Paul Krugman demonstrates a laughable misunderstanding of economics in his blog post “Having It and Flaunting It” yesterday. He mistakenly claims “status competition…is a zero-sum game … where a lot of our economic growth has simply been wasted, doing nothing but accelerating the pace of the upper-income rat race.” The drive for status and the rat race it accelerates is not zero sum. Quite the contrary, it produces risk-taking, investment, and innovation. Would we ... Read More
Does Economics 101 Apply to Immigration?
Robert VerBruggen, a writer for RealClearPolicy, has written a pithy summary of Harvard labor economist’s, George Borjas’, recently published tough-minded book, Immigration Economics. VerBruggen writes: “[Borjas] lays out evidence that [immigration] undermines the employment prospects of the Americans who need decent jobs the most. … High-school dropouts -- about 10 percent of the native U.S. population and 30 percent of immigrants -- often take a hit to their ... Read More
Alan Blinder Wages War on the Facts
Alan Blinder claims “in the late 1970s, the U.S. labor markets began to turn ferociously against workers with low skills and education,” that “technology was clearly the major villain,” and that “the U.S. government piled on” by “[waging a] war on the poor.” His claims don’t square with the evidence. Since 1980, U.S. demand for labor pulled 25 million foreign born workers to its shores, predominantly low-skilled Hispanic workers. At the same time, unemployment, ... Read More
