Monthly Archives: February 2017

On Immigration, Bans and Executive Power – Part One

 

A conversation:

Hebes:

My brother lost his job last week.  They moved the work to a contracting house staffed with laborers accepting lower wages.  I think  we need to seriously consider our immigration policy to limit foreign workers to our country.

They are stealing our jobs.

Callidus:

Consider the shop your brother was working in – the cabinet maker’s shop.  Do you believe that the workers in that shop were offered more money to work down the street but turned that wage down to work there?

Hebes

Why, Callidus, that would be madness!  Why would a craftsman turn down a stronger wage only to work for less?

Callidus

Exactly my point.  A man is entitled to negotiate the terms of employment to the best of his ability and expertise.

Let me ask you, when the cabinet builder takes his lunch, is he obligated to pass the sandwich shop offering a  higher quality meal to instead walk to the more expensive stand?

Hebes:

Of course not!  A man would be a fool to buy the more expensive lunch of equal or lower quality.  What does this have to do with my brother?

Callidus:

What, Hebes, should he not consider the character of the sandwich shop owner?  What if the man’s brother had just lost his leg?  Should that not play into his decision to buy the more expensive sandwich?

Hebes:

Callidus, what OF the man’s brother.  If he requires charity, so let it be.  But a man ought buy a sandwich without such concerns.

Callidus:

What if the foolish sandwich shop bought meat from a vendor who charged more – so he in turn could care for his mother?

Hebes:

Callidus, stop with this man’s brother, this man’s mother.  If the shop keeper is foolish and purchases meat at too high a price, he should not expect me to make him whole in the price of the sandwich.  If he is charitable, then he may enjoy his charity!  But that he might force the burden  on me?  No way.

Callidus:

So you would agree that a man may negotiate terms of his wage?

Hebes:

Yes.

Callidus:

And the terms of his purchase of goods?

Hebes:

Yes.

Callidus:

And the nature of his charity?  But not that of yours?

Hebes:

Most certainly yes!

Callidus:

Then why do you hate the furniture shop keeper?

Hebes:

Callidus!  Why would you say such a thing?

Callidus:

Well, you tell me a man is free to negotiate his wage yet you deny the same liberty of the wage payer.  In the next breath, you condemn the sandwich monger as foolish for paying too much for his commodities.  Even then you blame him for high prices to support his brother.  Or that man’s mother.  Yet you praise the worker looking for a fairly priced meal.

Why do you hate the furniture maker for paying less for his workers?  Certainly the wife of the sandwich man might enjoy less expensive cabinets?

Hebes:

Ahh Callidus, you are clever!  I will console my brother, cook him a meal and help him find another job.

You have changed my mind.  We should let every man of any country into our own!  We might all enjoy less expensive meals with even less expensive cabinets!

Callidus:

Hebes, you do not listen to any of my words.