Efficient Jobs

Pierre Lemieux

Chapter Chapter 9 in Who Needs Jobs?, 2014, pp 93-111 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract If you dig a hole for no other purpose than immediately refilling it, you will not generate any income for yourself. You may solve your job problem—for the digging and refilling will keep you busy—but not your income problem, and therefore not your consumption problem. Moreover, unless you enjoy digging holes, you will not have gained any utility either. This suggests that the solutions to the problems of working, earning an income, consuming, and maximizing one’s utility are not necessarily the same. Forbidding technical progress would create jobs, but reduce income and consumption for most people. Forbidding imports may create jobs, but would have the same negative effect on income and consumption. Individuals work in order to earn income, they want income in order to consume, and they want to consume (due consideration being paid to leisure) in order to maximize their utility. What does this imply for the sorts of jobs that are desirable?

Keywords: Marginal Cost; Pareto Optimality; Social Welfare Function; Individual Utility; Free Exchange (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-35351-1_9

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DOI: 10.1057/9781137353511_9

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