All Posts Tagged With: "wages"
The Freedom to Move
The freedom of the individual to move toward greener pastures, wherever they may seem to be, has been a vital part of the freedom of commerce—the freedom of choice that has constituted the truly distinctive characteristic of “the American way.”
In view of our long experience of near-perfect freedom to move about as each might choose, [...]
Twisting Economics Against Immigrants
P. Gardner Goldsmith is an independent journalist and screenwriter in New Hampshire.
On January 7 President Bush announced what appeared to be a sweeping plan to grant de-facto amnesty to millions of illegal aliens working in the United States. In fact, it was little more than a long-term worker-visa program that barely increased the ability of [...]
The Luckiest Generation
W. Michael Cox, senior vice president and chief economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and Richard Alm, a business writer, are co-authors of Myths of Rich and Poor: Why We’re Better Off Than We Think.
Meet the Luckiest Generation.
When it comes to the material facts of life, the young men and women coming of [...]
Why Wages Rise: 7. Contracting For Progress
Dr. Harper is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education.
Money, the lubricant for exchange, was discussed in the previous article in this series. Money makes widespread trade possible. Without it our present high level of wages could hardly have come to be.
Yet, serious inflation and deflation can cause money to lose [...]
Labors True Magna Charta
Labor is a commodity whether exchanged directly or indirectly—directly as a service or indirectly as the bag of wheat produced by one’s labor.
Since the beginning of 1933 more than 630 million man-days of work have been lost as a direct result of work stoppages, with no account taken of the secondary idleness caused by [...]
Why Wages Rise: 6. The Lubricant for Exchange
Dr. Harper is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education.
In the market we find persons trading the fruits of their special abilities with one another. Each does whatever economic task he can do best. He creates a surplus beyond his own needs. He then trades this with others who are [...]
Why Wages Rise: 5. Doing What You Can Do Best
Dr. Harper is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education.
In the previous article it was shown how the rise in wages has been due in large measure to the aid of tools that use the stored energy from the sun. Energy used to assist each man-hour of labor has increased [...]
Why Wages Rise: 4. Tools to Harness Energy
F. A. Harper is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education.
The first two articles in this series dealt with the effect on wages of (1) union membership and (2) productivity. The third dealt with the division of the total product between pay for current effort and pay for the use [...]
A Fair Wage
Mr. anderson is Manager of the Employers’ Association of Milwaukee.
We must recognize that every employee is entitled to a fair wage.” So concluded the speaker, a respected manufacturer and civic leader, elaborating on the development of industrial statesmanship at a typical gathering of American businessmen. Audience reaction indicated full approval of this, the voice [...]
Why Wages Rise: 3. Dividing The Pie
Dr. Harper is a member of the staff of the Foundation ]or Economic Education.
Real wages in the United States are about five times as high as they were a century ago. The first in this series of articles showed that this rise apparently is not, as commonly believed, due to the growth of labor [...]
Why Wages Rise: 2. Productivity
Dr. Harper is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education.
Editor’s Note: In the first article of this series (March 1956 issue) it was shown that unions have no perceptible influence on national wage rates, if we may judge from changes in union membership and wage rates over the last century. [...]
On Campus
Intercollegiate debating in the United States goes back to the 1870’s when teams from New York University and from Rutgers challenged one another. Such local rivalries gradually grew into regional contests and, more recently, into a national program with a single resolution selected annually for competition in colleges and universities.*
* A similar national program [...]
21Mar2010 | FEE Admin | 0 comments | ContinuedWhy Wages Rise: 1. Labor Unions?
Dr. Harper is a member of the staff of the Foundation ]or Economic Education.
Wage rates are higher in the United States than in any other country. and they are about five times as high here as they were a century ago, in purchasing power.
Many explanations of this phenomenal rise have been [...]
Protective Taxes And Wages
From an essay in the North American Review, January, 1883. pp. 270-276.
The discussion of protectionism in the United States constantly turns upon questions of wages. The question has two forms. The employed argue that protective taxes will make their wages high. The employers argue that protection is necessary for them, because they have to [...]
Monopoly And Competition
Mr. Smith is Economist for the United States Steel Corporation.
Free competition is as much threatened by coercive attempts to perfect it as by direct abuse of monopoly powers
According to the writers of economic textbooks, competition is not just competition; there is “perfect competition,” “imperfect competition,” “non-price competition,” “unfair competition,” “potential competition,” “workable competition,” “monopolistic [...]
The Issue Of Our Time
Mr. Palmer is Judge of the Superior Court of the State of California, in and for the County of Los Angeles. This is a condensed version of the longer essay which appeared in the American Bar Association Journal, November and December, 1954.
A world-wide war of ideas is being fought today between two types of [...]
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The Evil of Government Debt
As we’ve seen in the last two TGIFs, Destutt de Tracy, writing (pdf) in early nineteenth-century France,... Read More
Where There’s a Will There’s a Way?
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It seems that the so-called health care “reform” bill will become law soon enough. (President Barack... Read More
The Welfare State Kills Children
On February 22 a court in suburban Washington, D.C., passed judgment in one of the most horrendous cases... Read More
Government as Consumer
Destutt de Tracy, as I discussed last week, was a French economist whom Thomas Jefferson did his utmost... Read More
