Comments on: International labor mobility datapoint of the day

By: johnhhaskell

johnhhaskell — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 12:21:34 +0000

plus Chinese is so easy to learn and has no cultural or political baggage

By: right

right — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 04:42:55 +0000

@hsvkitty Gordon Brown said so a few years back. The adoption of a single global language (whatever it is) would obviously solve the problem Felix describes above, and that’s the only semi-serious proposal I’ve heard in this direction recently.

If you were going to choose a single language, I’m not sure how you could do better than English, given the US, UK, and India are among the world’s seven largest economies (to say nothing of Canada, Australia, South Africa, Nigeria, Singapore, and Hong Kong) and it is already by and large the lingua franca of international politics, business, and academics.

Spanish and Portuguese share 80% of their vocabulary in the same way that the 100 most common English words are German.

By: TFF

TFF — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 01:08:45 +0000

“@right who said it is time to learn English, the English countries are not the ones flourishing.”

I suppose you don’t count India?

Australia is doing pretty well, I thought.

By: Chrisiv

Chrisiv — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 21:47:36 +0000

I just read that Black unemployment is the highest in 27 years. Now, if this had happened during the Bushes, what do you think the Democrats, and especially the MSM and the CBC will be saying. But we don’t hear that now. Of course we all know that Obama is an idiot and is “stuck on stupid”. What Obama is doing to the economy, is insane. Many people think that Obama wants to see the USA relegated into a western european power, giving up all the influence we had. Of course, Obama is so stupid that he doesn’t realize that new powers like China, India and Brazil are waiting for this opening. Even a very dis-organized, irreligious Russia is trying to make a come-back all because Obama does not realize what he is doing. Our president is an idiot when it comes to foreign affairs, the economy, energy, transportation, trade, criminal justice. This guy is an all-round idiot.

By: hsvkitty

hsvkitty — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:41:03 +0000

One of the more frightening aspects of the emigration is they are just leaving, not just to look for work. they are highly educated, skilled,loyal and bright who tried and failed and are now angry and turning their back on their country. That means they likely won’t return when prosperity returns and as one person said, a lost generation. (which was once said about the world wars)

Quotes from the article:

“Banks. They made mistakes and now they say we have to pay. But I disagree, I don’t want to pay,” she says.

“I prefer to leave everything behind – family, friends, my culture – everything than to pay for a crisis I didn’t cause.”

@right who said it is time to learn English, the English countries are not the ones flourishing. Spanish and Portuguese share 80% of their vocabulary and together make a formidable amount of latin-based language spoken and Mandarin is still the most spoken language on earth. So, maybe it’s time we all learned more languages.

By: Kosta0101

Kosta0101 — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 15:01:49 +0000

Interesting trend, with some potentially debilitating consequences for Portugal. If this migration pattern persists, Portugal may lose the cream of its youth. That is the young adults with both education and ambition. If enough leave, it could stunt Portugal’s economic and social development.

By: right

right — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:36:01 +0000

It will be interesting to see if there is a corresponding increase in remittances back to Portugal. That could be quite helpful.

Also, time to go back to the Gordon Brown “teach the world English” plan.