Comments for USA Today Didn't Notice That the Unemployment Rate Is Almost 10 Percent at http://www.cepr.net , comment 1 to 1 out of 1 comments http://www.cepr.net Sun, 26 May 2013 01:49:30 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/beat-the-press/usa-today-didnt-notice-that-the-unemployment-rate-is-almost-10-percent/#comment-858 [quote]It is important to note that the question is not whether the Census workers would have taken other jobs (they may have), but whether anyone would have taken the other jobs.[/quote] So when medical doctors, for example, aren't paid enough to "take a job", the interpretation in mainstream media is they'll all leave for something else, causing a "shortage" and the whole profession will dry up and everyone will suffer for lack of accesss to health care because of some kind of government interference in the "free market", such as a public option designed to introduce competition and choice for health care. But when ordinary labor not in the professional class is not paid enough to "take a job", suddenly the whole "competition" thing is turned on its head, and the "shortage" that would have occured is magically transformed into an opportunity cost defined as government Census jobs that "crowd out" what could have been private jobs at full employment like they presumably did in '90 and '00. In the first place, what the hell "jobs" are they talking about? What few are available, regardless of how low the pay, are snatched up by the desparate. It's not the same as medical doctors casually deciding what combination of private and public insurance to choose to pay their salary or drop out and cause a "shortage". Imagine that. There's such a "shortage" of available labor due to all those jobs created by the Census, WalMart had to raise wages to record levels in a tight labor market in order to lure workers from other jobs. After all, they're rational and understand that their opportunity cost of sitting on the couch is very high and must be compensated with appropriate incentives. - izzatzo Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:33:08 +0100