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Guest Post: Economic Fallacies And The Fight For Liberty

Tyler Durden's picture


Submitted by James Miller of the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada

Economic Fallacies And The Fight For Liberty

It’s easy to be pessimistic over the future prospects of liberty when major industrialized nations around the world are becoming increasingly rife with market intervention, police aggression, and fallacious economic reasoning.  The laissez faire ideal of a society where people should be allowed to flourish without the coercive impositions of the state is all but missing from mainstream debate.  In editorial pages and televised roundtable discussions, a government policy of “hands off” is now an unspeakable option.  It is presumed that lawmakers must step up to “do something” for the good of the people.  Thankfully, this deliberate false choice will slowly but surely bring the death of itself.   Illogical theories can only go on for so long before the push-back becomes too much to handle.  For those who desire liberty, it’s a joy that the statist economic policies of the Keynesians become even more irrational as the Great Recession drags on. The two following examples will illustrate this point.

Former Labor Secretary, public policy professor at University of California, Berkley, and political commentator Robert Reich recently offered President Obama and Mitt Romney a proposal he thinks will help American workers.  In lieu of almost 40% of workers in the U.S. not receiving paid vacation for holidays and sick days, Reich proposes that the federal government mandate every worker receive three weeks of paid time off.  Reich calls the country’s lack of a national leave policy “absurd.”  Further, he claims that imposing an increase in mandatory paid vacation would be beneficial not just for employees but employers as well.  According to the union cheerleader, paying employees for taking time off is great for productivity because they come back with batteries recharged and higher morale.  This boost in output would more than pay for the leave and for the hiring of additional labor to offset the absence.

What Reich is arguing is that by increasing the cost of labor, somehow the unemployment rate will drop.  Or that by paying employees to take time off, the extra productivity that would take place would both pay for the hiring of more workers and make up for the loss of time devoted to labor.  And finally, Reich is assuming that employers have never taken such a policy into account and are blind to the low-hanging fruit of easy profits.

To even the most unlearned observer, Reich’s proposal comes off as pure nonsense in the sense that it would not just be damaging to an economy already strangled by regulatory mandates but it would actually be beneficial on the whole.  Government intervention into the free choices of people always amounts to the picking and choosing of winners.  Left to itself, the unhampered social system of production that is a free market economy is the best state of affairs for participants to maximize their well-being.  Under interventionism, voluntary choices are replaced by dictation from the political elite.  Reich’s proposal for mandatory three weeks of paid vacation assumes that all workers, at all times, would have no issue with the requirement.  He presumes that the policy would have immediate effect so that the up-front cost of labor would automatically be offset by increased production which in reality takes time to occur and isn’t guaranteed.  Reich’s policy rests on the notion that economies can be finely tuned.  His view is that the human energy expended on production is not an extension of the individual sovereignty of men but something to control and guide.  This is general mindset of a central planner; especially one who has a high-profile academic position at a major university.

Reich is far from alone in this regard.  He is a respected commentator featured in the mainstream press.  His colleagues offer the same suggestions for policymakers in the government to follow.  In another example, recently on the Washington Post’s Wonkblog, editor Ezra Klein offered up a compelling case for how Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke could get the housing market out of its slump.  Cleverly titled “Uncle Ben’s Crazy Housing Sale,” Klein suggests that Bernanke go before the American people and announce that the Fed will begin buying mortgage-backed securities in an effort to bring 30 year mortgage rates down to 2.5% “for one year, and one year only.”  The goal is simple according to Klein:


But as Rothbardian economist Bob Murphy aptly points out, Klein’s proposal amounts to nothing more than the deliberate creation of another bubble.  By taking potential demand that could conceivably be spread out over the next decade or so and concentrating it within the confines of one year, the intertemporal allocation of goods within the structure of production (housing in this case) becomes distorted and leads to unsustainable investment.  So once Uncle Ben’s crazy housing sale comes to an end, the demand for housing would in all likelihood plummet and the industry would be no better off.  Also of importance is Klein presupposing that 2.5% is the most desirable rate for 30 year mortgage rates by not giving an explanation as to why.  Further, he mentions that the housing market is appearing to have bottomed out and is on its way to genuine recovery.  Yet his policy proposal rejects allowing for a natural recovery and boils down to the exact same monetary policy of low interest rates that created the housing bubble of the 2000s which laid the foundation for the financial crisis.  It is the equivalent of injecting heroin into a junkie who is trying to go cold turkey.

