Never Just One Cockroach

H/T Zero Hedge

Nobody Owes You A Living

There is a lot of talk about restricting imports in order to create jobs for Americans. I don't buy it.

Nobody owes you a living. And you know what happens when politicians control what is bought and sold? The first thing bought and sold is politicians. So objectively being for government controlled trade is to be in favor of crony capitalists. What? You thought I wouldn’t notice?

There is no eternal law that says workers who price themselves out of the market will keep their jobs. If the price of labor is high enough it makes sense to either outsource or get machines to do the job (which is what has happened to manufacturing labor – just as it happened to agricultural labor). Or go broke.
Municipal Bankruptcy.

Maybe we can get government to repeal the laws of supply and demand. Then wage rates can rise to any level you like and you will no doubt find customers very willing to pay what ever you ask. Unless they resort to smuggling. Or off the books deals. Both were common in the late stages of the USSR.

You want higher pay? Find a skill that is in short supply. My kids have figured this out. #3 son is 4th year EE and it looks like he has a job already lined up. My #1 daughter is 3rd year Chem E, an A student. I have no doubt she will have no trouble finding work when she graduates. #2 son graduated with honors from UChicago (my old school) in Russian language. He is currently working for AC Nielsen in Russia. The previous year he was teaching English language and American studies at a Russian University. #1 son is an artist (no family is perfect). But I do have something you may do that not very many know how to do. Learn how to program these chips:

Green Arrays

Technology And Employment

I came across an article from a while back discussing the impact of technology on employment.

I've been arguing that as machines and software become more capable, they are beginning to match the capabilities of the average worker. In other words, as technology advances, a larger and larger fraction of the population will essentially become unemployable. While I think advancing information technology is the primary force driving this, globalization is certainly also playing a major role. (But keep in mind that aspects of globalization such as service offshoring--moving a job electronically to a low wage country--are also technology driven).

The economists sometimes mention technology, but in general they find other "structural" issues to focus on.

I'm not sure I agree with his thesis. People will eventually do different things than they did in the past. Just as they eventually did after collapse of farm labor in the 1930s. But the change was wrenching and it took 15 or 20 years to complete. More or less a generation.

We are in for rough sledding for quite a while longer if we count the beginning of the reorganization as 2008. We are well under a 1/4 of the way through the change.

In any case the author has made his book available for free (you can pay any amount you like too) at The Lights in the Tunnel.

This post was prompted by the comments to this article: The Technosponge.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

They Lived Happily Ever After

H/T The People's Cube

SEIU - Disrupting Capitalism

Of course the SEIU will make things more difficult for their private sector counterparts. But what do they care? They have government guns on their side. If they can maintain the left's hold on government.

That may be coming to an end.

Debts

Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: That we are here for the sake of others...for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.
~ Albert Einstein

Blackout

I was reading the comments at this Victor Davis Hanson piece and came across an interesting set of observations on the state of the economy.

14. Foobarista

As for the “gray market” in California, I’m convinced that regulators – and politicians – are well aware of its existence and don’t want to touch it. My wife sells small businesses and pretty much never sees a little, cash-heavy business that doesn’t pocket most or all of the cash – even in otherwise regulated areas like restaurants and dry cleaners.

The sad thing is that my wife occasionally runs into American-born blacks or whites who want to buy a business and whose heads explode when they realize that nearly everything is under the table, and that operating a completely legit business would mean you simply wouldn’t make enough money to operate because the market prices in the “grayness” of the market players. Immigrants of all sorts are far more comfortable with these arrangements and often prefer it.

And any business involving lots of manual labor? They’re completely under the table, not because the owners are paying sub-minimum wages – the workers are often decently paid – but because regulations and taxes make it impossible to operate legally. And since few American-born people are willing to work under the table, illegals are pretty much the only ones hired.

April 11, 2010 - 10:06 pm

Which explains the title of this post. When the government hand becomes too heavy people no longer use it. And it is not just the people who sell labor. It is also the people who buy it.

15. tryingtodorightthing

I work in law in the San Fernando Valley and can tell you from personal experience that the Los Angeles County Building Code Enforcement does not inspect nor enforce laws such as illegal converted garages or the related building codes. The inspectors will act as if they are going to inspect and then just refuse to do so. I have made complaints of very serious conditions such as exposed wires, gas lines illegally re-routed and the such with no action by the city.

April 11, 2010 - 10:11 pm

That is how you make a third world country. You regulate everything with a heavy hand. If you want to be profitable in such an environment you have some choices. Bribery is one. Ignoring the rules is another. The next comment makes that point.

Suzann

You’re my neighbor. (In a general sense – I live also in the SFV) and you’re talking about MY neighbors. (In the specific sense! The house to my right has two illegal ‘apartments’ in the back yard – the one to the left has a ‘converted’ garage.) I look at houses and they all have unliscensed contruction. No one cares. The law is a joke. No – worse – the law is predatory. You would actually be in legal trouble if you tried to OBEY the written laws.

April 12, 2010 - 1:47 pm

So who is bypassing the state? Some very nice people.

20. Les Hardie

Dr. Hansen: I and my upscale neighbors are all scofflaws. We live in a village in the Santa Monica mountains just west of Topanga. Most of us are professionals,others academics, scientists, businessmen, some cops and firemen. RE prices are high, but the area is semi-rural—a lot of horses, atvs, trucks, chainsaws. People here are well educated but pride then=mselves on being tougher than city people. Most are still Democrats. But everybody tries to avoid any gov’t permitting. The view is that between the county and coastal, nobody can build a dog house, much less a room addition, so f***them and do it anyway. Judges and lawyers do major remodels without permits; pools and spas, sheds and barns, these projects are regularly done subrosa. More than a complete lack of trust that the government will be fair and reasonable, is a belief that govt has no right to tell us what we can and cant do on our property (at least on a small scale). It seems to be a version of “don’t tread on me!” It may be the salvation of Ca when those who espouse the regulatory state realize how bad it is in practice, and take real steps to get it off our backs.

April 11, 2010 - 10:39 pm

The next commenter is not so optimistic about the situation in terms of people believing in the regulatory state on the one hand and avoiding it at all costs on the other.

T

The problem is that those who espouse the regulatory state will never realize how bad it is in practice. When liberal social theories don’t work its always because they weren’t executed correctly or because of some outside influence. It’s never because the theories were wrong-headed or flawed from the outset.

April 12, 2010 - 10:30 am

And of course every one who has watched Star Wars knows the final outcome:

Princess Leia: The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

Conventional wisdom at its finest.

There are over 170 comments to that post so I'm sure there is more information along the above lines. Not to mention thread drift and thread jacking. I leave it to the reader to ferret out more useful stuff.

Now about the Drug War Black Market.....

Cross Posted at Classical Values

News You Can Use

The news writers, producers and editors are going on strike. Sadly it is only C BS.

CBS News writers, producers and editors voted to authorize their labor union to call a strike after working without a contract for two years, Reuters news agency reported Monday.

About 81 percent of the nearly 300 CBS members of the Writers Guild of America voted to authorize the strike, the union said in a statement. The union represents 500 CBS employees in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

It's a start.

It is too bad Dan Rather has filed suit against the network. This could have been a golden opportunity.