SOME ECONOMICS AGAIN

What wonderful morality! "In 1975, the Ethiopian government nationalised the land. It meant that food production was controlled not by the profit motive but by need. It put people before profits. The result was that the people starved.

What if other countries stopped "outsourcing"? "Just as American firms have been increasing their presence overseas, foreign firms have been seeking access to American markets and talent by locating here. According to the Organization for International Investment, California has been the state benefiting most from this trend, garnering more than 700,000 jobs from foreign firms' "insourcing" to the United States. Nationwide, the creation of such insourced jobs is outpacing those outsourced by U.S. firms 2 to 1, and the pay for these jobs averages 16.5 percent more than that at all U.S. firms. Creating anti-outsourcing policy based on unemployment fears makes as much sense as bemoaning the loss of American careers in the stenographer pool, slide-rule assembly line or coal shoveling. The loss of such jobs has netted us more and better-paying jobs and extended higher living standards"

Cafe Hayek points out that jobs are being destroyed all the time so why don't we protect them all? "Any - ANY - change in the pattern of consumer spending eliminates some jobs and creates others. Do we condemn the spaying of dogs because it reduces the demand for dog catchers? Ought we to stymie research on electrical cars because, if successful, such cars will cause many workers to lose their jobs in oil fields? Should we denounce the Atkins diet because it will eliminate some jobs in factories making pasta and chocolate? Are the jobs threatened with elimination by spaying, electrical cars, the Atkins diet, and the multitude of other economic changes having nothing to do with international trade, less important to workers who hold them than are jobs held by people working in industries that compete with foreign suppliers?"

Fewer workers, more production: "How should the public, economists, politicians and workers measure the relative success and failure of a particular industry? By its profits? Its stock price? By its total employment? This may seem a rather elementary question, yet a proper and clear answer would go a long way in silencing what has been the loudest protectionist cry in recent memory."

"Unless those who wish to outlaw "outsourcing" can clearly demonstrate why it is that an economy benefits from higher costs of production versus lower costs, then they have no argument at all.. Should they succeed in forcing their views into law, we can be sure that the ultimate outcome will that which befalls any society that gives into protectionism: a lower standard of living and, in the end, even more joblessness."

Free trade good for welfare spending: "The richer the country it becomes, the more likely it can afford higher levels of taxation. It is because of free trade, in part, that today's world can invest so much in welfare states"

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ELSEWHERE

As a follow-up to my posts on the U.N. yesterday, here is some more on "Kofigate": The U.N.'s "Oil for bureaucrats" program: Safire says all the money passed through Paris; The Christian Science Monitor gives details of how it worked and says 10 billion was ripped off; The Economist says everybody involved with the program is on the nose. And with billions of dollars involved, Kofi-gate isn't small potatoes either, at least when compared to some of history's major financial scandals. And these are the people who believe that Israel is "poison"!

Dumb teachers: I was alerted to this report by Dick McDonald. About 50% of Philadelphia middle-school teachers "don't know the subjects they're teaching well enough to pass a new federally-mandated test". There have been plenty of previous reports of incompetent teachers too. American education is another example of the destruction wreaked wherever Leftists get control of anything. Before the Communists took over in 1917, Russia was the world's fourth largest industrial economy. Today they are more like a Middle-Eastern economy -- with their main exports being the oil and gas that nature put underground for them. At least they can feed themselves these days.

Schoolteacher Dave Huber has seen forced desegregation of schools close up and points out how it has not remotely done what it was supposed to do: Improve black educational achievement. He documents the desperate twists and turns of the Left now that their failure is plain for all to see.

Democrats for Bush has got to be a good blog. I'd say he needs all the help and encouragement he can get.

C.J. Maloney is outraged that New York City Council is trying to make pharmacies stock "morning after" pills. It does seem an odd role for a municipality.

Michael Darby has put up some poems for us to read and reflect on in connection with Australia's only truly national day -- Anzac day (this Sunday).

My recipe for today is for Asian fruit and pork canapes. Slow to make but they go down fast! See here or here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH. Mirror sites here and here

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

All politicians seek power but conservatives bring with them a genuine concern for the welfare of their country. Leftists bring only their hate-filled Stalinist hearts and their pretend compassion

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