Economics Questions

Re: War as the only Method of Full-Employment

Sieben — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:56:17 GMT

If there were fewer taxes people might work less. Like I said, its all about the subjective marginal value of an extra hour of work vs an extra hour of free time.

Re: War as the only Method of Full-Employment

cognitivist — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:51:16 GMT

Sieben:
Full employment is a useless metric. In a really prosperous society people might only have to work 10hrs/week before leisure time became worth more than any marginal benefits from working.

No taxes would be a start.

Re: War as the only Method of Full-Employment

Sieben — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:37:23 GMT

cognitivist:
A better question is.. how do you define situations that are non-full-employment?

Well then we are never at full employment because leisure time still has value. Workers would have to be fed via drip and... you get the picture.

Full employment is a useless metric. In a really prosperous society people might only have to work 10hrs/week before leisure time became worth more than any marginal benefits from working.

Re: War as the only Method of Full-Employment

cognitivist — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 04:12:01 GMT

Sieben:
Why wouldn't the free market tend towards full employment? No minimum wage... no labor laws... how do you define full employment anyway?

I refuse to work unless someone gives me a job at $50 an hour and levels up my characters on WoW while I'm at work. Am I unemployed?

A better question is.. how do you define situations that are non-full-employment? Given we assume the Keynesian definiton that all human resources and production are utilized. By what? Well I suppose any one, or thing. I believe that was Keynes' basic definition of it, correct me if I'm wrong.

He doesn't really touch upon what "utilization" would look like. Be it employment for 1 second, 8 hours a day, at .50c or $50.00/hr. I'm intrigued by the Keynesian vagueness. Haha.

Re: War as the only Method of Full-Employment

Caley McKibbin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 04:09:52 GMT

I refuse to work unless someone gives me a job at $50 an hour and levels up my characters on WoW while I'm at work. Am I unemployed?

There is no such thing as unemployment, strictly speaking. In terms of monetary income, there is only frictional unemployment in a free market (edit:) or you don't want to work.

Re: War as the only Method of Full-Employment

cognitivist — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 04:07:23 GMT

I. Ryan:

cognitivist:

What kind of free-market blueprint could bring about full-employment?

Why are you saying that there is more than one kind of free market? Isn't it just free or not?

Sorry, the question was convoluted. Do free markets bring about full-employment is a better question.

Re: War as the only Method of Full-Employment

Sieben — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 04:00:42 GMT

Why wouldn't the free market tend towards full employment? No minimum wage... no labor laws... how do you define full employment anyway?

I refuse to work unless someone gives me a job at $50 an hour and levels up my characters on WoW while I'm at work. Am I unemployed?

Re: War as the only Method of Full-Employment

I. Ryan — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 03:56:45 GMT

cognitivist:

What kind of free-market blueprint could bring about full-employment?

Why are you saying that there is more than one kind of free market? Isn't it just free or not?

War as the only Method of Full-Employment

cognitivist — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 03:51:48 GMT

What kind of free-market blueprint could bring about full-employment?