Lump Of Labor Fallacy

  

Categories: Financial Theory

The lump of labor fallacy is the fallacy (the false notion) that the demand for labor in an economy is fixed over time. There are many economists in many different schools of thought...yet most would agree that the lump of labor fallacy is an inaccurate assumption to make about the economy.

There are many factors involved in how much labor is required in the economy, such as technology (either creating or replacing jobs), investment, economic growth (GDP), and more.

Claims that immigrants are “taking jobs” rather than contributing to and expanding the economy (which can create more jobs) is one example of where the lump of labor fallacy come in. Another interesting place it’s reared its head is with the timing of retirement for older workers. In parts of Europe, elderly workers were encouraged to retire early to give younger workers a better shot in the labor market, but because labor isn’t fixed, this theoretical fix for the labor market didn’t pan out in reality. Instead, the working population was reduced, and burdened with paying for more retirees. Oops.

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Econ: What is Outside the Labor Force?3 Views

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And finance Allah Shmoop what is outside the labor force

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Well how do you know if you're in the labor

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force That might feel like you're working hard But well

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that's not the real test Working hard at homework for

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school doesn't get you paid At least not right now

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Taking care of your kids Well it doesn't get you

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paid Actually Probably cost you money taking care of your

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own lawn We'll know that doesn't get you paid either

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So what's the standard Well first let's define the term

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What is the labor force Oh uh different type of

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labor force The economic labor force is made up of

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all the people in the economy who are looking to

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sell their labour in the open market Seems straightforward enough

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right There are people who are employed like people working

00:49

in factories or in offices or all sorts of other

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places All right well then there are people who aren't

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employed like these people This guy you know them well

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then there's the gray area This guy not so sure

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He's got a definite task He's working for an organization

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He's gotta trudge through the snow all day but well

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he's not collecting wages As far as we know If

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you get up every morning and do something that gets

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you paid then you're counted as being employed in the

01:20

labor force The key part is that you're getting paid

01:23

your trading your labor on the open market for cash

01:25

Ola if you spend all day sitting in the basement

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drinking Mountain Dew and watching reruns of Law and Order

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s V U You know collecting unemployment checks and you

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are officially unemployed Yeah Shocking So all of this is

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true but it's a bit more complicated in real life

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There are actually three categories of people when it comes

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to the labor market the employed the unemployed and those

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outside of the labor force Yeah right Wait What does

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that look like Pronounced poodle If this is the big

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term that confuses million's or at least one hundred thirty

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four people who report economic data and follow it and

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actually know what they're reading right Well this group represents

02:00

the invisible part of the labor market The lives people

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don't talk about them all that much almost like they

02:06

don't want to admit that they exist a lot like

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you know these guys you don't want to run into

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them in a dark alley But the outside the labor

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force people actually represent now a sizable portion of the

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US population and it's an important concept Keep in mind

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if you're really gonna understand Ky e con stats especially

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the unemployment rate and what it actually means that any

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you know depth because the data's pants are on fire

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so often well the unemployment rate is royalty In the

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world of economic statistics you could say it's the king

02:35

of stats With GDP being the queen all other staffs

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bow before it Politicians love to quote the unemployment rate

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Ah high rate means the economy stinks and everyone in

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Washington should be fired and get replaced A low rate

02:48

means everything is going great and the bureaucrats and politicians

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get keep living off our tax dollars But there's a

02:55

missing piece The outside the labor force peace It has

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to do with how the word unemployed is defined to

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be officially unemployed that is included in the unemployment rate

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number You need to be looking for a job actively

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So if this guy's happy living off his parents playing

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a fortnight all day not bothering to look for a

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job Well he wouldn't qualify He wouldn't count in the

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numbers He'd be ignored The unemployment rate isn't calculated by

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dividing the number of people without jobs by the total

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number of people in the country that be the denominator

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there Instead the number gets divided by the number of

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people who want a job Not all the people just

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the people who want a job But there are plenty

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of people who are perfectly content with not having a

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job at all And and not just this guy There

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are children and college students There are housewives and house

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husbands too You don't forget them Well there are retirees

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There are lottery winners There are jet setting Harris is

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There are grifters There are beach bums drug dealers and

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busking street mimes and someone so back to our three

03:57

groups Well first we've got people who have jobs and

03:59

people without jobs who want to get a job These

04:01

folks are actively looking for work but haven't found anything

04:03

yet And yes our new favorite people people outside the

04:07

labor force loves the government defines this third group as

04:11

persons who are neither employed nor unemployed like not a

04:16

and not be Sounds like the answer to a Zen

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riddle right Or maybe an ancient prophecy about the type

04:21

of hero who will eventually ride a mystical dragon But

04:24

luckily the Labor Department also includes with slightly more concrete

04:27

definition They say that this group includes people who are

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neither working nor seeking work Yes a final recap employed 00:04:34.539 --> [endTime] unemployed but life Yeah winter is definitely coming

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