Ten essential economic truths liberals need to learn

Ten essential economic truths liberals need to learn | AEIdeas
Jeffrey Dorfman, economics professor at the University of Georgia, outlines “ten economic facts that liberals need to learn” in his latest Forbes column, here’s a summary list and his conclusion, you can go here for more details:

1) Government cannot create wealth, jobs, or income. Because government has to take money from somebody before it can spend it, there is no economic gain from anything the government does.

2) Income inequality does not affect the economy.

3) Low wages are not corporate exploitation. In a free country, people voluntarily accept employment, so all workers believe their current job to be the best choice from among their opportunity set.

4) Environmental over-regulation is a regressive tax that falls hardest on the poor.

5) Education is not a public good.

6) High CEO pay is no worse than high pay to athletes or movie stars.

7) Consumer spending is not what drives the economy.

8) When government provides things for free, they will end up being low quality, cost more than they should, and may disappear when most needed

9) Government cannot correct cosmic injustice.

10) There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Bottom Line: Liberals love to talk about their compassion. 

Compassion is great, but no amount of caring can repeal the simple facts of economics. It is fine to support raising the minimum wage, but understand that jobs will be lost and prices will rise. Protecting the environment is a wonderful thing, but it is also expensive and hurts the poor in particular. Politicians love to claim the government spending which they direct creates jobs, but it only moves jobs from one place to another. Greedy businesses cannot exploit workers because another greedy business would be happy to exploit them a little less until greed removed all the exploitation.