Tag Archives: labor

Defining Employment

Is involuntary unemployment possible? Debate between Misesians. Continue reading

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Structural Unemployment and Business Cycles

High natural unemployment is a product of poor labor policy, and not of markets or the length of recessions. Continue reading

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Ownership of Labor

Who owns my labor, if not myself? In his concept of ownership, Karl Marx makes the mistake of not accepting the contract between employee and employer as a transfer of ownership. The employee is selling his labor for a certain wage. Before the labor is sold, though, it seems to me that the individual owns his labor (and thus is the only reason he can legitimately sell it). Continue reading

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Consistency on Unemployment

Full employment is inconsistent with the Austrian rejection of long-run equilibrium models. Continue reading

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Spain’s Labor Problems

With growing interventionism in Spain, the black market is Spain’s only saving grace. Continue reading

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How Not to Make Globalization Work

In Making Globalization Work, Joseph Stiglitz fails to make a good case against liberalization. Instead, he further underscores liberalization’s importance in global development, and instead misidentifies mercantilism as ” capitalism”. Continue reading

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Is It Fair to Lay a Worker Off?

Labor laws regulating how a business can fire its workers should be eliminated. Otherwise, government is actively discriminating against those who deserve the job. Continue reading

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Why I Don’t Accept Pay Raises

My low hourly wage rate makes me an attractive employee. By accepting a higher wage rate I decrease my appeal by that much, meaning that it would make far more sense to remain relatively cheap. Unfortunately, minimum wage laws have disallowed me to reduce my wages even further, to remain competitive in a market with a labor surplus. Continue reading

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Minimum Wage Welfare

The minimum wage has not guaranteed the same standard of living throughout the ages. Compared to employees in 1956 and even the 1970s, minimum wage earners make less today. The problem is not that there is too little welfare, it’s that there is too much welfare. The government is running the printing press to afford it, and it is inflating the dollar. Continue reading

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The Economic Role of Saving and Capital Goods

Ludwig von Mises on saving, capital goods and investment. Von Mises covers the effects of consumption and unions on the entrepreneur’s ability to invest capital to lengthen and widen the stages of production. He concludes that these interventions lead to greater impoverishment. Continue reading

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