Personal Income, Mentality, and Farmer

Mike Shedlock wonders where the new employment is going to come from, after Wall Street stopped Hiring. Valid Question! Another one could be ‘Where are the Gains in Personal Income to come from, now that the High-End Jobs has been gutted?’ Ordinary people might not understand the full Context of this Question. One High-End Job with a rapid Pay advancement can cancel the Average deterioration of literally dozens of Low-End Jobs with their frozen Wage levels. The Game works in reverse, though, and vicious people like myself could ask what this has done to Personal Income; making young Economists squirm as they must admit huge losses in this area. A person with the Killer Instinct might even venture to question the Fair Trade values always so touted; remembering good Jobs are disappearing, low-skilled Jobs are shrunk, Prices of Trade Imports are rising, and Mish mentions that Medicare and Medicaid can’t employ Everyone. One of the most Amazing things about Bubbles lie in the ability of the Peons to laugh at their Betters.

John Lott contends the National Weather Service comes in Dead Last in Forecast Prediction. It also ties in with a TV News Spot on the Air Traffic Control System, which is still relying on Radar instead of the GPS technology. Both Cases result from a previous huge Expenditure in old technology, and Civil Servant reluctance to approach Congress for major, expensive Upgrades in system design, in an era devoted to Outsourcing of Services. Lott, himself, is a major Advocate of such Outsourcing, believing the lack of Charge correctly stifles Innovation.

Budding Economists should read this article, plus the eventual book of Roger Farmer. It is not that I have always distrusted Ned Phelps and Milton Friedman, but the fixed natural rate of employment always seemed a little extreme for myself, though Roger Farmer may over-Think his stationary Stops of natural employment. Employment in the Economy as a Whole appears to me as a Good; something which is a relatively free sliding Scale which flows to meet immediate terms assessments of long-term needs. I may be very lucky in never having any desire to publish anything in this area though. lgl