What did you guys think of this debate?:
http://mises.org/multimedia/block/Block_Debate_05-08-2008.mp3
Personally I was pretty embarassed that the debate moderator was attempting to debate one of the economists and had an almost angry tone when speaking to one of the debaters. Also, the debate moderator seemed to confuse economic methodology with political ideology. Am I the only one who felt this way?
Is this respresentative of the quality of debates that the LvMI engages in? To me it seemed completely one sided and had all kinds of unnecessary ad hominem attacks. Thoughts?
"Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it." -Milton Friedman
"It is a mistake to think businessmen are more immoral than politicians." -John Maynard Keynes
In my country the minimum wage is set / month, not / hour so it's easier for me to discuss it this way.
Let's say I usually pay the worker $350 / month to work in my garden 6 hours / day in an office. Then, a "MW" Law comes along that sais I have to pay him at least $600.
I can't fire him just because he's being overpaid - I need his services! So I go to the worker and say "Listen, man, from now on you're going to have to do more stuff around here, such as mow the lawn and clean the room since I pay you extra".
I might not need that extra work, but I absolutely require what I hired him for, so I'm going to keep him around and use him for other stuff too, like a henchman.
That is, until a gardening company comes along that does my garden for $200 / month :)
xSFx: In my country the minimum wage is set / month, not / hour so it's easier for me to discuss it this way. Let's say I usually pay the worker $350 / month to work in my garden 6 hours / day in an office. Then, a "MW" Law comes along that sais I have to pay him at least $600. (...) "Listen, man, from now on you're going to have to do more stuff around here, such as mow the lawn and clean the room since I pay you extra".
(...) "Listen, man, from now on you're going to have to do more stuff around here, such as mow the lawn and clean the room since I pay you extra".
Someone that breaks a contract like that isn't concerned about minimum wage laws anyway. You can't ask him to work extra time for equal pay, or do work that is not in the contract, without re-nogociating it with him.
Anyway, if you say in your country minimum wage law is concerned about monthly payments, then for sure you have labor laws that specify what a full-time job is (8 hours if daily, 6 if at night), that employers must pay double for work that go beyound those stipulated work hours, etc. Otherwise, you wouldn't have part-time jobs (what super-market would pay minimum wage for weekend cashiers?!), and legislators don't want it to be possible to do stuff like you mentioned.
xSFx: I might not need that extra work, but I absolutely require what I hired him for, so I'm going to keep him around and use him for other stuff too, like a henchman. That is, until a gardening company comes along that does my garden for $200 / month :)
Walter Block is talking of the static equilibrium trend (or "evenly rotating economy", as Mises coined it), that is the tendency state, as market forces balance themselves.
Equality before the law and material equality are not only different but are in conflict with each other; and we can achieve either one or the other, but not both at the same time. -- F. A. Hayek in The Constitution of Liberty
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