I would argue that it is very difficult to take a "sensible position" on immigration alone. "Free trade" is, of course, not at all about free trade but about perpetually re-writing regulations to be ever more favorable to transnational corporations. One of the things that complicates discussion of immigration in the context of "full employment" is that the neo-liberal propagandists *lump* it together with technological innovation, trade, flexibilization of labour, raising the retirement age, etc. -- literally. Anyone who objects to any of the planks of neo-liberalism "commits the lump of labour fallacy."
I would agree about Daly's Malthusian tendencies. I don't endorse that. With Malthusianism and anti-Malthusianism there is always the danger of throwing out the baby with the bathwater -- or even throwing out the baby and drinking the dirty bathwater. Apologists for capital are fond of using what is dismal in Malthus as a pretext to disparage the very idea of biophysical limits to the accumulation of capital. Some of Malthus's analysis is valid (albeit not original). It's the good stuff that the anti-Malthusians are most eager to dispense with. In a related vein, Paul Burkett wrote an article about ten years ago talking about the similarity between ecological economics and the Physiocrats. As he pointed out, Marx criticized the Physiocrats; he also borrowed from them. On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 12:49 PM, raghu <[email protected]> wrote: > > I'd argue that a MUCH more sensible position for progressives to take on > immigration is to tie it with "free trade policies". To the extent, > free-trade policies are good or bad, surely free movement of labor must be > good or bad as well. And of course as a practical matter, so-called > "illegal immigration" is indeed closely tied with "free-trade" agreements. > > I should also add that my objection to Daly goes beyond just the > immigration issue. It seems more generally that he is ideologically aligned > with Thomas Malthus and Garrett Hardin. > -raghu. > > > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > -- Cheers, Tom Walker (Sandwichman)
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