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October 01, 2005
In beating up on Liberals Against Terrorism: Some notes on a Morocco comment
One of their contributors, Mr. Ulrich, had a brief comment on the immigration and enclaves issues I commented on in passing yesterday on 'Aqoul.
One of the primary impressions my summer 2004 trip to Morocco left me with was the sheer economic inequality one observed crossing between Europe and North Africa, and then within Morocco between most actual Moroccans and the Western tourists. ..... The advantages of leaving are just too great - I don't know about Europe, but in the United States the minimum hourly wage is almost twice the average daily wage in Morocco, and when you get into sub-Saharan Africa the economic situation grows even bleaker. While nations should do everything they can to control their borders for security reasons of nothing else, the issue won't go away until these underlying economic issues are addressed. The problem, of course, is that "make Africa prosperous" isn't much of a policy suggestion.
A few notes on this:
(i) One really needs to compare purchasing power and not unadjusted wage rates, but the commentator is not an economist so I will let that pass.
(ii) The problem is less wage rates (legal Moroccan minimums are in fact too high, leading to a majority of off-the books employment) than growth rates.
(iii) While making Africa and North Africa prosperous is not a policy suggestion per se, freeing up their economies is. I should get back to my mini-project on comparative commentary based off of the World Bank Doing Business data.
Finally, I was bemused by the author's personal site on his first visit to Morocco. Lot's of silly things said, but decent enough observations over all.
Posted by The Lounsbury at October 1, 2005 04:12 PM
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The Maghreb
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