John – I basically agree (and thanks Andy for the kind words). I’ve been getting a lot of email from people saying that conservatives are embracing socialistic five year plans and economic planning because they want to regulate the importation of labor. Aren’t we supposed to be free traders? They ask.
There are any number of interesting and complicated economic questions involved. But it seems to me the basic answer is really pretty simple. People aren’t widgets. There’s a fairly large body of writing on this point — starting with the Bible, I suppose — that makes it pretty clear we shouldn’t look at human beings as if they are inanimate objects or commodities. I seem to recall we even had a war involving that second point. Economically speaking, human beings have externalities widgets don’t. If given citizenship they vote. They use social services. They need to sleep somewhere. They have autonomy, consciences, souls and all sorts of other things widgets do not. Widgets do not demand changes in textbooks, medical services or anything of the sort. People do.
Nation-states have a right to determine who gets to visit their soil and who gets to stay here. If this bothers people who think the world is solely about economic efficiencies, well then, that’s just one more of the externalities they’ll have to complain about.
Of course, to be fair, many of these folks don’t dispute this. They simply say that of course the nation state has the right to be protectionist, it just shouldn’t be. Okay, but the problem stays the same. I am a free trader and believer in open borders for widgets, but not necessarily for widget makers. Why? Because I think the benefits of free trade for products is well-established. The benefits of “free trade” in humans are far more controversial, for the simple reason human beings aren’t widgets.