Re: Economic `Armageddon' predicted

royls_at_telus.net
Date: 12/17/04 

Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 20:35:55 GMT

On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 10:28:40 -0800, The Trucker <mikcob@verizon.net>
wrote:

>Chas wrote:
>
>> "Rents certainly exist. They arise from scarcity. But scarcity can be
>> either natural and immutable, as land is scarce, or artificially
>> imposed, as labor is scarce when a union is empowered to prevent
>> non-union workers from competing with union workers, or taxi drivers
>> must purchase medallions in order to be allowed to ply their trade; or
>> as capital is scarce when its owners are denied the rightful return to
>> its productive employment."
>
>Land is the ONLY thing that is scarce.

In economics, "scarce" means in insufficient supply for everyone to
have all they want.

>Labor is not scarce unless you
>are an aristocrat seeking to use the labor of others for your own
>benefit.

There are never enough other people willing to do the work we'd like
them to do, aristocrat or no.

>No man wants to labor. That is why we invent capital and
>why we have the division and specialization of both land and
>labor. Saying labor is scarce is like saying we have a shortage of
>polio. Only an economist in the pay of the aristocracy can make
>such a ludicrous claim.

This is very confused. Labor is scarce _because_ people would rather
do other things than work. In economics, labor is not the amount of
work that needs doing, but the amount of work done (or the market
supply of the capacity to do it).

-- Roy L

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Eminent Domain Abuse - LVT - Back to Basics
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  • Re: Economic `Armageddon predicted
    ... > either natural and immutable, as land is scarce, or artificially ... Land is the ONLY thing that is scarce. ... Labor is not scarce unless you ... A worker's wage above a certain level would be a rent, etc. Rent, ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Re: Economic `Armageddon predicted
    ... >>Land is the ONLY thing that is scarce. ... >>are an aristocrat seeking to use the labor of others for your own ... What we are hopefully limited in is our control over others. ...
    (sci.econ)
  • Re: Eminent Domain Abuse - LVT - Back to Basics
    ... Land is not equally distributed. ... So if you don't own any, it's pretty damn scarce from your ... >land is like already-breathed air. ... labor is performed to produce it, what is that labor performed _on_? ...
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  • Re: Distribution & Redistribution
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