Creating Living-Wage jobs

This (from Jonathan Tasini over at workinglife) was in response to an editorial in today's WSJ blaming Mexican immigration on lack of effective job creation.

After NAFTA passed, the peso crashed and millions of people were pushed further into poverty. The problem is not job creation: the problem is having jobs that allow people to put food on the table--which Mexico cannot do as long as a central driving force behind the economy--as is true in other countries hit by so-called "Free trade"--is to push down wages. Mr. "Heart of Darkness" Kurtz-man, if you generate jobs that don't pay a living wage, why do you expect people to stop feeling that economic disaster?

How, exactly, do you create living-wage jobs? The only answer is to enable the employers to make enough money to pay those wages. A company that carries employees that don't create value commensurate with their wages isn't going to be paying any wages, living or otherwise, for very long.

NAFTA, by increasing the market for Mexican goods, can only increase the inflows into Mexico's economy. This cash will benefit the entire economy, making all kinds of jobs possible that weren't possible before. If you're selling to a small market, it will be hard to generate any jobs, much less the living-wage ones, the lack of which Mr. Tasini so laments.