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During
The Middle Ages, tens of thousands of people all across
Europe were wiped out by the bubonic plague. Included
in The Black Death toll were thousands of craftsmen
whose decrease in population increased the labour
value of the surviving craftsmen engendering powerful
Medieval Guilds capable of negotiating far better
monetary arrangements for their living members thus
serving as a precursor of sorts for today’s Labour
Unions.
The
above paragraph is standard Chapter One reading in
just about any Labour Economics or History textbook
for the sole pedagogic purpose of driving home the
irrefutable point about how wages or prices are determined
by the market forces of supply and demand. That is,
if demand for any goods or services exceeds their
supply, then prices or wages will rise. Likewise,
if the supply of any goods or services exceeds demand
for same, then prices or wages will fall. The current
Dublin housing market is a good real world example
of this long tried and tested economic axiom: too
few houses and apartments (i.e. supply) for the population
that wants and needs to be served (i.e. demand) means
prices and rents for same will rise as they have.
This
is one of the major reasons why multi-national business
corporations push for the making and enlarging of
free trade zones. It gives them greater access to
an ever larger supply of cheaper labour as the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) did for US companies
in Mexico and as the Treaty of Nice will do for the
EU in Eastern Europe. Not surprisingly, much of the
usual corporate sponsored politicians, academics and
media pundits in the US denied this reality for the
benefit of their pro-NAFTA business johns. It is like
the oldest profession: politicians, professors and
the press, like prostitutes, will say and do things
for money that they would not otherwise say and do
for free.
Enter
Exhibit A: Dick Roche, current Irish Minister of State
for European Affairs. Prior to that appointment he
was the Minister of State at the Department of Taoiseach
where he once upon a time was asked his views about
the second running of the Treaty of Nice and he responded
as follows: “It would be an affront to democracy.”
Now
comfortably ensconced in his new position like a high
priced call girl for European Affairs he lashes out
today at the No to Nice camp with his very own guest
editorial entitled “No Camp argument suffers
fundamental flaws” (The Sunday Business
Post, August 18, 2002, at page n24). In it Roche
attacks Justin Barrett of the No to Nice campaign
and Professor Anthony Coughlan of the National Platform
for putting forward false assertions about Ireland’s
position on the free movement of workers such as making
“…baseless allegations about jobs and wage
levels.”
Specifically,
Roche claims: “Coughlan’s assertion that
the influx of foreign workers will drive down wages
in Ireland, because wages are determined in his words
‘by the law of supply and demand’ is
nonsense. Even his own political allies
have discredited the claim.” (emphasis added).
Notice
big Dick didn’t say “his own economic
allies” because that would have to include the
entire Economics profession, or at least those Economists
who aren’t in any way sponsored by Multi-National
Corporate johns. And think about just how much money
Big Business would have to pay an Economist anywhere
to publicly mutter “Voila! Wages are not determined
by the law of supply and demand.” For any Economist
to say or write this would be professional suicide.
They could never for instance work again as expert
witnesses in legal cases because the cross examination
of their proffered expert credentials would always
go something like so:
Attorney: “So Professor Twatsky, you say you’ve
been a
Professional Economist for the last 20 years, numerous
publications, research and teaching assignments,
all well
and good, but tell me Sir, did you ever write or
say that
wages in free market economies are not determined
by the
law of supply and demand?”
Economist: “Yes.”
Attorney: “Oh, then what pray tell does determine
wages or prices in
a free market economy if not the free market forces
of
supply and demand?”
Economist: “Hominahominah.”
With
all due respect to the late Jackie Gleason, but what
else could such a compromised Economist say? Except
for prostitution, politics & free market media
punditry, once you sell your soul like that, you’re
pretty much finished in most other professions. You
become a laughing stock because you can no longer
be credible in your allegations or assertions about
reality, economic or otherwise. But pundits and politicians,
like prostitutes, aren’t here on this Earth to
describe reality for the rest of us. As The Baffler
Magazine Editor Thomas Frank points out about the
so called New Economy theory (capitalist ideologue)
pundits who seem impervious to the usual consequences
of error: “…generating an accurate picture
of economic life really wasn’t their main function.”
(The Guardian Weekend, August 17, 2002, at
page 23) (Emphasis added).
Political
propagandising was! Since: “Their trade was
politics…New Economic theory was less an objective
assessment of our situation than a world class hustle
by a political movement that believed it was very
close to winning the game. --- In such circumstances…
objective wrongness doesn’t matter. Propaganda
does. Money walks while bullshit just talks and talks
and talks.” (Ibid, at page 24) (Emphasis
added).
Although
Thomas Frank was analysing political pundits in service
to corporate power, the same analysis works when studying
the behaviour and sayings of politicians in service
to the same corporate powers. How else do you explain
Dick Roche’s utter nonsense that wages aren’t
determined by supply and demand? If only 1% of the
75 million or so people in the EU applicant states
of Eastern Europe decided to come to Ireland (legally
or illegally), that would mean finding housing, jobs
or some kind of subsistence (dole or criminal) for
75,000 new people. If 2% came, then for 150,000 new
people. And if 3% came, well, do the math.
Now
you know why Fianna Fail Foreign Minister Brian Cowen
waived Ireland’s right to restrict immigration
from the 75 million citizens of candidate countries
for a period of up to seven years. Cheaper labour
moving west will depress existing wage structures
here just as surely as dying craftsmen during The
Middle Ages increased it. And the only way around
this reality is to deny it like a liar for hire. No
wonder IBEC supports enlargement and such things as
“flexible labour markets” (i.e. weakened
labour unions or none at all).
Cowen
and Roche are both just manifestations of the same
law of political gravity that says law follows politics
and politics follows economics. They know who brought
them and it wasn’t we. Hence their second referendum
on the Treaty of Nice and all of our need to say no
to it once again since it is imperative for the future
of Ireland and other small nations. We simply cannot
let their hustle win this game!
So
please, if you feel the same way, contact among others
the NO TO NICE CAMPAIGN at 60a Capel Street, Dublin
1. Telephone: (01) 874 - 6858. Fax: (01) 873 - 0464.
Web: www.no2nice.org
& Email: info@no2nice.org.
And fight the power!
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