Source: EconLog
by Kevin Corcoran
“The idea that more labor means a lowering of living standards for existing labor would be true if we assume a situation where all transactions are zero-sum, where for one person to gain another must lose, and that the supply of wealth is both exogenous and fixed, already existing out there somehow so that more people means smaller slices for everyone. On the other hand, if instead you don’t see things as fixed and static, but as part of an active and ongoing dynamic process, where wealth is continually and newly created from productive, mutually beneficial interaction rather than divvied up from a pre-existing, fixed supply, then the addition of new people isn’t some kind of harbinger of doom. It’s an opportunity for growth and for mutual benefit.” (01/22/25)
https://www.econlib.org/labor-supply-and-wages-stranded-workers-edition/