Though these are just a few examples of flawed policy recommendation, they are largely representative of the establishment’s views.  Like Princeton economist Paul Krugman, former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, and even the New York Times editorial staff, Klein and Reich believe in the sanctity of government intervention over the market process.

What passes for informed economic analysis is becoming more unhinged from reality by the day.  The very same solutions are being offered that had a hand in causing the crisis to begin with.  That is: interest rates suppressed beyond market levels, increased government spending, economic micro-management, housing market stimulus, and more accommodating monetary policy.  Getting out of the way and allowing the economy to reach sound footing is too radical of an option for the busybodies of the state.  Still, Keynesianism continues to fall short.  Intellectuals of the school keep failing to recognize the harm their theories cause.  Their policy recommendations are a rehashing of the same fundamentally pro-state theory: government needs to spend more and more money needs to be printed into circulation.

Meanwhile the average private sector or low-wage worker sees a system stacked against him.  Public sector workers receive better pay and benefits.  Politically connected banks and large financial companies are bailed out for poor business decisions.  Industries totally under government supervision such as health care and education have become terribly inefficient.  Countless lives are lost or ruined from wars based on lies.  The prices for necessities at the supermarket are always inching upward.  Privacy is trampled upon by overzealous law enforcement.  Wallets are treated like a grab bag by tax collectors.  And the solution put forth is always bigger, more intrusive government.  The false dichotomy of liberal versus conservative is played out in the West as if there is an actual difference between the two.  In short, it’s only a matter of time before the ideas ignored by the establishment are given more serious consideration by the greater public.

As the Austrian school of economics emphasizes, the bust which follows an inflationary boom is a needed cure for the built-up malinvestment.  Likewise, recessions should serve as a guide on the unintended consequences of public policy.  They challenge orthodox teachings to justify themselves as the damage of prolonged unemployment takes it toll.  Out of hardship can emerge new ideas for men to adopt and integrate.  Thought then becomes a weapon against the existing order which sees its position of authority under attack.  As Ludwig von Mises once wrote


In the course of human history ideas have been the catalyst for profound change.  The American Revolution was being fought on an intellectual battlefield before the first bullet was shot at Lexington and Concord.  Cato’s Letters, along with the writings of Thomas Paine and Adam Smith, gave the revolting colonists a vision of the natural rights of man and the prosperity free enterprise brings.  Radical pamphleteering was always a bigger threat to the British monarchy than any musket.

Today, the liberty-minded versed in sound economics face an uphill battle.  The corporatist establishment won’t let go of their government privilege easily.  Academics are too infatuated with their prestige to question the blatantly criminal syndicate that is the state.  Against such forces, the battle may be tough but it is winnable in the end.  Western governments are beyond bankrupt when it comes to unfunded liabilities.  Their existence is dependent on the unsustainable and fraudulent practice of fractional reserve banking.  Default is inevitable at this point.  The broken promises of politicians will discredit government as a virtuous institution.  The productive class, meaning those forced to fund the state and its beneficiaries, will stop sitting passively by.

To win the fight against statism and the poverty it inevitably brings, the right to one’s very humanity must be reasserted.  From the beginning, mankind has been plagued with the conflict of power versus liberty.  As libertarian author Rose Wilder Lane summarizes in her book The Discovery of Freedom:


Lane asks the most pertinent and direct questions that are never alluded to in contemporary political discourse:  “What is the nature of man?  The only political question is: What is the nature of the institution named “Government”?  To Lane, government, or the state, is an abstract concept which does not exist.  What exists “is a man, or a few men, in power over many men.”  By the same token, the prosperity brought forth through government-financed initiatives and inflation does not exist either.  The printing of money creates no new wealth; just lowered purchasing power.  All government spending comes from resources siphoned away from the private sector.  For every dollar spent by lawmakers or bureaucrats means one less dollar devoted toward productive efforts.  In short, free lunch economics is a fairytale.

