Hacker News Reader

Long term though... bans, tarriffs, protections of any kind are all ill conceived. You will absolutely get a boost in wages, but the cost is quite significant. Shortening supply artificially always raises prices, and ends up meaning the same amount of output costs more to achieve than it otherwise would without the restrictions. Why would any economy want entertain that for too long?

View on HN

You're right --- but as John Maynard Keynes famously wrote, "In the long run, we're all dead".

In the medium term, it is unreasonable to expect middle America to compete with workers from countries with no environmental laws, no safety regulations, and no worker safety. Likewise, it is unreasonable for ask us free people to compete with H1-B holders who cannot leave their jobs without being deported.

Besides, historically speaking, we make productivity advances fastest when labor is expensive. In a sea of cheap labor, technology stagnates. Of course, in the long run, we're going to have a single integrated global economy. But a policy of immediate free trade and free movement is not a feasible or fair way of getting to this state.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com