The Paradox of Toil (2010)

newyorkfed.org

27 points·apo··8 comments

These paradoxes are a lot of fun. In this case, the paradox in essence says that under some circumstances there isn't a limitless amount of work to be done, so if people try to work harder aggregate employment can't rise.

As with the paradox of thrift this exposes the essential madness of modern politics, modern economics and indeed modern humans. Most people would much rather be lounging around comfortably all day than working. It would be better if the economy let people lounge around all day and only work every so often to secure what they need to live comfortably. Employment for the sake of goosing the statistics is profoundly wasteful.

i agree, politicians should stop focusing on jobs as a goal and focus on fulfilling the goals that people need jobs for in industrial age

"jobs" is the only way the capitalist system can work, for otherwise you have to just give stuff away for free.

what's wrong with giving stuff away for "free"

They're writing down a model and investing mathematical properties of that model: there's no attempt to link it back to the real world.

Feels a bit like arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

Why are basic economic insights often formulated in terms of paradoxes?

What if physics took this stance? We'd have the paradox of Newton, the paradox of Faraday, etc.

You mean like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paradoxes#Physics ? Paradoxes like "What would happen if an unstoppable force hit an immovable object?"

It may be a sign of how early economics is as a science, and how much of it is simply wrong. Often physics and philosophy has moved forward by the resolution of a paradox, like Russell's and Zeno's. Behavioural economics resolves many classical economic paradoxes. Paradox indicates an oversimplified model.

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