These principles, while plainly evident, cannot be stressed enough.  State officials can’t live outside the laws of economics or the laws of decent behavior.  The sham is coming to a close before our eyes.  The collapse of the Soviet Union proved that socialist regimes are incapable of rational economic calculation.  The fiat money system that brought the world the slowly splintering Eurozone will eventually run its course.  Establishment economists have resorted to outright lies to maintain the superiority of government paper money over the market’s preference for gold.

They are getting desperate because their stock answer is no longer being looked to as right by the public.  In their quest for power, the political elite are looking more like the tyrants they really are.  It’s only a matter of time before enough people are fed up and declare their right to life, liberty, and property once again.  The battle will be won in the long run no matter how perilous it appears in the short.


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Thu, 09/06/2012 - 22:12 | 2770334 A Lunatic
A Lunatic's picture

Peak fallacies, bitchez..........

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 22:50 | 2770421 AU5K
AU5K's picture

Liberal "solutions" are simply absurd.  Why are they unable to see the consequence of their proposals?  Are they mentally retarded?  

Liberals live in a ceteris parabus world in which everything is held constant, and their change has the intended effect, but people *react* to the change in their best interest.  Simple game theory.

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 23:04 | 2770445 Zero Govt
Zero Govt's picture

the liberal mind-set has nothing to do with change, it's all about grabbing someone elses property ...theft

if ignorant idealist Karl Marx had understood enterprise he would have understood grabbing a productive persons assets doesn't mean that asset is productive (creates wealth) in an ignorant idealists hands

hence Russia crumbled, China crumbled, North Korea is crumbling and the semi-socialist States of Europe and America are on their merry way

we have neither the time nor the ability to educate the masses, it's not how society changes anyway. The way to change this rot is through small groups (small business) to shutter the cancerous institution of parasites called Govt

Stop Paying Your Taxes over

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 23:11 | 2770459 JLee2027
JLee2027's picture

Robert Reich...wasn't that the nutcase who wanted a 25 trillion dollar stimulus? Insanity.

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 23:35 | 2770499's picture

Reich also says that government should take over healthcare, make young healthy workers pay more and when they get old and need services they should be left to die. But any suggestion that that would constitute a death panel is just crazy talk.

Listen to the Berkley crowd cheer as Reich says old people should die:

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 00:50 | 2770632 Michael
Michael's picture

Jews know this monkey business.

Defamation: True Stories (2009)

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 06:01 | 2770842 Bobbyrib
Bobbyrib's picture



Fri, 09/07/2012 - 01:50 | 2770725 A Nanny Moose
A Nanny Moose's picture

the liberal mind-set has nothing to do with change, it's all about grabbing someone elses property, with which to buy votes.

There....fixed it for you.

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 23:13 | 2770461 Silver Bug
Silver Bug's picture

The elite are running into some serious trouble.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 03:08 | 2770781 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture


'Americans' deny peak fallacies. 'Americans' have only fallacies to offer to substitute for the fallacies they denounce.

The article is riddled with fallacies, fabled past, pushing forward Payne and Smith as architects of the 'American' revolution in the Americas.

With 'Americanism', it is fallacies vs fallacies.

Therefore peak does not matter...

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 10:45 | 2771664 A Lunatic
A Lunatic's picture

The truth always wins out in the end.

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 22:16 | 2770345 Vet4RonPaul
Vet4RonPaul's picture

James Miller, you are an excellent and couragous writer.  Indeed you show how a pen can be mightier than a sword.  Many of us sincerely appreciate your ability to communicate complex subjects and to fearlessly inform the reader that sacrifice is necessary to acquire and keep freedom.

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 22:18 | 2770350 nah
nah's picture

jobs closer to gubmin money do look cooshy

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 23:02 | 2770449 Bananamerican
Bananamerican's picture

they is Nah, they is...

My brother has one...

He's a head janitor in an elementary school. Even he says he's probably overpaid $10 an hour more than the gig is worth

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 22:22 | 2770356 Michael
Michael's picture

We should try capitalism some time, instead of fascist feudalism. This is a free book online.

