You asked,

“Where would the firms get the ability to raise wages (of the engineers) in effort to close the gap created by taxation?”

Just as the additional wages for janitors had been taken out of the hide of the engineers, the additional wages for the engineers would be taken out of the hide of the janitors.

You wrote,

“(Even so, the engineers still take home more than the janitors.)”

If janitors were paid $10/hour and engineers $10.01, how many young men would go to engineering school?

You wrote,

“Maybe the overall demand for a firm’s product would just decrease or shortages would ensue. Are you sure it is reasonable to hold demand for engineers and firms’ products constant under a universal tax redistribution scheme?”

I am sure, for, as Mises explained,

“There is no means of studying the complex phenomena of action other than first to abstract from change altogether, then to introduce an isolated factor provoking change, and ultimately to analyze its effects under the assumption that other things remain equal.”

You wrote,

“If there was this constant demand wouldn’t then an across the board equal down shift happen in the demand for production and, because of it, engineers too?”

Yes. You’re absolutely right about that. Production has been interfered with, so there will be less production, and that means less demand. But why relatively less for engineers and more for janitors? There will be less overall but the same relative demand for engineers and janitors.

You wrote,

“Hmm. Lots to think about and learn here. I hope I was relevant”

You are the first and so far only person at The Mises Institute who has been relevant. The rest are what I have called irrelevantarians.

You wrote,

“The fact that so many luminaries addressed you at all is pretty cool to some degree!”

Yes and no. They all did so a long time ago, and behind closed doors. None of them will do so any more, out in the open.

Is that so cool?

I didn’t start out using the title, Dumb Jews. I started out with A New Idea in Austrian Economics.

Ignored.

Then, Intellectually Incorrect, The Amateur Science of Economics, and the Professional War Against It.

Ignored.

If Dumb Jews is ignored too, I’ll try something else.
But God knows I’ve tried everything but insult, and that’s about all that is left. It would certainly be different if more people were like you, but, so far, you’re unique.

Bernanke is a scientist! Bernanke is a scientist. Bernanke is a scientist!

You write:

“But the market will not rest with disequilibrium, for always tending toward equilibrium, it will tend to bid the wages of the taxed, undersupplied occupations of the rich upward and those of the subsidized, oversupplied occupations of the poor downward, thereby compensating for the burdens and benefits of the taxation and subsidization, but, to what extent; will it but partly compensate, fully compensate, or overcompensate?”

Let me see if I follow you on this using your engineer v. janitor example. You posit that the tendency toward equilibrium would make employers, having the same demand for engineers, raise their wages to counteract redistribution, which, in turn, would erase whatever gains the poor might have received?

But aren’t the engineers first paid based on marginal revenue product? Where would the firms get the ability to raise wages in effort to close the gap created by taxation? (Even so, the engineers still take home more than the janitors.) Maybe the overall demand for a firm’s product would just decrease or shortages would ensue. Are you sure it is reasonable to hold demand for engineers and firms’ products constant under a universal tax redistribution scheme? If there was this constant demand wouldn’t then an across the board equal down shift happen in the demand for production and, because of it, engineers too?

Hmm. Lots to think about and learn here. I hope I was relevant.

One side point- I do not think it behooves you to use the title “Dumb Jews”. The fact that so many luminaries addressed you at all is pretty cool to some degree! Maybe you should learn from Mike Sproul, who tirelessly peddles the Real Bills Doctrine, a very unpopular idea, in the face of people who get tired of trying to get him to see (what they perceive as) his logical errors and sometimes resort to ad hom out of frustration. Sproul does not retaliate, generally.

Or better yet, learn from Mises himself. Oh but wait, I guess he did have some outbursts now and again as he got frustrated with the world. But did he ever insult anyone?

That has been the challenge before you for the last quarter century. It was most recently delivered by a guest here named Al, in response to Prof Ebeling’s announcement of his new book, saying:

“That is all well and good but can you refute DG Lesvic?”

It doesn’t look as though we’ll ever know, but, Prof Rothbard certainly could not do so, as you may see at

http://econotrashtalk.org/#The_Forbidden_Theory_of_Redistribution

Before we can convince the Haitians to reject “coerced redistribution,” we have to figure out how to convince the Americans to do so.

How would Prof. Ebeling, or anyone else at The Mises Institute, address this problem?

Fallon then wrote,

DG,

What would you like to see LvMI or Ebeling do that they are not currently doing?

This. Point out that taking from the rich to give to the poor can not reduce but only increase income inequality and “social injustice.”

“Where is the President of Haiti?” That is what main stream media has asked.

How little do they know that the disappearance of the politicians long-term would be the greatest blessing for Haiti. But funny money is flowing in so the politicians of all stripes pronounce and pounce.

Since Haiti is desolate and the rotten fruit of ego-driven interventionism I propose that Haiti be designated as the ‘Guantanamo Bay’ for politicians. We need a very large holding tank for all of the politicians that are violating their oath to uphold the Constitution. What we could do is we could send these treasonous and mostly pompous pretenders to Haiti. There, they can choose to live in the desolated destruction of ego-driven interventionism or to decide to educate themselves about the immorality of socialistic and fascistic democracy.

The worst criminals – the members of the inner circle of the unConstitutional coup and their chief agents – will also be tried and mostly convicted of war crimes. Their fate is deservedly even worse than rotting in Haiti.

Come now. Voodoo might be many things but devil worship? I do recall that the Bible says that the Devil can quote scripture with the best of them. With this in mind, and given his recent bigotry, it is highly more likely that Pat Robertson is the Devil.

Michel Georges

Irlep

What would you like to see LvMI or Ebeling do that they are not currently doing?

How would Prof. Ebeling, or anyone else at The Mises Institute, address this problem?

If there ever was a country that could benefit from colonization, it is Haiti. It has some of the dumbest, most superstitious people in the world. Should it turn into an open country, it would probably benefit greatly from foreign elites setting up their own governing structures. However, every time some disaster or rebel insurrection starts up, the U.S. intervenes to protect and restore the local power. It is like Haiti is the symbol of something that needs to be preserved at all cost, colonial republicanism perhaps?

For a free market to evolve, legal and political institutions must emerge in a community which clearly support the creation of PRIVATE PROPERTY through homesteading, exchange, and voluntary agreement (contract). Without such an institution, no free markets can emerge, much less remain unpolluted by outside (government, union, or private criminal) intervention. I also don’t see how “democracy” can contribute to this process, and indeed, a (type of) government which puts everybody’s property up for grabs at the whim of everyone else’s vote is not going to produce useful results.

I don’t know enough about Haitian history and culture to offer useful advice as to how this is to be done, but I have a strong impression that heeding the likes of Bill Clinton, Aristide, or Paul Krugman would definitely NOT be helpful!

I certainly wish everyone, including Haitians…

PEACE AND FREEDOM!!
David K. Meller

Thank you.