Beginning in 2015 and escalating from then on, skilled workers from all over the world will have the digital equivalent of green cards. They will be legal to hire. They will flood into America’s middle-class job markets.
The last major barrier is coming down: the language barrier.
From China, from India, from Singapore, from Latin America, from Spain, and from Greece they will come. They will offer their services to America’s businessemen. “Hire us. We speak fluent English — digitally.”
They will not be living inside America’s borders. So, they will not be illegal aliens. They will be legal aliens.
In flawless English, they will say three words: “I’ll work cheaper.”
There is no way to stop this. The genie is about to leave the bottle. Free trade in services is about to overcome the last great barrier to entry: language.
Those Americans who cry out against the 10 million or 20 million illegal aliens who it would take $500 billion to deport — illegal immigrants who fix roofs — will watch in impotent rage as legal aliens take away their middle-class jobs — legally.
The cries of outrage will be heard across the nationalist blogospshere. “This must be stopped!”
How? Be specific. Tell me how.
How will white-collar Americans compete against low-cost workers who can do their jobs at half the price, and who can speak face-to-face with American employers?
I’ll tell you how. By getting better trained. By working more efficiently. By lowering their prices. By American know-how. By market competition. By offering employers a better deal.
The horror!
With respect to all those people who demand federal protectionism in goods, and who have failed politically to get it for 45 years, protectionism in services is also about to go the way of all flesh.
As Joe Louis might put it regarding protectionists, “They can run, but they can’t hide.”
Advanced economies specialize in services, not manufacturing. America’s economy is a service-based economy. The labor unions are mostly gone. They cannot win elections in the profit-seeking service sector. Now what has happened to union members is about to happen to white-collar workers: wage competition. Real Dissent: A Libert... Buy New $3.99 (as of 07:30 UTC - Details)
Protectionists can scream. “It’s not fair!” Let them scream. Let them scream in a dozen languages on Skype. It’s all over but the screaming.
As a matter of fact, it is fair. It is morally fair. It is economically fair. It is the free market’s principle in action: the right to bid. It is the right to offer customers a better deal. It is liberty in action.
The right to bid. Protectionists hate this principle with every fiber of their being. But it will do them no good in the world that is coming.
The floodgates are about to open. Be prepared. Be prepared to supply a service locally that cannot be supplied over the Internet. Be prepared to compete if you do supply a service over the Internet.
Comprende, amigo?