Feudalism aka American Capitalism
by David F.

Feudalism: control by an entrenched minority esp. for its own benefit : social, political, or economic oligarchy.


The book presents overwhelming evidence that masquerading behind a democratic facade, an economic elite comprising less than 1% of the population is quietly and cunningly ruling America. Their immense wealth and power enable them to exercise so much control over the governmental process, that they effectively operate the country as a Feudal oligarchy. The book will leave little doubt that Government has been serving as a tool to subsidize and legitimize their exploitation of national and international resources, while legislative tax changes have left the nation with a Feudal wealth distribution system.

Presenting the evidence to substantiate this argument is not the main reason the book was written. Documenting the methods used by the elite to manipulate, control and exploit those with less money or power is the real purpose. At least 80% of the book is devoted to documenting their very effective methodology.

While it is evident that most people are somewhat aware that government appears to cater to corporations and influential lobby groups, the average taxpayer is practically oblivious to the extent to which the wealthiest 1% directly and purposely control and manipulate the lives and destinies of everyone else on the planet.

For those who have been brought up on a steady diet of the American Dream, but notice that today's reality and the American Dream seem to be growing further and further apart, it may be worth keeping in mind that if a frog is placed in a pan full of cold water, and the heat is turned up gradually enough, the frog will fail to sense the danger, and instead of jumping to safety, it could quite unknowingly allow itself to be cooked. In a similar fashion, the media continues to be used to desensitize and/or misinform the general public into repeatedly accepting domestic and foreign policies that are very often diametrically opposed to the best interest of the majority.

While the average American does have "a vague idea" that corporations (as well as the economic elite) use plenty of techniques for avoiding taxation; how many know that the proportion of Federal Income tax derived from Corporate income tax declined steadily from 32% in 1952; to 23% in 1960; to 17% in 1970; to a low of 9% in 1985? Without vital knowledge such as this, the public will remain in the dark as to what is really causing the decline in most Americans' standard of living. .

Although the growing deficit and the near trillion dollar banking industry losses will inevitably lead to continuing cuts in the standard of living for present and future generations, most Americans feel powerless to alter their deteriorating economic conditions, and simply take consolation in the belief that everyone else is also feeling the pinch.

Nothing could be further from the truth !

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 00:01 | 2770447 Michael
Michael's picture

I give you a major component of the solution going cold turkey;

Dump every GSE owned Fanny and Freddy foreclosed property on the market all at once, offered to first time home buyers and people who don't own any property, with a Dutch auction.  Limit one per customer.

It's that easy.

Thank me.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 00:18 | 2770572 Michael
Michael's picture

401k is just another casino gambling game of chance.

How much money did the majority of 401k investors individually earn, compared the the amount of money they invested from their pay checks, since the inception of the 401k?


Fri, 09/07/2012 - 00:45 | 2770619 Michael
Michael's picture

I approve of private sector unions, not public sector unions, because public sector unions are a conflict of interest with the public.

F.I.S.T (1978) Trailer

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 01:32 | 2770695 Michael
Michael's picture

A gold like standard and the US Constitution strictly abided by, are fair for everyone rules of the game that should not be breached for the benefit of a few, ever!
Because it spirals out of control and makes it unfair for the 99%!

It's that simple folks.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 02:32 | 2770759 Michael
Michael's picture

Got Guns & Ammo?

I should make this my signature line.

I just made this up.  It's like that Got Popcorn? (meme)

People should make bumper stickers out of this saying.

People should make T-Shirts with "Got Guns & Ammo? on the front and "Good." on the back.

I give this to you for free.  Have at it.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 03:11 | 2770784 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

Feudalism is a creation of 'Americans' to decry the previous social orders.

When looking at what 'Americans' call feudalism, one can easily find out that it refers to so many things, that are different in substance, it can not be labelled under one standard perception.

But hey, this trick is widely used by 'Americans' so it is no surprise.

'Americans' are extorters and farmers at heart, so lumping large groups of people together is good as it always extortion and farming on large scale...

