N. Gregory Mankiw: America's Economy and the Case for Free Markets
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Channel: Conversations with Bill Kristol
Views: 19,307
Rating: 4.8721461 out of 5
Keywords: N. Gregory Maniw, Economics, Harvard University, Bill Kristol, Libertarianism, George W. Bush, Donald Trump, American Economy, Free Market Economics
Id: QY4M6a56nFs
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Length: 66min 3sec (3963 seconds)
Published: Sun Apr 09 2017
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Existing social service programs "seem to trap people, people thinking about losing their benefits... well I don't know, never studied it, just seems like it" - Kristol
What a tool.
What's more likely: a poor person researching different social programs and mixing and matching them so they make more from them than working, or people simply trying to get jobs?
I'm glad he has warmed to the idea. UBI is not as outlandish as most people will initially react to it. And, it does not threaten to unravel capitalism as many people fear.
I like to think of it more as universal freedom. Of course most people still want to work, but they have way more choices in how and when to do that. Too many people are trapped in low productivity jobs that add a very marginal benefit to society. The problem is economists are still looking at productivity in nominal terms and cannot accurately count the productivity of value-creation.
If I fix my deck, there is no productivity measured because I did the work myself. But, if i pay someone to do the work, then they can measure their productivity by their wage. No economist is measuring the added benefit to society that this improvement makes. However, I'm more likely to fix the deck when I have the time and resources to do it myself between jobs.
Mankiw still believes in the growth and efficiency vs equality argument.
I think this is a flawed counterargument to progressive taxes in a globalized world. Sure, you don't want to tax the rich more because they pay a lot of taxes, and have the power to make investment decisions. But, unless they are actually making investments with the money that contributes to greater social utility, this argument falls flat.
Economists need to re-adjust their perspective to account for a world where radically new physical products and services are uncommon, and human capital is more important than physical capital for innovation and growth.