-Caveat Lector- >From www.newaus.com.au/upfront.html > The New Australian > <Picture> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > -- > > > Left-wing economic illiterate > screws up on unemployment > > > By Gerard Jackson > No. 122, 7-13 June 1999 > > Without a shadow of a doubt intellectual standards have collapsed at > Murdoch's Australian. They were never much to write about in years > gone by but now they are "truly appalling". (The editor-in-chief, > David Armstrong, complained to me in a rather arrogant letter that he > considered my use of the term "truly appalling" to be an "extravagant > violence of the language". No wonder standards are lousy.) What > brought this on was the usual left-wing garbage that has come to > dominate the Focus section of the paper, especially since the > socialist-minded Rosemary Neill1 became its editor. This time it was > the equally socialist-minded Anne Mann who, like Neill, has absolutely > nothing of value to say on the subject of economics. Unfortunately, > neither common sense nor economic illiteracy has stopped them from > writing economic inanities. > > This week (5/6) Mann was drawing outrageous comparisons with the > plight of today's unemployed with those during the Great Depression. > She then continued with the nonsense that unemployment in areas like > Greater Dandenong are the result of restructuring. Now every economy > is in a continuous state of restructuring, by which I mean companies > are always altering production and investment in response to changes > in demand, taxes, interest rates, technology, prices, consumer > preferences, etc. Countries that don't do this end up as poverty > ridden slag heaps. That changes in production brings about changes in > the pattern of employment should go without saying, except when your > dealing with the likes of Mann. But where markets are allowed to clear > large scale unemployment does not emerge.2 In short, unemployment does > not become a problem. > > What Mann describe was persistent widespread unemployment. This is > always caused by the over pricing of labour. (This is an economic fact > that the Focus section has never published, though it has published > plenty of anti-market rubbish.) Our unemployment problem, therefore, > has nothing to do with "winners" grabbing it all, Miss Mann, but with > unions successfully sabotaging the labour markets. In support of her > ignorant claims she wheeled out Professor Gregory who seems to have > made a profession out of denying the existence of economic laws.3 > Though Gregory refuses to condemn job-destroying union practices he > has never actually said sound economics is wrong about the cause of > widespread unemployment � he just chooses to ignore it. To put it > bluntly, Gregory has been discredited. Despite this, or perhaps > because of it, left-wing journalists still refer to him as an > authority. > > Mann complained about the fall in full-time work and the rise in > casual work. In an economy where labour is overpriced not only does > 'permanent' unemployment emerge but so does suboptimal employment in > the form of casual work. In other words, over-pricing labour forces > much of it into less favourable employment. Yet instead of damning the > unions for this she mouths of about so-called "restructuring". America > has 4.3 per cent unemployment with only 16 per cent in casual > employment. Moreover, America's participation rate is about 76 per > cent compared with our 65 per cent. Imagine our official unemployment > rate if our participation rate rose to the American level. Are these > facts referred to? Not on your life. The last thing left-wingers like > Mann want to do is draw attention to America's employment record. God > forbid we had an informed debate on the subject. > > She complains that low-paid entry jobs for the poor are drying up and > this is caused (you guessed it) by "restructuring". These jobs have > not dried up as such. They have been priced out of existence. Young > people are not being hired because the value of their services is > lower than the cost of hiring them. To support her contention she > referred to Bob Birrell from Monash University who made the absurd > claim that entry level jobs into the labour markets demand higher > skills, hence there is a mismatch between skills and jobs. Utter > claptrap. Once again, it only appears this way because low-paid entry > jobs have been destroyed by the kind of anti-social wage-fixing > policies that the likes of Mann, Gregory, Birrell, etc, support. > Moreover, the thought that mismatches between available skills and the > demand for labor could cause persistent widespread unemployment is > completely absurd. > > She finished, not unexpectedly, with praise for Kim Beazley, leader of > the Australian labor Party and a strong supporter of the policies that > have created so much unemployment. > > Regardless of what the mindless Miss Mann says, this is not a "winner > takes all" society. Only left-wing dipsticks come out with that kind > of nonsense. But what can we expect given the kind of editors the > newspaper employs. > > 1Neill > > 2Labour will always clear so long as there is sufficient land and > capital to employ all those who want to work. > > 3Gregory > > Visit The Media Wall of Shame > > The New Australian MWS at http://www.newaus.com.au/mws.html A<>E<>R ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + A merely fallen enemy may rise again, but the reconciled one is truly vanquished. -Johann Christoph Schiller, German Writer (1759-1805) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Bertrand Russell + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + "Everyone has the right...to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers." 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