While the business community is justifiably hopeful that the three-year limit on alien workers is facing the axe, the underlying issues go unresolved.<\/p>\n
Namely, how can we regard the scrapping of an unproductive law as “progress?” We\u2019re taking two steps backwards, one step forward, and complimenting ourselves on how enlightened we are?<\/p>\n
Making economic policy based on gut feeling and intuition is not a move calculated to make the sophisticated circles of international investors floored with awe about us. Come to think of it, I have seen a few floored with awe, if “awe” can be used in the pejorative sense.<\/p>\n
So…laws are made. Then changed\u2013or maybe not changed. Then scrapped, sometimes. Then re-crafted. The cycle isn\u2019t going to change. Nobody really thinks it will. At most, existing businesses here might get a little more breathing room, like stumbling on an air pocket in a smoke filled building. Big deal. The economic roof is still on fire. Those who fled for the exits already know that, of course, but you don\u2019t hear from them, they\u2019re as conspicuously absent as the closed businesses they left behind.<\/p>\n
At this economic stage, the real question is: Who is going to wind up holding the bag? This game of musical chairs can\u2019t last forever. When the music stops\u2013and it\u2019s gonna\u2019 stop\u2013something\u2019s got to give. One set of victims, or so I suspect, will be local families that lose land due to financial desperation. I\u2019ve got no idea where they\u2019ll be able to turn. I don\u2019t know who they\u2019ll blame for their plight when it comes time for hindsight, but it will be interesting to see how that blame game plays out.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, we keep talking about investors, without talking about any fundamental economic changes here. It\u2019s like trying to sell a car with a broken head gasket by plastering an ever growing stack of “for sale” signs on it. Maybe\u2013just maybe\u2013somebody will give some thought to fixing the actual problem. Ok…maybe not.<\/p>\n
Back to the three year labor limit; so it\u2019s repealed. Ok. Great. Then what? Has the fundamental thought process really changed? Hope. It\u2019s merely a reactive gig, based on the outcries from businesses. There\u2019s no epiphany at issue.<\/p>\n
And there will likewise be no epiphany after the economy falls off a cliff. Sure, discussions will become more heated, but that will just lower, not raise, the tone of discourse. Angry factions will have to be appeased as blame is dodged. But will that pass for actual economic “policy”? Yeah, I guess it will.<\/p>\n
Sorry to be a gray lining in a silver cloud, but the specter of repealing the three-year labor limit doesn\u2019t change the big picture at all. The real issue is the thought process behind the creating of the law in the first place. Until that matter is settled, we\u2019re just moving backwards at a slower rate.<\/p>\n
Ed Stephens, Jr. is an economist and columnist for the Saipan Tribune. \u201cEd4Saipan@yahoo.com\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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