Opinion – UK immigration and social attitudes – Simon Wren-Lewis – Mainly Macro – John Gelmini

Dr Alf provides us with an article from Simon Wren Lewis which, in my view, is a statement of the obvious and does not require illustration.

Social classes, C1s,  C2s, Ds and Es, who have low worker productivity and have already jointly caused the loss of our shipbuilding, clothing manufacturing and car making activities, have the most to fear from immigration and always have done as far back as I can remember. I remember these people berating my late father (an immigrant from Northern Italy) for his thrift, overtime and tireless work on dilapidated houses, when they were guzzling beer and constantly going on package holidays. Now he is dead, they worry about Poles, Latvians and other Eastern Europeans, who do the jobs which they steadfastly refuse to do.

The middle classes and the wealthy are keen on immigration because it gives them cheap maids, housekeepers, Mandarin speaking maids, agricultural workers and competent service industry workers.

The City based fat cats and “Masters of the Universe” like immigration because better educated foreigners can do the work better than most of our UK graduates and have a better work ethic. They are also more adaptable and receptive to new ways of working.

Until a few years ago, the subject of UK worker productivity and the laziness of the indigenous population were taboo subjects. Now the reality is there for all to see but scholarly people, like Simon Wren Lewis, still see the need to sugar the plll, even though Singaporeans and the Chinese are taught from a very young age about the lack of work ethic among Westerners, particularly in the UK.

John Gelmini

Opinion – BBC World Service – Exchanges: The Global Economy, Exchanges: The Global Economy, Joseph Stiglitz (audio) – John Gelmini

Cropped picture of Joseph Stiglitz, U.S. econo...

Cropped picture of Joseph Stiglitz, U.S. economist. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We cannot “restore full employment” as Joe Stiglitz suggests because with nanotechnology, 3D printing, cybernetics, AI and robotics, many of the jobs that blue collar workers used to do will be eliminated.

Eric Schmidt of Google in remarks made in secret at the 2013 Bilderberg meeting in England predicted the elimination of 50% of American jobs by 2033 and then repeated the leaked remarks on You Tube this year.

Dr Alf will know that American worker productivity is among the best in the world, so the equivalent figure for somewhere like the UK, would be much higher (in terms of loss of blue collar jobs, say 60-70% erosion).

What we can do is start to narrow the gap between those at the top and those at the bottom and encourage the less academically inclined to start their own businesses in business boot camps and intensive incubators. We also need to benchmark against the Chinese because globalization means the Chinese are coming.

John Gelmini