Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Getting the correct perspective.

Over on Takimag.com, Tim Worstall has an insight it would do us all good to absorb.
Basically he argues that economists ( step forward your humble servant) start from a premise that their panaceas will be given effect by the politicians. He is referring to perhaps the foremost economist of today, Paul Krugman, who keeps telling the politicians what to do and then being astonished when they screw it up.
Worstall argues that the right way round is to assume that politicians " are indeed lying weasel felchers " and then a whole lot more makes sense and you have to understand "the slime and the mold that ... plans depend upon for implementation. ( Krugman) actually thinks that politicians are trying to do the right thing."
What politicians are trying to do is get re-elected. Between times, they screw things up. If they would only leave us alone....
One of Krugman's insights is that giving a group of people in an area extra money for their work will lead to better employees and better productivity. Giving everyone in the same area more money leads to absolutely nothing. To a certain extent, the minimum wage here in the UK and annual wage increases has led to little or no betterment of the quality of the workforce, nor of any productivity increases over time.
PS. Don't, under any circumstances, look up the meaning of felchers...

5 comments:

Whispering Walls said...

More bread & circuses please

kinglear said...

ww- yes and roads. Noone ever got thrown out of office for building roads...

Neil @ DNALogic said...

I wouldn't trust a word that Worstall chracter says. He's a dangerous, dangerous man, resposible for some terrible, terrible occurrences.

kinglear said...

Mr. F.really?How interesting. Tell us more!

Tim Worstall said...

Umm, well, I'm responsible (in tiny, tiny, part) for the domestic bliss currently enjoyed by Mr. Actual Fact......the evil that Worstall does.....