The Green Gap

In the Cold War, we feared a Missile Gap was a strategic weakness. Nowadays, we must awaken to the fact that the Green Gap is true strategic weakness: the nations whose economies will thrive in the coming years will not be those with the biggest factories, but those with the most sustainable, efficient, and ecological markets. What we require is a Strategic "Green Reserve" of ecological design to weather the coming changes that both climate and resource scarcity will force on the international economy.

Thursday 31 March 2011

Jobs that Pay Nothing

The Economist yet again has stoked my passion against the concept that the law of supply and demand governs wages equitably (no doubt it does govern them, but certainly not equitably). We shouldn't rely on utility maximisation as a rationalisation for not giving someone enough to feed themselves and their families:
With nearly 14 million unemployed workers in America, many have gotten so desperate that they're willing to work for free. While some businesses are wary of the legal risks and supervision such an arrangement might require, companies that have used free workers say it can pay off when done right.
"People who work for free are far hungrier than anybody who has a salary, so they're going to outperform, they're going to try to please, they're going to be creative," says Kelly Fallis, chief executive of Remote Stylist, a Toronto and New York-based startup that provides Web-based interior design services. "From a cost savings perspective, to get something off the ground, it's huge. Especially if you're a small business."
Something about that comment by Kelly Fallis makes me, oh, I don't know, perhaps a little sorry for the state of her eternal soul I guess.

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