no serious economist would argue that mexico has a comparative advantage in slave labour. it's a contradiction in terms to use low labour standards as a comparative advantage in the context of free trade; you would need to have that discussion in the context of mercantilism, which is indeed what nafta was designed as.

so, what the article is actually arguing is that labour standards threaten to allow for an even playing field which may allow for actual free trade - which is not what the publication wants.

what is a comparative advantage? it's when a country can make more profit trading for a good than it can producing it, so it focuses on producing something else in order to trade for that good. i know that sounds like a weird definition, but it's how the term is used in actual parlance. there's less focus on what you have a comparative advantage in, and more focus on what you have a comparative disadvantage in.

and, what is free trade? it's when we all acknowledge these comparative advantages, and recognize the logic in abolishing the anarchy in production that comes from ignoring them. free trade is actually fundamentally a decision to not compete in markets you have a disadvantage in, and rather forfeit it to those that have the advantage.

mexico has a comparative advantage in lots of things, in the nafta context. one would be bananas. so, it should trade bananas to countries like canada, in exchange for things it can't produce as well, like maple syrup. then, we all have bananas and we all have maple syrup and we're all able to afford it because it's all produced at it's maximum efficiency.

the other option is canadians cursing the weather when their banana crops fail, and mexicans doing snow dances in august.

if you're building a car and want to determine which location has a comparative advantage, you're not supposed to look at wages but at inputs like the cost of steel, the cost of electricty or the abundance of fresh water.

if you reduce the issue solely to labour costs, which are artificially kept low by an oppressive government, you're not talking about comparative advantage but about absolute advantage. and, it is true: mexico has an absolute advantage in the cost of labour, right now. but, what that means is that you shouldn't trade with them at all!

you need something close to common labour standards to even have this discussion. otherwise, you're in an orwellian fantasy, where every day is opposites day - which is what we've all been living in for 30 years.

http://business.financialpost.com/opinion/trudeau-and-trump-both-agree-the-new-nafta-should-screw-over-poor-workers

and, behold: the financial post goes full orwellian dystopia, delving directly into a sea of backkwards newspeak.

i don't have time to disassemble this. but, i'm reminded very now again that i didn't live through this the first time.

what nonsense.

http://business.financialpost.com/opinion/trudeau-and-trump-both-agree-the-new-nafta-should-screw-over-poor-workers

so, i am back to work on this today, and i was hoping i could just get a quick finish for inri26, but i have to remaster the thing, it's not an acceptable sound quality to drop in after doing all of that work on the other tracks from the period.

i have a problem, though: i have virtually no source material for this. what i have is a midi file. i don't have guitar parts, i don't have drum loops...there's nothing...

...which means i can't remove the vocals, either. but, it's not the biggest liability. this will end up on the second vocal comp, but it's no longer an album track, and precisely for that reason: i can't get the vocals out.

when i get through remixing it, i'm going to have a new version along with two failed remasters (one from inricycled b and one from the first inriched, and they both sound awful), a cd rip and the original mp3 from 1999. i'm not going to include all of these tracks on the single, i'll probably just include the mp3 version; it will probably be two tracks.

the weather is still crappy, but i have to get out and do some things this morning. i'll get back to this in the early afternoon. it could be a long day.

after that, i don't think much else is going to require actual production. but, i'm going to listen, too, and see.

inri027 & inri028 are also one track singles, due to the nature of what they are. inri029 cannot be modified due to what it is, which is a conceptual ep - but i'm going to add an alternate version to it as d/l only. inri030 is an ep single from the first disc and is done but needs finalization. that's going to be a little something else.

inri031 should require a little attention....that's the one that does...

inri032 is the covers disc and really can't be touched, and neither can inri033, which is the third official record and the point i need to finish up to before i can ship this guy his first package.

i will at least get ink today. and, if i can finish inri026 before i sleep, i should be able to get through the next chunk pretty quickly.

but, everything else aside, i need to get the subsidized housing bit in today. i can put everything else off except that.