In 2001, a group of activist student at Harvard wanted a “living wage” ($10.25 a hour, plus benefits) for all Harvard employees. The “living wage” movement is obvious. Life is hard for workers trying to support families on $7 an hour. Greg Mankiw said in response to the students’ movement that if we could wave a magic wand and help those at the bottom of the economic ladder move up a rung or two, we should do it. But enacting a social reform is not like waving a magic wand. It is more like prescribing a drug with a long list of side effects. Sometimes the side effects are worse than the disease . Most prices are set by the market force of supply and demand. The major difference between high-wage workers and low-wage workers is productivity, which drives the demands for their services. The living wage campaign wants to repeal the law of supply and demand. One effect of higher wages is a reduction in the amount of labor the employers demand. ( See Hillary disproves her own position, posted Sunday, April 6, 2008 ) Living wage supporters argue that Harvard’s large endowment could afford to pay higher wages. Yes, that is true, but that’s not the point. Like all employers, Harvard is always making cost-benefits calculations, weighing the benefits of one project against others. For example, hiring more janitors to clean chalkboards more often or hire more professors to reduce class sizes. The living-wage protest also raises the issue of Harvard’s mission in society. Supporters who give to the institution do so to support education, not income redistribution. Throughout history, students have been drawn to utopian social reforms. But history teaches that such social reforms often fail to yield what the reformers promised. The living wage campaign happens to be a most recent example.

Report: Many U.S. Parents Outsourcing Child Care Overseas

Like many politicians seeking to connect with voters, Hillary Clinton appeared on the Tonight Show. She told a story of the child of a working-class, single mother who had recently received a pay raise due to an increase in the minimum wage. The problem was that the mother was required to work fewer hours to offset the higher pay. I guess Hillary just explained one of the most important rules of economics, TNSTAAFL (There's no such thing as a free lunch.) I would be interested to know what amazing policy she plans to enact that will somehow allow us to get that free lunch.

Here is a more complete analysis of Hillary's comment.

"Need" now means wanting someone else's money. "Greed" means wanting to keep your own. "Compassion" is when a politician arranges the transfer.
--Joseph Sobran, Adam Smith Institute

Thomas Sowell, the American economist, is often described as the "black conservative". Sowell advocates the free market approach to captailism and strongly opposes Marxism (noted in his book Philosophy and Economics).

The plan is to start posting, semi-regularly, quotes from Thomas Sowell. Feel free to read some of his articles posted on the Jewish World Review .

"The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics."

"Most people who read "The Communist Manifesto" probably have no idea that it was written by a couple of young men who had never worked a day in their lives, and who nevertheless spoke boldly in the name of "the workers"."

New Abortion Bill To Require Fetal Consent

From the Carpe Diem blog by Mark J. Perry.



Dear Mr. Roberts, President of World Wildlife Fund:

You and members of your organization worry that industrialization and economic growth are harming the earth's environment. I worry that the intensifying hysteria about the state of the environment - and that the resulting hostility to economic growth - might harm humankind's prospects for comfortable, healthy, enjoyable, and long lives.

So I commend you on your "Earth Hour" effort. Persuading people across the globe to turn off lights for one hour supplies the perfect symbol for modern environmentalism: a collective effort to return humankind to the Dark Ages.

Sincerely,

Donald J. Boudreaux , Chairman, Department of Economics, George Mason University

P.S. The WWF should award some special prize to the North Korean government, for that government keeps North Koreans not in any meager "Earth Hour," or even "Earth Day," but in what WWFers might call "Earth Decades." See picture above of a society keeping its carbon footprint tiny. Of course, in doing so it keeps itself also desperately poor, often even to the point of starvation.

Liberals with the help of cartoons begin their indoctrination. One simple example is Captain Planet illustrating the socialist crew of environmentalist heroes, fighting unethical, ruthless capitalists. Today, the Conservative All-Stars fight fire with fire.

Notorious Villains: Hoggish Greedly and Looten Plunder

A cocaine-addled commuter pops a wheelie on his way to work.
Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters unveiled a new $270 billion federal project to build special lanes for dangerous and careless drivers.

These new lanes are for the millions of drivers who can't be bothered with speed limits, turn signal use, or not careening madly out into oncoming traffic. Whether hell-bent on putting themselves and everyone around them in danger or just drunk off their gourds and out for a simple joyride, America's reckless will no longer be forced to putter along with careful, conscientious, considerate citizens.

Peters then cut the ribbon on the inaugural lane by speeding through it in a rusted-out 1984 Chevy Cavalier, steering with her knees as her left hand held a cup of hot coffee aloft and her right hand slapped her 4-year-old daughter sitting in the back seat.