Friday, May 13, 2016

You Grow the Pie?

The New York Times recycles boilerplate nonsense:
YOUR MONEY: Disproving Beliefs About the Economy and Aging 
The notion that the job market is a zero sum game — more jobs for one group translates into fewer jobs for another group — is deeply ingrained. Economists call the belief that there are only so many jobs in an economy the "lump of labor fallacy." 
But the truth is that growth in the number of jobs for older people tends to run in parallel with gains for younger workers. "There isn’t a fixed number of jobs," Ms. Carstensen said. "You grow the pie."
When I see a pie growing, I toss it in the compost.

Where to begin? "The notion... is deeply ingrained." Deeply ingrained in WHAT? WHO thinks this notion, aside from Ms. Carstensen, Christopher Farrell and other disciples of unidentified "economists" who call this believerless belief the "lump of labor fallacy"?

The old zero sum game gambit AGAIN? Oh come on. Haven't the boilerplate recyclers heard of prisoner's dilemma yet?

2 comments:

Jack said...

"The notion that the job market is a zero sum game — more jobs for one group translates into fewer jobs for another group — is deeply ingrained."

If the zero sum game is not a true reflection of labor's reality how does one account for unemployment of any level at all? Doesn't zero sum labor as a fallacy require that there actually be a never ending demand for more labor?

Thornton Hall said...

I honestly believe that this sort of boilerplate is a consequence of the basic ethics of journalism.

People talk about the "corporate" media, but that's not the problem. The problem is objectivity and professionalism.

Bullshit about lump of labor seems relates to"the production of innocence" discussed here:
http://pressthink.org/2011/08/why-political-coverage-is-broken/