Politics in command
THE CW “touchback” rule is a political gesture on behalf of hypothetical (and usually nonexistent) U.S. workers at the expense of actual U.S. workers and residents who could lose their jobs and/or businesses if the local economy continues to contract because of a federally created labor shortage.
A declining economy will result in a declining population and a shrinking revenue base for the CNMI government. How then can it afford to pay its employees, retirees and the costs of medical referral and other programs that benefit local residents?
The touchback rule, moreover, doesn’t change this stubborn fact: there are not enough qualified U.S. workers for the jobs that are being vacated for “30 days,” which, in the federal bureaucracy, apparently means “up to seven months.”
Which is why the CWs were hired in the first place. And they were hired through the federal process, which prioritizes qualified U.S workers and requires prevailing wage rates.
The touchback’s inevitable consequence is the hiring of other CWs to replace those who have to exit. That is not the primary “goal” of touchback, but as in other well-intentioned laws, implementation is not working as intended.
Then and now, another supposed “remedy” is to ignore local economic realities and mandate wage rates that NMI employers — and consumers — can’t afford. There is a reason why wages and benefits in the U.S. are high and, in many states, increasing. The U.S., with a population of over 300 million, has the world’s largest economy with a GDP of $25.46 trillion. The CNMI’s GDP in 2019 before the pandemic was $1.18 billion, and its population is now less than 50,000 — and still declining. As for Guam, its population is over 170,000 and its GDP in 2019 was $6.36 billion.
If raising wage rates can “solve” economic problems then all the governments in the world would have done so already, and all nations would be “developed” by now.
As the economist Thomas Sowell once said, “If you put a thermometer in the freezer, it will read a lower temperature than if you put it outside. But that does not mean that the freezer has made the weather colder.” For some politicians — and voters — touchback and unaffordable wage rates are the legislative equivalent of “putting a thermometer in the freezer.” They ought “do the trick,” basic economics and math be damned.
Cartoon economics
AND then there are those who, like Calvin’s father in Calvin & Hobbes, believe that making others miserable would help “build” their character. Hence, depriving the local economy of foreign workers would “force” local residents to forget about their college degrees, forsake their government employment or welfare benefits, and apply for a job at a construction site or a hotel/restaurant.
Did that happen in the states or even on Guam? They have a larger population, a dynamic economy and, consequently, ever increasing wage rates plus a wide array of training/apprenticeship programs. And yet they, too, like the CNMI, lack workers for construction, hotel/restaurant, healthcare/caregiving and other jobs.
In discussing this issue, we are usually dealing with a seemingly willful ignorance about local economic history that can’t be Googled; and an equally baffling refusal to look at Census and other official data, including GAO reports, available online.
Not a lot of us want to recognize the link between, on the one hand, a variety of career opportunities available to the local youth here and in the states; and, on the other, the lack of workers for certain jobs — the same jobs for which there are labor shortages in the U.S. and other rich nations with populations so much larger than the CNMI’s.
Many of us insist on ever higher wages — as if increasing them “solved” the labor shortages in the U.S. and other rich nations. Many of us also say that “there should be training programs”…which have existed in the NMI since the TT era. We also presume (and it is a presumption refuted time and again throughout human history) that government, through enlightened leaders and legislation, can make individuals do what the government wants them to do for their own good.
But in a democracy, an adult individual has freedom to choose what career to pursue — or whether to pursue one. “Follow your passion!” as guest speakers at graduation ceremonies would put it. But when they do we’re surprised that they don’t want to be construction workers or other blue-collar employees.
In any case, the likely result of a worsening local economy, as shown by recent NMI history, is that more local people will leave their home island and move to the other territories or the states.
Which is, again, not the aimed outcome of well-intentioned “pro-U.S. worker” laws.
