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Comment by duncan_bayne | Hacker News Reader

Only if you assume that the free movement of labour is impossible; capitalists like myself argue that it's an entirely achievable goal. After all, we've achieved relatively free movement of capital.

The issue is that there are strongly entrenched powerful interests operating against free labour movement. Sadly, those people and organisations are themselves labelled as capitalists (sometimes, self-described).

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Look at the EU: although there is complete freedom of movement of labour for EU citizens, cultural and language barriers prevent true movement to a far greater degree than within the US.

Moreover, movement of labour within the EU is mostly unidirectional. A German or a Brit is very unlikely to go to work in Poland or Bulgaria, whereas the other way around is almost always the case. This unidirectional movement sucks out young blood from the donor countries and leads them to an even direr future.

Capital movement is driven by profit, often without any regard for the consequences it brings to local communities.

Relocation of working-class families across the world isn't as easy as it is for a Hollywood star or a venture capitalist with fat bank accounts.

Yes. But it used to be; many early Americans were poor economic refugees.

What's changed?

Poor American families that might benefit from relocation generally aren't homeless.

There aren't plots of unoccupied land in frontier territory to build shacks on, and they're not permitted to cram into boarding houses with five other families if they can't afford to rent a room in their destination city whilst looking for work there.

The developed world has also taken a lot of steps to prevent more economic refugees arriving in the country.

It's not a fair comparison. Early Americans came to a loosely inhabited continent with a lot of potential for growth and a similar cultural groundwork.

The huge cultural gap, and not unimportantly, the significantly lower standard of living in developing countries like China and India makes it a rather unappealing choice for Europeans and Americans.

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