Half of a Samoan Capital
A half Samoan capitalThe storyteller also said that American Samoa has recently suffered great set-backs, both naturally and man-made. Even more threatening was the closure of one of the two large canned albacore factories, which together provided up to half of the jobs in the island's privately-owned economy. When the second canning plant is shut down, as 60 minutes is a unique opportunity, American Samoa will be entirely dependant on the government's buy.
But the Samoan situa-tion provides a very clear lecture for the remainder of America on how governance policy can destroy an entire country's economies and how the way to hell is well-cleared. "As part of his effort to make a "living wage" available to all Americans, Congress enacted a bill to raise the reserve pay to $7. 25 per hour across all U.S. states and regions by 2009.
iii ] Understood that such a bill would destroy American Samoa by increasing the cost of preserves beyond the point at which businesses could sustain their viability persuaded the non-voting Samoan member of the US House of Representatives to allow an exception for the isles. But Republicans claimed that the spokesman for the House of Nancy Pelosi, in whose area both Chicken of the Sea and StarKist had company bureaus, had given in to the pressures of the major givers and allowed further "exploitation" of Samoan labor.
Should this be the case, which is likely, American Samoa would have no working industries. Basically, by imposeing an unnatural minimal salary on American Samoa without taking into consideration the real island economy, Washington ruled that it was better not to let anyone work there than to let tens of thousand who work for salaries that policymakers thought were inferior.
Just as the American Samoa standard of living destroys employment, so it destroys employment on the continent. Obviously the numbers are less because the relatively small is lower, but the principles are the same. Instead of increasing salaries (which only depends on higher labour productivity), the law on labour standards sets the lowest levels of production to which an employee must pay in order to work legit.
For American Samoa, canned canning manufacturers could not provide 7.25 eurocent per diem in terms of hourly production, so their workplaces were destroyed. Instead of being hired at $3. 26 per hr (the pre-market migration level), they are now at $7. 25 perhr. jobless.
One of the accidental effects of Congress's "goodwill" is that the price of consumers is increasing quickly due to the higher delivery charges that are now necessary to transport goods to the isles. Prior to the wages increases destroying most cans, many tinned tunas were sent from Samoa to the United States (over 50% of tinned tunas on the US market came from Samoa).
The advantage of all ship transport was the low costs of importing, as the vessels came to the island anyway to collect the tonne. But as fewer vessels come to Samoa to collect bluefin tuna, importing goods is now much more costly. Consequently, from an annualised 3% [v] in 2006, consumption costs increased to around 20% in 2008.
Once again, this shows how rigid our key budgeting is in comparison to free trade. Although not always as clear as in the case of Samoa, the results are always the same: economical disruptions, higher joblessness, the boom-bust cycles and a lower quality of life. "Inspired by the excellent market-friendly statement of the Minister of Finance in the Financial Times, the generally favourable business figures that come from the UK and the insights I gained during my visit to the UK a few month ago, I tried to show how free enterprise reform can help the economy succeed.