> I grew up in Germany, enjoyed a free engineering education but moved to US after graduation
The idea that you can get the education in X but not pay the dividends for it there, instead getting paid much better in Y, wasn't really your point. But there are limitations to giving your life to everyone too. Germany can't educate free workers for the US forever.
That said I don't think there is a competitive election anywhere where voters decide benefits based on an ROI. It's not about the ROI.
Singapore by comparison requires you to come back and work if the S. government pays for your foreign education. You can ask Singaporeans how they feel about that. Even though, on the face of it, like a lot of things in kind of fascist Singapore, it "makes sense."
> the situation becomes worse for blue collar and untrained labor workforce it's clear that it's coming at their expense... Wealth inequality in the US is a huge issue and needs to be addressed.
The most interesting thing about wealth inequality is, whom do you include in your denominator?
First in a whole economy perspective: Do I include the people in China who manufacture my shit cheaply? That reduces cost for me, giving me real wealth, in exchange for paying them less. Common sense. [1]
Both US political parties had, at alternating and even sometimes coinciding times, thought wealth inequality was related to immigration policy: that people from Latin American countries would come and work below cost in exchange for their kids being able to grow up in America. [2] [3] Same common sense energy.
Has wealth inequality gotten worse, or are we just measuring it better? Are there things that force it to be measured better?
Germany has the same forces at play, it's the reunification economy. [4]
[1] In 1995, "Estimates by Oxford Economics show that workers in China’s manufacturing sector received an average wage of 40 cents per hour in 1995, equivalent to just 2% of the average hourly rate of US$17 paid across the G7... If common prosperity leads to centrally-mandated increases in wage growth that far exceed productivity, then it could spell trouble [like inflation]. " https://www.schroders.com/en/us/insights/economic-views/is-c...
[2] Bernie Sanders: "I’m paying you [an illegal immigrant] $5 an hour, O.K.? You don’t think that’s going to lower the wages that [an American] gets?... I think that’s kind of common sense. It’s called a race to the bottom." https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/13/opinion/berni...
The idea that you can get the education in X but not pay the dividends for it there, instead getting paid much better in Y, wasn't really your point. But there are limitations to giving your life to everyone too. Germany can't educate free workers for the US forever.
That said I don't think there is a competitive election anywhere where voters decide benefits based on an ROI. It's not about the ROI.
Singapore by comparison requires you to come back and work if the S. government pays for your foreign education. You can ask Singaporeans how they feel about that. Even though, on the face of it, like a lot of things in kind of fascist Singapore, it "makes sense."
> the situation becomes worse for blue collar and untrained labor workforce it's clear that it's coming at their expense... Wealth inequality in the US is a huge issue and needs to be addressed.
The most interesting thing about wealth inequality is, whom do you include in your denominator?
First in a whole economy perspective: Do I include the people in China who manufacture my shit cheaply? That reduces cost for me, giving me real wealth, in exchange for paying them less. Common sense. [1]
Both US political parties had, at alternating and even sometimes coinciding times, thought wealth inequality was related to immigration policy: that people from Latin American countries would come and work below cost in exchange for their kids being able to grow up in America. [2] [3] Same common sense energy.
Has wealth inequality gotten worse, or are we just measuring it better? Are there things that force it to be measured better?
Germany has the same forces at play, it's the reunification economy. [4]
[1] In 1995, "Estimates by Oxford Economics show that workers in China’s manufacturing sector received an average wage of 40 cents per hour in 1995, equivalent to just 2% of the average hourly rate of US$17 paid across the G7... If common prosperity leads to centrally-mandated increases in wage growth that far exceed productivity, then it could spell trouble [like inflation]. " https://www.schroders.com/en/us/insights/economic-views/is-c...
[2] Bernie Sanders: "I’m paying you [an illegal immigrant] $5 an hour, O.K.? You don’t think that’s going to lower the wages that [an American] gets?... I think that’s kind of common sense. It’s called a race to the bottom." https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/13/opinion/berni...
[3] George W. Bush: "Americans don't want to pick cotton at 105º, but there are people who want to put food on their family’s tables and are willing to do that" https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/372882-george-w...
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_the_German...