Bah humbug! Monopolistic behavior! grumble. _
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11:46:47 AM, Tuesday 8 January 2008

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Proofing instant yeast may be pointless or even counterproductive (I'm far more likely to kill the yeast than they are to already be dead) but I find it remarkably satisfying. _
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04:24:57 PM, Monday 7 January 2008

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So I can find it later: This book by Lant Pritchett makes the moral case for opening borders, then looks at politically feasible ways to move in that direction. The introduction is good.

Normatively, I am primarily concerned with raising the well-being of the world's least well off, not just the "poorest of the poor" but all people whose standard of living (which includes monetary and nonmonetary dimensions) is below that of those below the poverty thresholds of the world's rich countries, which is the large bulk of the world's population (Pritchett 2006).Most analysis and recommendations about the policies of the rich countries presume that policies should be informed exclusively by the interests of the current citizens of those countries (for example, Borjas 1999). But it is perfectly possible, indeed plausible, that the 'best' policy determined by the interests of rich-country citizens makes the poor of the world worse off.

I am interested in a different question: What are the policies toward labor mobility that would be most beneficial to the world's currently poor (who nearly all reside in poor countries) and yet are still politically acceptable in rich countries? This is presuming at least some small degree of concern for the rest of the world in the making of rich-country policy, which clearly exists in humanitarian relief, in support of foreign aid (through both bilateral and multilateral agencies), in the movement for debt relief, in the granting of trade preferences, and in some aspects of international peacekeeping. Put another way, in the range of policies that rich countries are willing to implement at least putatively to benefit the world's poor, what is the scope for development-friendly policies toward labor mobility. _
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03:52:51 PM, Monday 7 January 2008

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Another thought for a stained glass clock face. I like the notion of a clockface that has a very clear notion of which way it's going round. _
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09:56:01 AM, Monday 7 January 2008

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Playing around with Google SketchUp. Haven't worked out how it assigns surfaces or anything, I was just using it to draw lines, then colored it in with photoshop. _
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