I looked at Mankiw's article (whereas before I was just copying it), He starts by saying
"Imagine a society with perfect economic equality. Perhaps out of sheer coincidence, the supply and demand for different types of labor happen to produce an equilibrium in which everyone earns exactly the same income. As a result, no one worries about the gap between the rich and poor, and no one debates to what extent public policy should make income redistribution a priority. Because people earn the value of their marginal product, everyone is fully incentivized to provide the efficient amount of effort." Note that he arbitrarily assumes that we're talking about a perfect market society (commodity production) as envisioned by NC economics. He clearly hasn't considered William Morris' NEWS FROM NOWHERE. In that utopia (as opposed to Mankiw's free-market utopia), people are not "incentivized" to provide the "efficient amount of effort" by the money they earn. Instead, they are "incentivized" by the enjoyment they get from the work and the fact that they work with their friends and neighbors. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