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 04:53 | 2770824 Colonial Intent
Colonial Intent's picture

Have you not yet noticed that capitalism inevitibly leads to fascist feudalism?

Thu, 09/13/2012 - 10:04 | 2789301 MeelionDollerBogus
MeelionDollerBogus's picture

never noticed such a thing, no. So far every event of fascist feudalism I've seen comes from oligarchy and monarchy combined with banking. So far every capitalist event I've seen has produced the opposite then when the people are too loving of peace, not armed to the teeth, the bankers and queens and kings come in to rob everyone using guns, tanks and now drones and guided missiles.

You didn't notice this?

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 22:26 | 2770369 Conrad Murray
Conrad Murray's picture

Stop fighting these commie pigs. Let them have everything they want. Promote it and bask in it. Ride the gravy train until the wheels fall off, then mercilessly slaughter every last one of them.

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 22:32 | 2770383 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

The problem with that theory is once the free stuff stops coming you have to deal with the golden horde. And there are more of them than there are of us. Sure they will take each other out too , but there will be a lot left over.

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 22:38 | 2770397 A Lunatic
A Lunatic's picture

There's also the problem of guilt by association...........

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 22:49 | 2770418 surf0766
surf0766's picture

So you are a communist? 

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 23:41 | 2770511 Zap Powerz
Zap Powerz's picture

This looks good on paper, doesnt work in reality.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 00:08 | 2770554 prains
prains's picture

sure academics don't make good policy wonks, yawn

what about the complete and utter capture of policy making by corporate entities that are calling all the shots

there's no policy in the world that solves a short hair squeeze

so who gives a fuck about policy its all wonked out to the monied crowd anyway

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 02:02 | 2770739 A Nanny Moose
A Nanny Moose's picture

Their only power is our sanction. Once the host refuses the parasite....good night Irene.

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 22:29 | 2770374 Dareconomics
Dareconomics's picture

Excellent read

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 13:07 | 2770557 prains
prains's picture

thanks dare



that was a joke numbnuts

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 22:29 | 2770376 Cabreado
Cabreado's picture

Don't mean to be a curmudgeon, but the theme of Principle vs Oppression is a simple one.

Why all the words to reiterate such a simple message?

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 23:39 | 2770510's picture

Too many notes, Your Majesty?

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 22:35 | 2770390 dexter_morgan
dexter_morgan's picture




Hmmm... those questions were debated a lot in the late 18th century and likely thought to be answered, but then killed in the mid 19th and ignored most of the 20th. Can they be revived again somehow? Hopefully

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 23:36 | 2770506 Michael
Michael's picture

Human nature has not changed in ten thousand years, and never will. That's why we need to strictly follow the US Constitution.

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 23:40 | 2770514's picture

What are you going to do, chase the garbage truck?

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 00:05 | 2770553 Anusocracy
Anusocracy's picture

But it has changed.

Liberals have different morality than conservatives and and libertarians are different than either of the two.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 04:51 | 2770823 Colonial Intent
Colonial Intent's picture

Nearly right,

liberals have morals

conservatives have greed

libertarians have fear

Each tries to use its point of view to gain more followers.


Thu, 09/06/2012 - 22:36 | 2770391 A Lunatic
A Lunatic's picture

If you truly wish to be free, there's nothing stopping you. For everyone else, there's MasterCard.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 08:40 | 2771083 bonderøven-farm ass
bonderøven-farm ass's picture


Thu, 09/06/2012 - 22:54 | 2770432 janchup
janchup's picture

 Ezra Klein is a 20+ something Progressive moron with no experience outside partisan journalism. He should take his suggestions and shove them up his ass where the 40%  of his shit resides that's not 60% composing his head.

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 22:56 | 2770438 surf0766
surf0766's picture

Hell Yea!

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 23:42 | 2770519 surf0766
surf0766's picture

Well there is at least one other progressive moron out there.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 04:47 | 2770820 Colonial Intent
Colonial Intent's picture

They're all corporate shrills, the very people who got us into this fucking mess thru their greed and immorality now do guest articles on ZH telling us its all because of a muslim socialist who is more right wing than any head of state in europe.

