Politicians may lie or be ignorant of Economics, or both. But Perry at Samizdata knows the truth and will tell you. Blogging on this weeks Economist, Perry tells it like it is:
When people look at cases of folks loosing their jobs in the USA or UK because an Indian or Philippine call centre can do it cheaper, and then call for this to stop, they are not looking beyond the first causal link of costs and benefits. Moreover, they are ignoring that we live in an extended and (largely) capitalist society which is extraordinarily good at dealing with such problems when the 'invisible hand' is free to work its 'magic'. Some people are losing their jobs, ergo, this is bad and must be stopped... this rather like concluding as the world seems intuitively to be flat, therefore it must be flat. By this logic all labour saving devices should have been declared 'employment destroying devices' and banned long ago.
Yes, long indeed, and filled with gay marriages and Vietnam service records. The problem here is the short term pain effect. As a politician thou shalt not indicate, intimate, or otherwise mention that any pain or sacrifice will be required of the electorate regardless of their want of services or tax back from the government.
Posted by: Silence Dogood at February 24, 2004 01:39 PMWhat? You don't think that gay marriage is an important issue? The Mayor of SF and other "true progressives" would probably consider that opinion homophobic.
Why, Gloria Allred called gay marriage "the number one civil rights issue of the year."
Posted by: johngalt at February 24, 2004 10:55 PMIt is an important issue for our society to deal with, but don't expect to hear any real debate on the issue during the election cycle. It will be a wedge issue used to vilify the other side and charge up your base. Expect to see lots of photos of anrgy people with bibles and the most fringe homosexuals from the gay pride parades in SF.
Gloria, Gloria, "the most important civil right issue of the year'? Just this year? Does it go away next year, or just get replaced by a new most important issue?
Posted by: Silence Dogood at February 25, 2004 09:41 AMYes, I heard Ms. Allred say that. I winced because the most important -- really the only important -- civil rights issue left is wrestling control of schools from the teachers' unions so that poorer minority and immigrant children can get a quality education.
Posted by: jk at February 25, 2004 10:05 AM