Economic Creationism

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Don Boudreaux is such fun. It always makes me wonder: Does GMU create great econ writers, or do great econ writers gravitate to GMU?

Last year I was in northern Virginia on a business trip. I'm sitting in this building attending software development meetings and all I could think about was how close by GMU was, and how I would have rather been up the road hunting all those proffs down in order to get autographs.

I really need a life. Where's the market in THAT?

@BZ,
The market in THAT is in front of you. Think on the margin. Think of the things you like most and the things you dislike the most. Increase somewhat the amount of time you spend on the former and reduce somewhat the time you spend on the latter.
Best,
David

You shouldn't overlook how minimum wage laws can help deter cost-shifting behavior by private parties.

Say I own a huge fruit farm. And say I could either hire migrants for $6 per hour and let the taxpayers and people with health insurance pick up the cost of educating their children, treating their illnesses in emergency rooms, policing and imprisoning them and their children, etc. Or the state could set a minimum wage of $12, which would encourage me to invest in labor-saving machinery, whose maintenance, unlike that of cheap workers, I have to pay for out of my own pocket.

Nice take, but I see the minimum wage more as "intelligent design," intended to keep people who can't command that wage out of the market. Those who are out (the poor, less educated, ...) tend to stay out or go underground (dealing drugs, etc), and those who are in are more likely to see their incomes rise commensurate with their experience.

Or the state could set a minimum wage of $12, which would encourage me to invest in labor-saving machinery, whose maintenance, unlike that of cheap workers, I have to pay for out of my own pocket.

Are you seriously suggesting that the economy is better off doubling the cost of low skilled labor rather than paying for primary education, emergency health care, and law enforcement for the labor?

OK so maybe those of us not entirely sold on emergentism are creationists, but what of all the belief in omniscience (strong efficiency), infallibility (signaling theory), mysticism (the Invisible Hand to which I'd so love to deliver a Bionic Handshake), etc. Perhaps Free Market Fundamentalism is an unfair characterization, but is not entirely off the mark.

Boudreaux is, as usual, engaging in Political Creationism, who does not grasp that policies emerge from the incentives of political systems, they aren't dictated by a wise authority like an economics professor.

http://athousandnations.com/2010/08/04/political-creationists/