Funniest shit i ever saw if it werent for the fact you have nukes and keep losing em or attaching em to b2's and losing them.

11 points of failure in your process for tracking a nuke and you claim it was incompetence, not intentional.


Thu, 09/06/2012 - 22:53 | 2770434 Zero Govt
Zero Govt's picture

Great read Mr Miller, don't think i had issue with a single sentence which is epic for my critical single brain cell.

You've detailed the problems succinctly just left us hanging with the solution. See if you can find a better one to Govt than this (bet ya can't)...

Stop Paying Taxes ...starve the f'n parasites

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 23:06 | 2770453 czarangelus
czarangelus's picture

Sorry, but this seems excessively optimistic. After all, the Bolsheviks managed to impose a century of tyranny and economic hardship on the Russian people.

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 23:24 | 2770475 Zero Govt
Zero Govt's picture

with respect to the Bolsheviks they were peasants and easily bullied by the threat of a standing army

we are eductaed, opinionated and connected and won't stand for too much crap before we spit our dummies out

Thu, 09/06/2012 - 23:53 | 2770537 imbtween
imbtween's picture

If capital is free to set the terms of employment in a laissez-faire system, labor must be free to organize or it is not a free system.

Labor unions served a useful purpose for a long time - the preclusion of offshoring of jobs. Pity it took a liberal to sell us out to the global marketfarce.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 00:11 | 2770561 Anusocracy
Anusocracy's picture

The employer is free to fire them.




Fri, 09/07/2012 - 03:13 | 2770785 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

The employer is free to use force...

'Americanism', a ghost built on a bubble of nothing...

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 07:16 | 2770898 falak pema
falak pema's picture

aladdin's lamp! What was the magical formula to bring the ghost or "genie" out of the lamp?

Just plain "hand rubbing"...The essence of americanism is hard work, like "hand rubbing"! It brings the "genie" out of them.

Employers are people with ideas; as long as the employees can walk away and become employers of themselves and/or of others, where's the problem? 

The only force that counts is the force of ideas that work ! Not a bubble of nothing.

No country NEED be a prison for the others, the majority. 

Empires always die, so stay focussed; as the bubble feeds the rubble.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 00:22 | 2770581 Beam Me Up Scotty
Beam Me Up Scotty's picture

Today's unions are part of the problem not the solution. They like big government handouts too. Not to mention the "slow down, you're making me look bad" ideology they have. Less work, more union coffee breaks. Look at all the state workers, they are all fat lazy fucks.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 02:18 | 2770750 A Nanny Moose
A Nanny Moose's picture

As a contractor, in the land of purple shirts, who is paid based on what is produced, I found it annoying when I was asked to slow down. I was further annoyed once I understood that my tax dollars were paying A) contract administrators, B) short timers out on disability, C) pay bumping retirees, D) fat fucks whose only response is, "it's no my job to make sure the fucking legal tray is pulled out on my printer, E) fucking union bosses who say....and I quote, "If they won't pay, let it burn"

When offered a job in that environment, I was even more annoyed that I would have been forced to become a purple shirted sloth, and refused the offer.

Wealth must first be pro-fucking-duced, prior to being confiscated.

/rant -off.


Fri, 09/07/2012 - 00:43 | 2770608 Michael
Michael's picture


F.I.S.T (1978) Trailer

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 01:21 | 2770680 lemonobrien
lemonobrien's picture

in San francisco we call it and use crisco.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 00:54 | 2770641 Totentänzerlied
Totentänzerlied's picture

Capital is not free to set the terms of employment, flawed premise. Aside from sole proprietorships, which are not relevant, what kind of company can exist without employees? And labor outsourcing? In a free market there are no free-trade agreements, tariffs, duties, shipping restrictions, banned substances, labor laws, or border controls/restrictions; labor is relatively cheap (and so is everything else), it would be generally counterproductive to incur the costs of doing business in 'foreign' non-free markets.

The dynamics of a free market are rather different from anything we can refer to in history, historical assumptions by and large are not relevant.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 03:17 | 2770788 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

Hold your breath and


Aside from sole proprietorships, which are not relevant,


How can they be irrelevant on a site that appeal to 'Americans' and small business?

