Where have all the good snail collecting jobs gone? The answer appears to be nowhere—the problem is finding people willing to fill them. Snail gathering is hard work, but someone has to do it—otherwise Europe’s gastropod lovers (the French in particular) will go without escargot. Unfortunately, relatively high wages in France and the extension of protections to some species of snail nudged the French snail industry into slow decline some years ago. Fortunately, the demise of the Berlin Wall brought a flood of slimy molluscans from Eastern Europe, as impoverished villagers in Poland and Bulgaria proved only too happy to perform the dirty work and keep the escargots flowing.
That was until economic development in Eastern Europe brought better things to do, and would-be snail gatherers have moved on to more rewarding occupations. Now there is consternation in France that foreign supplies of snails may dry up and deprive Frenchmen of their beloved escargot. The pending snail crisis is an example of newer and better jobs crowding out the old—a process the great economist Joseph Schumpeter popularized as “creative destruction”. By providing greater opportunities, the rising tide of Eastern European prosperity is simultaneously destroying its snail industry. This is a telling reminder that, while we are bombarded with tales of this or that industry failing or moving oversees, the truth of the matter is this is often a symptom people of a country finding better things to do. At the same time I fear not for the French. I am sure they will get their snails from somewhere, as the nations of Eastern Europe pass the torch of snail gathering to peoples with lower opportunity costs, who will be delighted (and much better off) for receiving it.
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