orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER) (03/28/85)
> As I recall, DKMcK mentioned frictional unemployment when he discussed > full employment. In addition, it has not been understood that information > is in some way freely available to all. Information is a valuable commodity. > Israel M. Kirzener has discussed this at length, especially in > *Competition and Entrepreneurship*. To oversimplify, an entrepeneur is, > according to Kirzener, someone who uses information to make money. > > Laura Creighton > utzoo!laura Information certainly *is* a valuable commodity- which is why the neoclassical capitalist assumption of perfect information is yet another problem for applying the theory of free markets to the real world. If consumers know that Burgher Sweat is putting sawdust into their hamburgers it may have a great impact on their decision to purchase their fried cow. However, how are they to know? Likewise for other adulteration of products and requirements that producers provide information on their products ingredients on the label. The fact that Consumer Groups and the government have placed requirements on manufacturers to provide nutrition information, list of ingredients,etc. is hardly an imposition on the "free market" but allows the assumption of valid information to make market choices about products to be more valid. Personally I often use that information in making choices of what I will buy to eat. Without it I personally would not make the effort of doing the research involved to get that information. Often I think a major advantage the middle-class has over the poor and many working-class children is simply the knowledge of what opportunities are available to them. Many poor people think that there is no way they can afford to go to college. While Reagan is doing his best to make this true, it is not true yet: in fact if poor students study hard, then they probably can go to college with financial aid. Indeed information seems to me crucial to the very definition and operation of "markets". How do I find a job? I ask friends (one source of information) and look in the paper (another more formalized source of information). (there is an interesting book on how people find jobs, Mark Granovetter's network study "Finding a Job". He finds *most* jobs are found through contacts and connections-a friend of a friend for example. Since the poor don't have these contacts they are at a severe disadvantage in the job market. On the other hand if you want to find drugs....) Laura's suggestion that information is a crucial part of the entrepreneur's contribution to economic enterprises is an interesting point and probably to some extent correct. Whether this has any relevance to the profits accruing from the ownership and control of capital alone is another question. tim sevener whuxl!orb
js2j@mhuxt.UUCP (sonntag) (03/29/85)
> Often I think a major advantage the middle-class has over the poor > and many working-class children is simply the knowledge of what > opportunities are available to them. Many poor people think > that there is no way they can afford to go to college. While > Reagan is doing his best to make this true, it is not true yet: > in fact if poor students study hard, then they probably can go to > college with financial aid. Indeed. I don't know how much things have changed since '78-'82, but financial aid enabled me to attend a rather expensive private school (CMU), with *no* help needed from parents. Having poor parents was a big *help* in getting that financial aid too. That portion of the 'cycle of poverty' that goes: 'poor parents => poor education' always puzzled me for that reason. With the financial aid available 5 years ago, anyone, no matter how poor, could afford to attend at least a state school, or something. Maybe the point Sevener raised above explains why that link in the cycle of poverty still seems to be operating. -- Jeff Sonntag ihnp4!mhuxt!js2j "Parts is parts."-Jack the Ripper