What professor Kirzner is explaining about the value of resources, including labor, being determined by the value of the consumer goods, helps to illustrate the error in the thinking of most Trumpistas about immigrant labor compared to "native" labor, every time they regard American labor as more valuable for its sake rather than regarding it as a means to an end. If the belief is that American labor should be more valuable, then by implication the believers regard the end, which is consumer goods, as non important or, turning reality in its head, regard the creation of goods as a MEANS to the end of creating jobs for the privileged few who happen to have a birth certificate issued by the State. Never mind the consumers or the owners of capital. Never mind that this implies a Soviet-style form of economic planning.
Whether they like to hear it or not, Trumpistas are actually basing their argument on Marxist Labor Theory Of Value, unwittingly or not. They wouldn't like to be called "socialists", but that is what their arguments suggest they are.
We live under a dictatorship of voters, and government monopolies never act on moral principles anyway. Trump caters to the will of his bosses (domestic voters) who hired him. His positions have nothing to do with theory.
Thank you for postibg this, Robert. I much admire professor Kirzner and his writings and is always a pleasure to hear his lectures.
ReplyDeleteWhat professor Kirzner is explaining about the value of resources, including labor, being determined by the value of the consumer goods, helps to illustrate the error in the thinking of most Trumpistas about immigrant labor compared to "native" labor, every time they regard American labor as more valuable for its sake rather than regarding it as a means to an end. If the belief is that American labor should be more valuable, then by implication the believers regard the end, which is consumer goods, as non important or, turning reality in its head, regard the creation of goods as a MEANS to the end of creating jobs for the privileged few who happen to have a birth certificate issued by the State. Never mind the consumers or the owners of capital. Never mind that this implies a Soviet-style form of economic planning.
ReplyDeleteWhether they like to hear it or not, Trumpistas are actually basing their argument on Marxist Labor Theory Of Value, unwittingly or not. They wouldn't like to be called "socialists", but that is what their arguments suggest they are.
We live under a dictatorship of voters, and government monopolies never act on moral principles anyway. Trump caters to the will of his bosses (domestic voters) who hired him. His positions have nothing to do with theory.
Delete