Where Numbers Come From

IIRC (and I may not), the belief was that the coming of feminism had put us in a situation where the substitution effect exceeded the income effect.

The bigger point, of course, is that we shouldn't have been in the "number of jobs" game at all. We didn't think that the number of jobs was the important effect; we thought it was the quality of jobs. But the view of our betters was that comparative advantage was too hard to explain, that Ross Perot was out there saying Mexicans will take all your jobs, and that the good guys needed a counter.

Even if what we were doing was trying to project the shadow "deformed rabbit" on the wall of the cave, since we couldn't strike the fetters off the prisoners and lead them outside into the bright sun of Ricardian trade theory.

Why would libertarian types be astonished to learn that official government numbers are made of such whimsical stuff?

We didn't think that the number of jobs was the important effect; we thought it was the quality of jobs. But the view of our betters was that comparative advantage was too hard to explain, that Ross Perot was out there saying Mexicans will take all your jobs, and that the good guys needed a counter.

Completely believable answer, certainly. Ah, the life of an economic advisor.