings to power on a very odd coalition, united largely around issues of national security. It’s an odd mix that throws Bible-thumping deer hunters like yours truly in with gay Jewish libertarians and Connecticut soccer moms. And big business as well—wait, I sound like some progressive muckraker: let’s say food service, grocery stores, and agriculture—which are trying to do what they can to keep their source of cheap labor in the country so they can remain competitive. I’m sympathetic to their plight, and I want them to succeed—both because I would like to see entrepreneurs rewarded and also because I benefit personally from their competition (cheap food) and the nation’s economy continues humming along. I don’t think they should be allowed to compete by exploiting Mexico’s poverty, and in any case I think an unguarded, high-traffic border is too high a risk to justify their competitiveness.

Exploiting Mexico’s poverty? My how atrocious of those evil capitalists. I mean entering into a voluntary exchange of money for services is…well…just bad, bad, bad. The sooner we put an end to this kind of thing the better. I look forward to SeeDubya’s treatise on how we can implement anarcho-communism.

FILED UNDER: Economics and Business, LGBTQ Issues, , , , , , , ,
Steve Verdon
About Steve Verdon
Steve has a B.A. in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles and attended graduate school at The George Washington University, leaving school shortly before staring work on his dissertation when his first child was born. He works in the energy industry and prior to that worked at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Division of Price Index and Number Research. He joined the staff at OTB in November 2004.

Comments

  1. Rick DeMent says:
    Tuesday, 16 May 2006 at 15:16

    Sure if you define “voluntary” as “free” to eat cake if there is no bread available.

  2. Maggie says:
    Tuesday, 16 May 2006 at 15:17

    Poverty? Check out this article from 2003.

    “The 20 million Mexicans in the United States generate a gross product that is slightly higher than the $600 billion generated by Mexicans in Mexico,” Fox said, adding that his country has the ninth-largest economy in the world.

    “If we could add up the two products, Mexico would be the third or fourth economy in the world,” he said.

    Ninth-largest economy in the world…what are those folks in the EU doing? Saudi Arabia?

  3. See-dubya says:
    Tuesday, 16 May 2006 at 15:26

    Entering into a voluntary illegal exchange of money for services is bad bad bad. I’m against prostitution and heroin trafficking as well.

  4. Steve Verdon says:
    Tuesday, 16 May 2006 at 15:26

    Ahh Rick, I’m glad to see you haven’t changed your anti-market ways. Keep up the good work re-defining words, I’m sure someday people will realize the true utility of DeMent Speak.

  5. Steve Verdon says:
    Tuesday, 16 May 2006 at 16:00

    Oh….so now it is illegal voluntary transactions that are bad, bad, bad. Of course, even some of those are rather inocuous such as your prostitution example and even drug trafficking. It isn’t any of my business if two people want to enter into a transaction for sex or if somebody wants to inject/snort/drink/etc. a substance into their bodies. But then again, I’m a big fan of things like personal responsibility and letting people making their own decisions.

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