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if that workers don't need to move as badly as in the US because they can still survive where they are thanks to decent social transfers.

And I'd be curious to know how many of Florida's laid off workers are actually moving, given how many of them are unable to sell their houses, or underwater on their mortgages...


In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 11:03:24 AM EST
[ Parent ]
And a more basic answer is that when there is sufficient economic disparity, the workers do move. I mean, how many Spanish and Portuguese immigrants to France in the '50s and '60s ? And migration was quite harder at the time...

Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
by linca (antonin POINT lucas AROBASE gmail.com) on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 02:06:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
... or more recently: Polish workers to the UK, Hungarians in Southern Germany, etc...

And let's not forget: French financiers fleeing misery in Paris to find riches in London.

Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way. Americans think a hundred years is a long time.

by Bernard on Fri Feb 5th, 2010 at 04:46:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, not to be nitpicking but I doubt that economic disparity was the only problem in Portugal and Spain in the 50s and 60s. I may even hazard that it was not the main one.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Sat Feb 6th, 2010 at 05:23:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The 50s and 60s are ancient history as far as this is concerned anyway. We joined the EEC in 1986 and the people who move within the EU today are very different from the ones that did in 1960.

See Mileuristas arrive in BusinessWeek by Metatone and my The End of the Middle Class.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Sat Feb 6th, 2010 at 05:27:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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