Guest Column by Ron Unz
Is Economic Theory A Tool Of The Rich?
Ron Unz created momentum for raising the minimum wage. One consequence of Unz leading this fight was to smoke out free market economists and show that their economics serves as a justification for enormous earnings for the rich who are in control and minimal earnings for everyone else.
Unz shows that one of the tricks used is to measure the productivity of labor by wages paid. Janitors and waitresses have low productivity because they are paid low wages. In contrast a member of the Oligarch Class, a hedge-fund manager pays himself $50 million from the hedge fund’s profits, qualifying himself as high productivity. Compared to the Sultan of Brunei, even this hedge-fund manager has low productivity.
Unz emphasizes that he has no professional qualifications as an economist. I would put it differently. Not blinded by economic doctrines that economists such as Michael Hudson, Herman Daly, and myself have shown to be false, Unz is capable of clear-headed thought and hits the nail on the head.
Unz stimulates thinking, something most economists no longer do.
Read more:
The Huge Economic Productivity of Divine Monarchs
http://www.unz.com/runz/the-huge-economic-productivity-of-divine-monarchs/ [1]