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But saying that there are a limited number of jobs is exactly falling for that fallacy. There are as many jobs are there are people who want to work. There ca

by JeffL 7y ago

But saying that there are a limited number of jobs is exactly falling for that fallacy. There are as many jobs are there are people who want to work. There can be other problems, like not enough entrepreneurs, too many regulations, not enough capital per person to effectively compete globally, etc. Old people being forced to retire or everyone being forced to work fewer hours would not help. That would result in massive load of productivity and value creation. The pie might get shared more equally, but it would be a much smaller pie.

qwerqwerasdf 7y ago
Fair enough. I see where people can get that interpretation from reading what I wrote. But for last clarification allow me to say that I am not arguing that pie is going to be fixed size nor arguing that it can’t be grown. There are many attempts in progress for Korea but they aren’t turning out to be successful that’s all. Some of the difficulties for growing the pie is listed under what you mentioned as possibility for Korea. But until Korea can figure out a solution, people will end up fighting for a pie.
blub 7y ago
Where's the proof that this so-called fallacy is indeed a fallacy? After reading the wiki description it seem to me that while the core idea is true, this theory is overreaching in trying to explain away for example the impact of immigration on the job market. You're ignoring a very important detail - the quality of jobs. Only if people lower their standards enough will there be as many jobs as people that want to work. A significant number of those jobs will be (nearly) worthless, causing other social issues. Disguising a lack of jobs as "not enough entrepreneurs" or "too much regulation" is simply a malicious semantic trick.
zbentley 7y ago
> There are as many jobs are there are people who want to work. What? In the face of large short-term changes in labor supply, that's a bonkers claim to make. It might be true over a very long time horizon, but even that's arguable.

by JeffL 7y ago

qwerqwerasdf 7y ago

Fair enough. I see where people can get that interpretation from reading what I wrote. But for last clarification allow me to say that I am not arguing that pie is going to be fixed size nor arguing that it can’t be grown. There are many attempts in progress for Korea but they aren’t turning out to be successful that’s all. Some of the difficulties for growing the pie is listed under what you mentioned as possibility for Korea. But until Korea can figure out a solution, people will end up fighting for a pie.

blub 7y ago

Where's the proof that this so-called fallacy is indeed a fallacy? After reading the wiki description it seem to me that while the core idea is true, this theory is overreaching in trying to explain away for example the impact of immigration on the job market. You're ignoring a very important detail - the quality of jobs. Only if people lower their standards enough will there be as many jobs as people that want to work. A significant number of those jobs will be (nearly) worthless, causing other social issues. Disguising a lack of jobs as "not enough entrepreneurs" or "too much regulation" is simply a malicious semantic trick.

zbentley 7y ago

> There are as many jobs are there are people who want to work. What? In the face of large short-term changes in labor supply, that's a bonkers claim to make. It might be true over a very long time horizon, but even that's arguable.