Master plumbers and master electricians are not so quickly or easily trained. Your point can be made for basic labor, but not SKILLED trades. NOLA already has "training" programs set up for unskilled folk to get their start in the trades.
Welfare programs are run by the states at the grassroots level. The current laws and benefit structure does NOT require/mandate someone to take a job out of the area, and for good reason. Do you WANT some bureaucrat saying "here's a carpet-laying position 2000 miles away that pays $8/hr, here's your bus ticket; take the job or lose benefits?" Gotta draw the line somewhere. So no, the government does NOT furnish bus tickets out of town. Too easy to foist your "undesirables" on another state that way.
Skilled contractors nationwide usually have plenty of work available for them locally- with wages depressed a bit by immigrant labor (some legal, much of it illegal- workers compensation coverage is EXPENSIVE for carpenters). The problem NATIONWIDE isn't the lack of work available, but the relatively low pay for hard, dirty work. Few legal folk want to do it, because the compensation sucks. Why in God's name would a contractor go 1500 miles away to make "going rate" in NOLA when he can get the "going rate" locally?
It makes as much sense as me getting a job that pays the same salary in Chicago, where taxes are higher and rent is twice as much. Can't make me. To pursuade me, it'd have to be for a higher salary.
You also forget that a truly free market can re-balance itself. If the wages are high enough, you have a lot more people willing to come to NOLA. With enough workers meeting demand, the wages will eventually settle down to pre-hurricane levels. Meanwhile, the destruction zone gets rebuilt FASTER.
And, you still have a choice under this situation. Is waiting to rebuild because you can't afford a contractor any BETTER than waiting to rebuild because a contractor isn't available at all? I bet the former would resolve itself much quicker than the latter. Under the capitalist model, the area will be rebuilt more quickly, freeing up the labor later on to work for cheaper as conditions improve. Under the price control model, any children I may have will be entering college before the city's totally rebuilt. |
