Equality before the law but not equality as a rule.

Unequal pay.

Here is a situation:

I have a job for a (enter ANY job that you believe can be performed by a one-armed person as well as an able bodied person would).

Two people apply for a job.

Person A is a regular person (with two arms)

Person B is different (has one arm) – all other things being equal.

Now if the law (or social pressure, or any pressure from society says “equal treatment (“equal pay”) for equal work, most employers will hire person A, not so? If I am expected to pay $x for the job to be done I (based on my preconceptions and biases) will employ the person who apparently will do the job best, and here it seems that the able bodied person meets criteria best. Why will I settle for the one- armed person if I have to pay the same salary; rather get more for the same price - it is only natural to argue in that way. I also haven’t got the time and resources to embark on an in-depth costly process to take a decision where my previous experiences, biases, or whatever I use to make the decision, have proven to reduce the risk of making a mistake. If I did invest this extra I may find that some one-rmed person exceed able bodied person by miles in performing the expected task. So I make the safest decision using a cost-effective approach to arrive at a “best value for money” decision or what economist will call where “the expected marginal return is the highest relative to marginal cost. All human decisions follow this rule.

Having to pay different people equally leads to eliminating the “disadvantaged” from being considered for employment.

The only way to give the one armed person the chance to being employed is to allow the disadvantaged to be able to offer his/her services at a lower rate and not to force the employer to pay the same rate for everybody – especially not at the point of the initial decision (where detailed information of actual job performance and results are difficult to ascertain).

If in the above example the one-armed person could negotiate a lower rate the employer will consider employing him/her because the value proposition to the employer will become more attractive as the rate is lowered.

Now replace (one armed person) with any group that may be discriminated against such as “being fat”, “from a disadvantaged group”, “an old person” or “a women” or “inexperienced” or whatever grouping that may be discriminated against) – if you HAVE to pay the same rate, persons from these groupings will be less likely to be employed.

At this point the reader may want to shift the argument to – Yes, but if a woman has been doing the same job as say a man for some time, wouldn’t it just be fair to pay her equally to her male counterpart? The answer is “yes” and that is why larger organisations institute job grading systems and attempt to link pay to performance and so on. However, the notion that one should resolve the situation by forcing the employer to have to pay the woman the same, will only strengthen the reasons not to hire women in the first place.

Now this situation may reflect a sad state of affairs but any attempt to solve the problem by force will lead to an even more hurtful and a more dysfunctional society.

However - all said and done: Here is an absolutely brilliant presentation on some of the underlying issues and concerns that underlie some the decisions taken in relation to gender equality and what to do about them - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fudKu8Pxak&t=2829sCH.

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Plagiarism

https://sites.google.com/site/savideovarsity/ethics/plagiarism

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Macroeconomics

International trade, globalisation, exchange rates, comparative advantage and tariffs.

Keynes' view on the economy (AS/AD and relationship with other economic issues - inflation, employment and the effect of economic intervention policies - fiscal and monetary, on these issues.

Economic cycles.

These are all Macroeconomic issues a student in Economics should be familiar with.

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The fallacy

Workers get paid less. Capital gets remunerated more. This leads to workers not having the purchase power to purchase goods and services. Factories close because of a lack of demand. The economy falters and we have a depression. Oh woe is me…

This is the narrative being bandied around by Socialists that do not understand the basic economic principles.

This story is applied in many derivatives – the one you will hear lately is that machines, robots and artificial intelligence is taking over the jobs and therefore - workers not having the purchase power to purchase goods and services. Factories close because of a lack of demand. The economy falters and we have a depression…

We heard it when jobs were being exported to China, we heard it during the Industrial Revolution when machines “took over” the menial tasks, we heard it in the mid 20th century with the advent of computerization. But never ever has this story of doom and gloom actually made the human race worse off – the drive to cost reduction has always led to an increase in living standards.

Schumpeter, when he coined the phrase “creative destruction”, realized too that there will be short term disruptions and that whole industries would vanish in this march towards progress, but that we would emerge wealthier at the end.

The buggy whip maker lost his job when cars became the predominant mode of transport. The chimney sweep had no more work when electric heating became fashionable and whale hunting was relegated to the Japanese when the oil wasn’t needed for lighting anymore.

So how should society respond to these happenings – with tariffs, restrictions, limitations? The Luddites broke the frames – the SA Metered Taxi Drivers riot in the streets, New York bans Uber…

As long as humanity faces problems people will be needed to solve them - from a dripping tap to a heart attack. There will always be work to be done. Yes, the work may be different and not all may be able to adapt...

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247. Ayn Rand being vilified...

... the author clearly does not fully grasp self-interest. Free individuals will collaborate to achieve common goals if it is in their interest to do so and consent (and not the force of some overarching power) is all that is required for men to cooperate in a free market environment. But here is the article: https://evonomics.com/what-happens-when-you-believe-in-ayn-rand-and-modern-economic-theory/

...and it it is not believing in Ayn Rand, but simply agreeing that what Ayn Rand says because it is what makes sense when looking at the human condition.

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246. There is no "Crony" in Capitalism.

Since when should any government subsidise any industry? http://www.investors.com/politics/commentary/how-boeing-works-against-consumer-choice/

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245. The Socialist argument

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P97r9Ci5Kg

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http://sadirectory.azurewebsites.net/ The Capitalist argument is clear - Since when should any government subsidise any industry? As soon as the government is involved you are moving towards Socialism. There is no "crony" in Capialism.