Vox: Trump Administration Not Doing Enough to Help Giant, Global Tech Companies Underpay Workers
Vox has a new article freaking out that the US government isn't doing enough to make sure tech companies get cheap labor from abroad to code. They might even have to (GULP) pay competitive wages in order to get techies to work. Or else they might move to Canada! Canada!
I'm a former libertarian and someone who's area of study was economics. So I understand the logic of "if we aren't nice enough to big corporations they might move abroad" type argumentation. Indeed, you might find me on one of my old blogs making the same kind of argument when I was opposing minimum wage hikes or supporting corporate tax rates. It's one of those things that's tempting because there is a bit of truth to it. If a nation puts onerous enough regulations, taxes, etc on companies and there are much more convenient alternatives abroad that are easier to move to, it can have adverse impacts.
One thing I also learned as I moved away from libertarianism/free markets (whatever) is that this is generally only true at pretty extreme levels. So, yeah, it's a bad idea to confiscate and regulate companies to a degree where they have no reason to stay HQed in America. It would also be a bad idea to, say, make immigration laws such that companies couldn't get enough workers with the requisite skills. That really isn't the situation here.
The reality is that the mythic tech workers from overseas are not generally unique tech geniuses with no American tech equivalents but rather coders doing rather routine work for cheaper than native workers would. It's fairly unlikely we're going to see a mass exodus of tech companies to Canada because they have to pay their workers a bit more. Sure, they'll get their advocates in the media (like Vox) to advocate policies that save them money, but they're not gonna actually move en masse.
Funny how liberals used to mock conservatives for their "be nice to big companies or else they'll leave and take their jobs with them" mantra. Now that is their mantra.
I'm a former libertarian and someone who's area of study was economics. So I understand the logic of "if we aren't nice enough to big corporations they might move abroad" type argumentation. Indeed, you might find me on one of my old blogs making the same kind of argument when I was opposing minimum wage hikes or supporting corporate tax rates. It's one of those things that's tempting because there is a bit of truth to it. If a nation puts onerous enough regulations, taxes, etc on companies and there are much more convenient alternatives abroad that are easier to move to, it can have adverse impacts.
One thing I also learned as I moved away from libertarianism/free markets (whatever) is that this is generally only true at pretty extreme levels. So, yeah, it's a bad idea to confiscate and regulate companies to a degree where they have no reason to stay HQed in America. It would also be a bad idea to, say, make immigration laws such that companies couldn't get enough workers with the requisite skills. That really isn't the situation here.
The reality is that the mythic tech workers from overseas are not generally unique tech geniuses with no American tech equivalents but rather coders doing rather routine work for cheaper than native workers would. It's fairly unlikely we're going to see a mass exodus of tech companies to Canada because they have to pay their workers a bit more. Sure, they'll get their advocates in the media (like Vox) to advocate policies that save them money, but they're not gonna actually move en masse.
Funny how liberals used to mock conservatives for their "be nice to big companies or else they'll leave and take their jobs with them" mantra. Now that is their mantra.
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