O Intermitente
(So long, farewell, auf weidersehen, good-bye)

segunda-feira, setembro 29, 2003

Johan Norberg: Open borders for immigrants as well pt 2/8

Imigração e Desemprego

Many would agree that immigration is great for the consumers, who get cheaper gods and services, but what about the workers? Won?t immigrants take our jobs, and the result will be unemployment? This is a common concern ? and a myth. Think again about the creative destruction that free trade brings about, that I mentioned earlier. When the goods get cheaper because of more efficiency or of immigrant workers, the consumers save money, so that they can use this purchasing power to buy other things, more expensive goods, education, health care, etc. And then people will get jobs in those sectors.

Furthermore, immigrants are not merely producers, they are also consumers, who spend their incomes. Immigrants do not merely supply, they also demand. Who are going to build their houses, grow and sell their food, produce their telephones and TV sets, supply them with health care and their children with education? To see more people as a problem, a burden, a cause of unemployment, is like thinking of more births and more babies as a problem. As long as wages follow how much people can produce, our productivity, there is no reason why it would lead to unemployment.

posted by Miguel Noronha 2:14 da tarde