Essentials of Economic Theory: As Applied to Modern Problems of Industry and Public PolicyClark, John Bates
General
Essentials of Economic Theory: As Applied to Modern Problems of Industry and Public Policy
Clark, John Bates
Economics
_How Displaced Labor is Replaced._--When men are actually forced to
leave an industry,--say the subgroup _A'_,--they find themselves, in
the search for employment, in the same position as a body of newly
arrived immigrants in quest of work. Men of either class must offer
themselves at a rate that will induce employers to take them. If much
new capital has lately been created, it is naturally possible for the
men to get employment without having to overcome serious friction or
to reduce their demands in the way of pay. In the absence of such
additions to the capital, they might possibly have to offer some
inducement to employers, in order to overcome their reluctance to make
changes in their shops. We shall see in due time, however, that where
improvements are well distributed through the industrial society and
have their natural effect, they tend to increase the general demand
for labor at the original rate of pay.
_Effects of a Series of Improvements confined to One Industry
contrasted with those of Improvements diffused through the Groups._--A
continuous series of radical improvements, all originating at one
point, would tend of themselves to cause a series of expulsions of
labor from that point, and the mere increase of population and wealth
might not so fully counteract this tendency as to prevent a positive
exodus of labor from the occupation affected. A merely relative
reduction of labor in this occupation would not cause much hardship,
since it would only mean that other industries were attracting the
greater number of young laborers entering the field and gradually
getting a larger and larger part of the whole working population. If
men actually in _A'_ can stay there, no one is injured; but too great
a concentration of improvements at this point might drive some of them
away. Such concentration is the opposite of the general rule.
Improvements do not confine themselves to one point or to a few
points, but originate at very many, and this fact neutralizes their
labor-expelling tendency and might reduce it practically to _nil_. If
labor could be made more efficient in every group of the whole system,
the result would be to increase the quantity of every kind of goods.
Making more of one's own product is acquiring power to buy more of the
products of others; and enlarging the general output of goods tends
thus to increase the demand for all kinds of goods as well as the
supply. If you make clothes and I provide food, and we exchange
products, but do not satisfy each other's wants to the point of
repletion, it is well for both of us that you should become able to
make more clothes and I to furnish more food. We can then go on with
our original occupations and both live better. In this there is
involved no displacement of labor at all; and neither would there need
to be any disturbance caused by multiplying in well-adjusted
proportions the output of each group and subgroup in the system of
industry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account