Start Date
27-4-2012 3:20 PM
End Date
27-4-2012 3:50 PM
Document Type
Presentation
Description
The starting point and core notion of neoclassical or mainstream economics is a reductionist vision of the exchange of commodities. Missing is the historical, social, and legal environments within which exchanges occur. A parallel and equally problematic notion is that labor exists as something of a “found object.” By contrast, the classical school of economists understood that laborers must earn a wage equal to or greater than “subsistence” if society was to be an ongoing enterprise. Laborers must be fed, sheltered, socialized, and educated before they arrive in the labor market. This, in a phrase, is the Social Cost of Labor. If the society in question is at all “advanced” or “complex” the expenses associated with what was once termed the “civic minimum” will also be greater. These considerations, which were a commonplace of economic discourse and policy-making a hundred years ago, have disappeared from contemporary discussions. This presentation will demonstrate that presupposing a “social cost of labor” substantially modifies both the analytics and ethics of labor economics.
Repository Citation
Prasch, Robert E., "The Social Cost of Labor and Its Importance for Labor Economics" (2012). Social Cost Workshop. 7.
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/social_cost_workshop/2012/april27/7
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The Social Cost of Labor and Its Importance for Labor Economics
The starting point and core notion of neoclassical or mainstream economics is a reductionist vision of the exchange of commodities. Missing is the historical, social, and legal environments within which exchanges occur. A parallel and equally problematic notion is that labor exists as something of a “found object.” By contrast, the classical school of economists understood that laborers must earn a wage equal to or greater than “subsistence” if society was to be an ongoing enterprise. Laborers must be fed, sheltered, socialized, and educated before they arrive in the labor market. This, in a phrase, is the Social Cost of Labor. If the society in question is at all “advanced” or “complex” the expenses associated with what was once termed the “civic minimum” will also be greater. These considerations, which were a commonplace of economic discourse and policy-making a hundred years ago, have disappeared from contemporary discussions. This presentation will demonstrate that presupposing a “social cost of labor” substantially modifies both the analytics and ethics of labor economics.
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Social Cost Workshop 2012
The Social Cost of Labor and Its Importance for Labor Economics
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Presenter Information
Robert E. Prasch, Middlebury College
Start Date
27-4-2012 3:20 PM
End Date
27-4-2012 3:50 PM
Document Type
Presentation
Description
The starting point and core notion of neoclassical or mainstream economics is a reductionist vision of the exchange of commodities. Missing is the historical, social, and legal environments within which exchanges occur. A parallel and equally problematic notion is that labor exists as something of a “found object.” By contrast, the classical school of economists understood that laborers must earn a wage equal to or greater than “subsistence” if society was to be an ongoing enterprise. Laborers must be fed, sheltered, socialized, and educated before they arrive in the labor market. This, in a phrase, is the Social Cost of Labor. If the society in question is at all “advanced” or “complex” the expenses associated with what was once termed the “civic minimum” will also be greater. These considerations, which were a commonplace of economic discourse and policy-making a hundred years ago, have disappeared from contemporary discussions. This presentation will demonstrate that presupposing a “social cost of labor” substantially modifies both the analytics and ethics of labor economics.
Repository Citation
Prasch, Robert E., "The Social Cost of Labor and Its Importance for Labor Economics" (2012). Social Cost Workshop. 7.
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/social_cost_workshop/2012/april27/7
Transcript - Social Cost - Prasch
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social cost 6.pdf (169 kB)Transcript - Social Cost - Prasch
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The Social Cost of Labor and Its Importance for Labor Economics
The starting point and core notion of neoclassical or mainstream economics is a reductionist vision of the exchange of commodities. Missing is the historical, social, and legal environments within which exchanges occur. A parallel and equally problematic notion is that labor exists as something of a “found object.” By contrast, the classical school of economists understood that laborers must earn a wage equal to or greater than “subsistence” if society was to be an ongoing enterprise. Laborers must be fed, sheltered, socialized, and educated before they arrive in the labor market. This, in a phrase, is the Social Cost of Labor. If the society in question is at all “advanced” or “complex” the expenses associated with what was once termed the “civic minimum” will also be greater. These considerations, which were a commonplace of economic discourse and policy-making a hundred years ago, have disappeared from contemporary discussions. This presentation will demonstrate that presupposing a “social cost of labor” substantially modifies both the analytics and ethics of labor economics.
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