> Ah, the ideal of perfect labour mobility. Even if we did remove the legal and economic restrictions, we still can't achieve perfect labour mobility without breaking down a person's social ties to family, friends and community. Although some neoliberals have put a lot of effort into doing so.

I wasn't arguing for the ideal of labour mobility. I was pointing out that in its absence, the reality of almost unrestrained job mobility creates a huge disparity between employers and employees.

>In this regard at least, the globalisation of manufacturing is a force for good.

Is it? How? The jobs are still heading to the cheapest economies and they are the cheapest economies because they provide the least amount of workers rights/environmental protections etc.

They may run out of countries to move to eventually, but it's at least equally likely that those countries where wages/conditions had risen when demand was high will have those improved wages/conditions slashed again once the demand has moved elsewhere and the jobs will simply rotate between whichever of these economies is able to offer the least protected, worst paid and move malliable workforce at any give time.