Instead of pressuring companies to raise wages, activists should instead pressure them to hire more low-skilled workers. Why not abandon the “Fight for $15” in favor of the “Fight for 15% More Low-Skilled Jobs”?
Author: Bryan Caplan
Bryan Caplan is Professor of Economics at George Mason University and Senior Scholar at the Mercatus Center. He is the author of The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies, named “the best political book of the year” by the New York Times, and Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids: Why Being a Great Parent Is Less Work and More Fun Than You Think. He has published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the American Economic Review, the Economic Journal, the Journal of Law and Economics, and Intelligence, and has appeared on 20/20, FoxNews, and C-SPAN.
Gratis is Not Great
Almost every psychologically normal human is delighted to here about products everyone can enjoy free of charge. “The schools are free!” “Health care is free!” “Lunch is free!” According to basic welfare economics, however, gratis goods are almost automatically inefficient. Unless the marginal social cost of the product miraculously happens to be zero, setting a price of zero leads to socially wasteful behavior.
“Is It Political?”
When I mention what I’m writing, my dad often suspiciously asks me, “Is it political?” Here’s how I always want to respond.
Wiblin’s Checklist
Rob Wiblin of 80,000 Hours recently shared some deeply helpful advice for coping with the vicissitudes of life. None of it would surprise Epicurus or the Stoics, but Rob’s version is more concise and accessible.
How Is Immigration Like Nuclear Power?
Nuclear power has the ability to provide cheap, renewable, safe, clean energy for all mankind. But only 11% of global electricity comes from nuclear power. Why is something so great so rare? Immigration has the ability to double the wealth produced by all mankind. But only 3% of people on Earth are migrants. Why is something so great so rare?
Why I Seek Converts
“I don’t want to crush, humiliate, frighten, silence, irritate, defeat, discredit, demoralize, delegitimize, depress, frustrate, or ostracize my intellectual opponents. I want to convert them and be friends.”
Great Misinterpretations
Suppose you publicly declare, “X causes Y.” If people have strong emotions about X or Y, they’re likely to misinterpret you in at least one of the following ways.
Open Borders as Global Justice: Sowell Edition
Immigration laws don’t merely allow discrimination; they require it. As the result, such laws are deeply anti-meritocratic. Employers may be allowed to hire the best citizen for the job, but not the best person.
The Siren of Democratic Fundamentalism
Every economics textbook explain how market outcomes can go wrong. Externalities. Monopoly. Asymmetric information. Irrationality. Democratic outcomes can easily go wrong for all the same reasons. Is it possible that Scandinavians simply underestimate the severity of the disincentives their policies generate?
Against Veneration
I have close friends who venerate Adam Smith, John Rawls, Friedrich Hayek, James Buchanan, John Maynard Keynes, Ayn Rand, John Stuart Mill, Ludwig von Mises, Paul Samuelson, Deirdre McCloskey, Elinor Ostrom, Hannah Arendt, Alexis de Tocqueville, David Hume, Murray Rothbard, Paul Krugman, or Thomas Jefferson. This veneration of the Great Names mystifies me on two levels.