Quite often, in small businesses, the owner might be the sole one consuming the capital...

Work is consumption. And people who own consumables might be able to set the terms of the consumption of the consumables (even though 'Americans' have been removing that option from many people around the world, a key of their success)

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 07:03 | 2770883 Poor Grogman
Poor Grogman's picture

My gripe is not with work or consumables per se.

My gripe is with consumables that don't work...

Such as the production of the Chinese citizen..

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 08:25 | 2771008 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

Try the production of some other chineses if you are displeased with the production of the chinese citizen.

Hundreds of millions chinese, you have hope...

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 01:10 | 2770668 adr
adr's picture

I've built up eight weeks of paid vacation I can't take.

Why? Because I took two weeks off a few years ago and the epic shitstorm I had to deal with when I got back almost made me want to walk out for good. I had to put out fires with every buyer, reroute $7 million worth of product, and figure out who screwed up a potential $10 million deal.

Turns out the idiot president of my company, that couldn't run the only lemonade stand in town on a 100 degree day, decided to make a real business decision without calling me first. Since he had never been to an account and never met with a retail buyer in his life, he thought it would be ok to authorize a deal because a friend wanted it, that pissed off every major retailer we sold to. When it showed up in a black Friday flyer.

Middle management runs business in America. 99% of the CEO class couldn't run a real business if they tried. I guess that is why they tend to believe the bullshit spitted out by every garbage politician.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 03:21 | 2770793 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

Best post so far.

Yes, that is that. Middle class is what runs 'American' nations.

And middle class has to suffer from the vices of both the upper class and the lower class.

This is how Hollywood markets their movies.

Once this trick is admitted, it only takes a few minutes in a movie to guess the end, as it is all based on middle class' stereotypes.

I got booted from many theaters because I could no longer stand those propaganda movies and was telling who the bad guy was, and it would end etc before the end, making 'Americans' angry, thinking I had seen the move first and was there to spoil their fun at watching themselves, middle class, on the silver screen.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 06:02 | 2770843 css1971
css1971's picture

You realise that if you have to work every day you are working class, not middle class.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 08:26 | 2771016 AnAnonymous
AnAnonymous's picture

Maybe... But most 'Americans' have some days off now and then, that pushes them out of the working class to be middle class...

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 06:57 | 2770880 Bicycle Repairman
Bicycle Repairman's picture

A certain percentage of wealth generated by the system must be returned to workers or the system collapses.  The amount is not necessarily related to the presumed productivity of the workers.

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 08:04 | 2770956 Henry Hub
Henry Hub's picture

***The corporatist establishment won’t let go of their government privilege easily...Against such forces, the battle may be tough but it is winnable in the end.***

And we're going to win this battle against the corporate state by not allowing millions of poor slobs working for minimum wage a three week vacation. Give me a fucking break!

Fri, 09/07/2012 - 09:09 | 2771255 Monk
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Ironically, it was liberty that caused the previous bubble.


Mon, 09/10/2012 - 03:42 | 2777755 david9821
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Thu, 09/13/2012 - 09:57 | 2789272 MeelionDollerBogus
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Silly as it is, I've met/seen some of those blind employers. There's no good reason for it ... be it reducing inefficient middle-management, or ass-backward policies, or ensuring people get a long enough break (days off or minutes off), they don't get it.

Then they run in circles wasting time, misunderstanding problems & getting back dazed-out employees that get so frustrated they stop working. They'll show up on time a while but their work output drops easily to 50%. Then they quit.

No question some employees & some employers will be lazy and/or exploiting but some measure of balance is needed. They do indeed not stare closely enough at the balance sheet.

However, I wouldn't dare trust GOVERNMENT to do any better.

This very moment my own mother is screaming at some government tax-agent moron who won't explain why tax-return money won't be sent. Apparently a postal code was in error but previous mail arrives and all the money is direct deposit regardless. Thanks for your anger, wait till october. Oh really?

Ya, I think trusting them to figure it out over business is even worse. SOME failures scattered around are annoying. CENTRAL CONTROL failure you CAN NOT hold accountable is DESTRUCTION of the entire system.
