This Just In!

From Timothy Noah at Politico Morning Shift ("your daily speed read on labor and employment policy):

The machines-mean-fewer-jobs view is known as the “lump of labor” fallacy, first articulated in 1908 by an English economist named Sydney Chapman. But Chapman never lived to see the invention of the silicon chip. Is lump of labor still a fallacy?

Somebody's been "speed reading" the Sandwichman but ought to  s l o w  d o w n. No, the lump-of-labor fallacy was not "first articulated" in 1908 by Chapman.

Walker, T. "Why economists dislike a lump of labor," Review of Social Economy, 2007, vol. 65, issue 3, pages 279-291.

Abstract: The lump-of-labor fallacy has been called one of the “best known fallacies in economics.” It is widely cited in disparagement of policies for reducing the standard hours of work, yet the authenticity of the fallacy claim is questionable, and explanations of it are inconsistent and contradictory. This article discusses recent occurrences of the fallacy claim and investigates anomalies in the claim and its history. S.J. Chapman's coherent and formerly highly regarded theory of the hours of labor is reviewed, and it is shown how that theory could lend credence to the job-creating potentiality of shorter working time policies. It concludes that substituting a dubious fallacy claim for an authentic economic theory may have obstructed fruitful dialogue about working time and the appropriate policies for regulating it.