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Assorted links
1. It hurts to be poor
2. The Bastiat Prize for free-market journalism
3. The 1949 Phillips machine restored
4. Dilbert starts the Economics Party
Posted by Tyler Cowen on May 8, 2008 at 06:02 PM in Web/Tech | Permalink
Comments
Scott Adams is starting the party, not Dilbert. Credit where credit is due and all that.
Posted by: eddie at May 8, 2008 6:50:17 PM
Or maybe the blue collar worker could get a free floating 401k type of plan... then they could retire whenever they want to... just saying.
[for those who think this is unrealistic, consider that you can set those up with like $100, and the reduced taxes from not paying social security in the first place could go in there.]
Posted by: liberty at May 8, 2008 7:09:00 PM
I am curious to know your opinion on the econ party policy suggestions. Bryan Caplan could weigh in on whether they are actually agreed upon by most economists, too.
I don't agree with some of them, nor the assumed rationale, but then I am not "most economists."
Posted by: liberty at May 8, 2008 7:14:02 PM
Curiously enough, the Bastiat Prize rules would exclude Bastiat if he were alive and writing today:
"Articles must be written and published in English."
Posted by: Stephen Gordon at May 8, 2008 7:18:37 PM
Would you even want a prize from Ann Applebaum?
Posted by: TGGP at May 8, 2008 11:55:15 PM
"Everything was in the wrong place. It had been here since the 1950s but everything was connected wrong. I had to work out what he was trying to do. Economics is run by people who didn't understand it."
I'm sure one of y'all can make a post out of that.
Posted by: Colin Danby at May 9, 2008 2:53:29 AM
I have no doubt that being poor is painful, and that blue collar jobs are hard work. (I'm not sure why it follows, as it does to the Crooked Timber poster, that the general retirement age should not be raised, as opposed to this arguing for better treatment for those whose jobs wear their bodies out faster.)
Professor Krueger is apparently surprised that people who self-report high levels of pain also self-report high levels of disability status. While I think it's very unlikely that most people on disability are faking, I would also think it quite unlikely that anyone who was faking would so readily admit to it.
Posted by: John Thacker at May 9, 2008 3:26:13 AM
Interesting that the Kathy G. post focuses repeatedly on "inequality" and "socioeconomic status" as the source of "pain", while the research merely establishes that poverty, absolutely defined, is what hurts, and provides no basis for the claim that relative status has any impact.
Posted by: NoneMoreBlack at May 9, 2008 6:58:40 AM
Kathy G depresses me. If we can't agree to raise the social security retirement age by a few years, we can't agree on anything. People will need the extra time to save regardless of the financial health of the system.
Posted by: JasonL at May 9, 2008 9:54:52 AM
"Easy for you to say, Mr. Economics Professor! You can do your job until you’re 100, or until senility sets in, at least."
Ouch. But, on the bright side, a liberal is coming to understand the total nonsense that is a universal, arbitrary "retirement age."
It's getting to be that manual laborers can make more than some white collars in a lot of cases (and this might be even more pronounced if not for immigration). So, I have little sympathy. The system is working for them, as it drags them kicking and screaming along. No pain, no gain.
Posted by: Andrew at May 9, 2008 4:56:11 PM
Credit?!? Credit!?! Without Dilbert, Scott Adams would be nobody!
Posted by: Andrew at May 9, 2008 5:38:09 PM
