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And by the way.. Where else in Spain can you hear that massive inmigration was one of the motor of the economy (obvious if you are economist but..) in Spain?

I think on immigration and the economy, there are two extremes equally wrong: the xenophobic they-steal-our-jobs version and the neoliberal version, and from the above Solbes seems closer to the latter.

What I mean is that with immigration, both the workforce and the consumer basis (and hence the size of the economy) grows, and both the reduction of average pay in some jobs and the fill-up of other jobs with a shortage of workers happens. That is, I believe the net result is close to balanced, but the xenophobes will concentrate on the firsts and the neoliberals on the seconds of these two pairs.

To concentrate criticism on the neoliberal version, overall GDP growth only matters for the richest industrialists (who can raise their profits and sales without having to consider the appearance of new competitors), but what matters for everyone is per capita GDP (or even more: average pay) growth.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Mon Jan 9th, 2006 at 07:25:48 AM EST
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