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Blame Economists for the Mess We’re In
11–20 of 143 posts
Re: Blame Economists for the Mess We’re In
#121980s/1990s economists: "Here is what we will do, we will pass laws and make it easy to outsource all of the jobs, and then we will import tons of foreign labor. Then, our gracious corporations will happily retrain all of our workers for new jobs with completely new skills. Mid/Late career workers can change on a dime right? Next, when the economy crashes in 2008, we will print unprecedented levels of money to save t…
The economists just say that higher productivity jobs like research and development are more productive than low productivity jobs in manufacturing, almost by definition. The wealth is just the outcome of productivity: the higher the productivity the richer we are. But apparently even this truism is hard to grasp for a newspaper journalist or hacker news commenters not well trained in economy.
Re: Blame Economists for the Mess We’re In
#131980s/1990s economists: "Here is what we will do, we will pass laws and make it easy to outsource all of the jobs, and then we will import tons of foreign labor. Then, our gracious corporations will happily retrain all of our workers for new jobs with completely new skills. Mid/Late career workers can change on a dime right? Next, when the economy crashes in 2008, we will print unprecedented levels of money to save t…
> ... we will pass laws and make it easy to outsource all of the jobs ... Not just laws. During the Reagan era, there were US government programs to promote outsourcing jobs. And to coach firms on how to do it.
That’s an interesting claim. I’d like to read more about it. Do you have a citation?
Re: Blame Economists for the Mess We’re In
#14Applebaum tries to finger "elfin libertarian" Milton Friedman as "the most important figure". But the specific policies he attributes to Friedman don't seem so bad: * end the draft, replace with well-paid all-volunteer military * let international exchange rates vary * evaluate regulations based on the cost-to-save-a-life Does Applebaum want to bring back the draft? Put exchange rates back under direct political cont…
There are reasons the draft can be a good idea.
When the military is only voluntary you get a military with specific ideas about foreign policy and how you see the enemy, whoever they are.
If you introduce the draft you have a more heterogenous military.
Re: Blame Economists for the Mess We’re In
#15Blaming economists? I find it troubling that such an antisemitic article is on the front page of HN.
Re: Blame Economists for the Mess We’re In
#16Or don't, because we're not listening to economists in general, but people who are employed/supported by the very wealthy (just like lobbyists and thinktanks) to give politicians something to say publicly when they do things that the very wealthy want them to do.
Economics as a discipline has been pretty relaxed about the need for state intervention in some cases and the idea that some government debt can be good - these aren't wacky, out-there ideas in the panoply of economic thought.
But they absolutely are when you turn on the TV and listen to the Koch brothers go on and on about taxes. So many people just learn the bit of economics that supports their world view and then repeat that ad nauseam. Then the discipline as a whole gets the blame, because no-one stops to think that the messenger is in fact a self-interested (surprise!!!) idiot.
Re: Blame Economists for the Mess We’re In
#17One of the many wonders of policy based evidence is that if the policy goes tits up, you can still always blame whichever profession you cherry picked.
Re: Blame Economists for the Mess We’re In
#18Applebaum tries to finger "elfin libertarian" Milton Friedman as "the most important figure". But the specific policies he attributes to Friedman don't seem so bad: * end the draft, replace with well-paid all-volunteer military * let international exchange rates vary * evaluate regulations based on the cost-to-save-a-life Does Applebaum want to bring back the draft? Put exchange rates back under direct political cont…
There are reasons the draft can be a good idea. When the military is only voluntary you get a military with specific ideas about foreign policy and how you see the enemy, whoever they are. If you introduce the draft you have a more heterogenous military.
A draft raises the cost of war, making war less likely.
Re: Blame Economists for the Mess We’re In
#19Blame Economists/Scientists
Blame Law/Politicians
Blame News/Social Media
...
Blame anyone but yourself?
But blaming doesn't score much on HN, no?
Re: Blame Economists for the Mess We’re In
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are reasons the draft can be a good idea. When the military is only voluntary you get a military with specific ideas about foreign policy and how you see the enemy, whoever they are. If you introduce the draft you have a more heterogenous military.
A draft raises the cost of war, making war less likely.
That depends on how easy it is to get out if it.
If the influential always go to the coast guard or whatever, war is less meaningful for those in power.