mck@ratex.UUCP (Daniel Kian Mc Kiernan) (02/02/85)
Mr Kelly says 'I understand the need to apply simplified models to
gain understanding' yet denounces me for beginning my discussion of Wages
and unemployment, implying that I believe 'too much in the simplified
model'. I did not claim that we live in a Free Economy; elsewhere I have
repeatedly pointed out that we do not, and in the analysis that Kelly
responded to, I introduced coercive unions and Minimum Wage laws (hardly
the stuff of a Free Economy). Mr Kelly's implication is just one more
goddamned netnews straw man.
Mr Kelly says 'You may economically "prove" to your satisfaction that
unions are bad.' I don't see that I can economically prove anything good
or bad; economics is not ethics. I just made the descriptive observation
that unions increase the wage-rate at the cost of jobs. Naturally, if we
regard unemployment as bad (an ethical position), we might question the
merit of unions.
Mr Kelly makes the point that it is difficult for the worker to
negotiate for higher wages without involving another company. But unless
the company has a monopsony and also need not worry about its supply of
labor beyond the immediate future, this seems a trivial problem.
Speaking not as economist but as a Libertarian, I have litle
objection to workers organizing voluntarily and bargaining collectively.
My objection is to unions who violate the liberties of non-members.
Waiting for it to roll back down,
Daniel Kian Mc Kiernan