Does anybody have any figures? Some guy is claiming that there was persistent unemployment in the 1800s and that it took minimum wage and other measures to bring wages up and bring employment up. So, I can't find any good data.
Yes, I am a huge Dodgers fan.
Anti-state since I learned about the Cuban Revolution and why my dad had to flee the country.
Beer, Guns and Baseball My blog
Minimum wage and "other measures" create jobs? Wow, this is revolutionary and your friend should definitely share his discovery with the economics profession who, in their ignorance, cling to the idea that these things hamper employment. He could be the next nobel winner!
As for figures there are no reliable figures from most of that that era, for somewhat obvious reasons. Your friend is talking out of his a** and since he is the one challenging the consensus view of economists the burden of proof rightly lies with him.
Surely you don't need data to disprove the idea that making labour more expensive would increase demand for labour.
For whoever is making that claim to even have a straight face, they would need a hell of a lot of their own data.
He's of the camp that there was insufficient demand and disregards that people are paid according to their marginal productivity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_Unemployment_1800-1890.gif ?
Where there is no property there is no justice; a proposition as certain as any demonstration in Euclid
Fools! not to see that what they madly desire would be a calamity to them as no hands but their own could bring
Its interesting to see how the mean duration of unemployment has risen .... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:United_States_Mean_Duration_of_Unemployment.jpg
"He's of the camp that there was insufficient demand and disregards that people are paid according to their marginal productivity."
What "camp" is this? I know of no serious economists that hold such positions among any school of thought and I have a hard time believing that such a "camp" exists outside of your friends head. Can your friend provide any evidence that some, even a small minority, of reputable economists support him?
I wouldn't be surprised if he thinks the entire industrial revolution was caused by government taxes.