Wages and the value of work

In classical economics, wages are assumed to be equal to the marginal product of labor. This is intuitive in production economies where workers actually make something. Where I think this approach fails is when we move to service economies where wages are then assumed to be the marginal product of some incremental stream of service (either measured in per unit time or some measure of per-service e.g. gutter cleaning).

I suspect that many economists would also assume that how much we value our “stuff” is the same as the willingness to pay for the “stuff” and if we value it more than the market price then this is consumer surplus. These same economists would also consider it an efficient outcome if consumer surplus were zero, that is, there is perfect price discrimination and everyone paid out their willingness to pay.

Now, I’m not quite sure where I am going with this except to say that while this is all well and good, many consumers who could also be economists (myself included) would think that our goal in shopping is to maximize our bargains, i.e. our consumer surplus. This is also true when we shop for services as was our case in our recent remodel of the house (although I would say that our consumer surplus there was zero).

But what about other services such as those in the “caring” professions. Recently, WaPo published the following:

… the degrees in least demand — and that pay the least — lead to jobs that help other people the most. Counseling, psychology and social work are among these.

Does this mean that we as a society value caring professions less? If we want cheap (or affordable) child or elder care, does this mean that we put a lower value on those whose jobs are to be responsible for those we care about - and by extension does this mean that we care less about those whom we want cared for? What about school bus drivers or just regular bus or train operators who are responsible for the lives of many? Does low wages imply low valuation on the lives they are responsible for?

Classical economists would argue that it is not the annual wages that matter but the stream of lifetime income that these workers make that is the correct measure. Even if this is the case, the lifetime incomes of these workers are probably lower than many other occupations.

FTL travel?

The discovery that particles may be traveling faster than the speed of light is still preliminary. But it cannot stop the imagination. So, spin up the FTL drives, folks, we hope to go on a magic carpet ride.

Advice on crime prevention

I have heard of the following:

1. Leave your lights on - a) this will deter burglars since they will think some one is home, but b) won’t they also be able to see directly that no one is home? or provide the light they need to break into the house?
2. Don’t plant shrubs near your windows or doors - a) this will provide hiding places for them, but b) won’t this also prevent them from getting too close to the windows and doors?
3. Get steel doors and have good locks - err but can’t they just bust a window like they did to us?

If I had a choice of what to live in, it would be an earthship, with commercial grade glass - the ones used for office buildings - for doors and windows.

Day 2 of the day after

Was it a coincidence that I read this the day after?

Burglaries are up nine percent in the 4th Police District, which includes Shepherd Park, this year, according to police statistics. Citywide, they have increased by 14 percent. In 2010, property crime rose in the District while violent crime fell, according to FBI statistics.
…
Residents peppered the officers with questions and concerns. “I’m afraid to be in my own home again,” one woman said, recalling a series of break-ins last year.

I know that feeling.

Jobs versus work

Is there a difference?
I have a job. I have work.
We go to work, we go to our jobs.
I’ve got to work this weekend. I have a job to do.
I work from home. I have a job from home.
Is one more meaningful than the other?

These thoughts arise mainly out of the work (job?) that was done in our home remodel. In my mind, construction - working with hands - seem so much more rewarding than … what, putting out another study? “A study today finds that ….” In many ways, the word craftsmen describes those who work in the construction industry (among others). The older CPS data used to describe some workers in production jobs/work as “craftsmen and other kindred workers”. Perhaps this is why despite how much I despise painting (and yes, there’s still plenty of it to be done) I can always look back at it with some measure of satisfaction (even though it can be a horrible paint job).

Kevin Murphy probably has the best of both worlds:
Murphy’s house, 36.5 Mapquest miles southwest of the GSB in New Lenox, Illinois, is filled with his handiwork: elegant wooden cabinets, tables, and shelves, each carefully crafted but with one tiny, deliberate flaw. “I think it adds that handmade touch,” he says, “something personal. I also enjoy pointing them out.”

For years he and his family—wife Arlene, son Chris, daughters Erin and Ellen, and two Jack Russell terriers—lived about 16 miles to the east in the suburb of Flossmoor, where he joined the school board, “the most frustrating thing I’ve ever done,” and coached Little League. Earlier this year they moved farther out, to a heavily wooded subdivision outside New Lenox. In late summer, you can’t see another house from his backyard. Power tools and lumber take up three of the slots in his four-car garage, and the fourth is at risk. His next big home project is to furnish a new study, but that has to wait for the logs, remnants of a dead walnut tree out back, to dry before he cuts them into boards.

Despite the lumberjack look, he is a card-carrying, certified academic. In 1997 he won the John Bates Clark Medal, given every two years to an outstanding economist under 40. Last fall he was named one of 25 recipients of the MacArthur award—a $500,000, unsolicited, no-strings-attached prize popularly known as the “genius” grant.

Busted

Someone broke into our home yesterday. A couple of laptops/electronics around $2000. Except for the digital pictures that were on the computer the rest were pretty much replaceable.  It took MoCo 20 minutes to arrive after the 911 call and we waited outside but the cruiser drove right past us! We had to flag it down!

What I vastly underestimated were the psychological costs. K1 and K2 seemed okay at the time when the police were around but by bed time they were feeling insecure and that is not a pleasant feeling. The feeling that we were unsafe even though the chances of the thief returning are virtually nil. Even more so, the feeling that our house is no longer our home.

Ah, the joys of living in Washington. Perhaps it’s a sign. Or that I need to develop higher tolerance. But small town living ain’t all it’s cracked up to be either:

In the small towns nestled throughout the Ozarks, people like to say that everybody knows everybody’s business — and if they do not, they feel free to offer an educated guess.

But of late, more people in this hardscrabble town of 5,000 have shifted from sharing the latest news and rumors over eggs and coffee to the Mountain Grove Forum on a social media Web site called Topix, where they write and read startlingly negative posts, all cloaked in anonymity, about one another.

And in Dee’s Place, people are not happy. A waitress, Pheobe Best, said that the site had provoked fights and caused divorces. The diner’s owner, Jim Deverell, called Topix a “cesspool of character assassination.” And hearing the conversation, Shane James, the cook, wandered out of the kitchen tense with anger.

His wife, Jennifer, had been the target in a post titled “freak,” he said, which described the mother of two as, among other things, “a methed-out, doped-out whore with AIDS.” Not a word was true, Mr. and Ms. James said, but the consequences were real enough.        

Natural beauty

Waterfalls. These seem to be obvious and universal. No matter where or no matter how high or puny these are, all can agree by looking at it that it is a natural beauty.  This was what I was thinking when I was at Artist Point.