The Vanishing Point

Hvis der er et lyspunkt i forbindelse med den efterhånden uendeligt lange strejke blandt sundhedspersonale og pædagoger, må det være at statskassen går glip af en masse millioner som følge af at de fradragsberettigede fagforeningskontingenter stiger fordi strejkekasserne skal fyldes op igen. Den dårlige nyhed er naturligvis at det primært er fagforeningerne der lukrerer på det - ikke borgerne generelt, og da slet ikke de strejkende der har tabt millioner af kroner på at gennemføre en strejke hvis udbytte i sidste ende var minimalt (og måske endda kan medføre et netto-underskud, afhængigt af hvordan inflationen udvikler sig over de næste par år). I hvert fald hvis man måler i kroner og ører - at det har en symbolsk værdi for dem er så en anden sag.

Og eftersom at strejken ikke har givet anledning til en diskussion om hvorledes det danske sundhedssystem skal indrettes i fremtiden, men derimod har fokuseret på den søgte problemstilling om “ligeløn”, er det rimeligt svært at se hvem der har vundet noget som helst på det her. I hvert fald ikke borgerne, der nu er ringere stillet end nogensinde før i forhold til det danske sundhedssystem.

Æv.

Notorious leftist Jesse Larner has a great piece on Hayek on notoriously leftist Dissent Magazine today. Larner primarily reminds us, and especially the left, that Hayek was hardly the ardent free-market fundamentalist he is often portrayed as. Of course, anyone who has ever read Hayek, especially “The Constitution of Liberty” knows this. The article also reveals that Larner is hardly a classical socialist, of the marxist tradition, but more like a social-liberal/social-democratic intellectual. I agree with much that Larner says in the article, especially the well-founded criticism of Michael Moore that he has managed to coalsece with the general (quite moderate) point of his article. My biggest problem with Larners article is that he, to me, is a bit to “nice” in his critique of socialism in general, when he attempts to narrow down Hayeks concept of socialism: (more…)

A fine little piece in the Financial Times today, discusses the association between income inequality and Anglo-American style free-market capitalism. To everyones surprise, no obvious correlation exists. Some months ago I did a few simple analyses of the same problem, and neither found no correlation on a broad scale. It also confirms other more scientifically elaborate results discovered by scholars in the field. There is an interesting point to the article, that I was not aware of, however (even though it seems an obvious explanation, especially given the nature of economic development over the last decades - you know, all that stuff with the knowledge economy): income inequality seems to be associated with the quality of secondary education. (more…)

At the moment nurses, child care and other social workers are striking in Denmark, with the goal of achieving higher wages. Many of these workers are in a quite strong bargaining position, because of the stranglehold they are able to exert on the Danish population, in the case of a strike – they deliver vital services that, with the design of the Danish system, are hard to obtain on the private market. Hence, most of them have already gotten part of what they came from. Some of them, the child care workers, are still not satisfied however, even though they have been promised the largest collective wage increase for their profession in history. As the child care workers are calling to arms for yet another stand-off, I cannot help wondering: will we really get better service as a result of these wage increases?

I decided to subject the problem to a common efficiency wage framework, the Shapiro-Stiglitz model – well a simplified model, at least (more…)

“Can money buy Happiness?”, this author asks himself. The article is pretty interesting, even though it predictably concludes that money can indeed not buy happiness. Unless it is used to alleviate dire conditions, more money does not make people any more happy. What really brings happiness is success - and succes is reaching your goals.

“The upshot: If you and I feel equally successful but you make four times as much as I do, we will be equally happy about our lives. Of course, successful people make more money than unsuccessful people, on average. But it is the success—not the money per se—that is giving them the happiness. I have no doubt that some people do get pleasure from lording their higher incomes over others. But the evidence says this is not the biggest reason that having more than others gives us happiness.”

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Det her kommer måske lidt sent, men jeg har været i Sønderjylland hele Bededagsferien. I anledning af Foghs 10-års jubilæum som formand for Venstre har Politiken bedt deres læsere tilkendegive deres mening om ham. Det kommer der meget underholdende rasen og sprutten ud af. Ikke overraskende kunne Politiken få dage efter konstatere at deres læsere “dumper Fogh“. Som Politikens journalist selv bemærker virker mange af kommentarerne “bitre, vrede og hadefulde”. At de er så¨følelsesladede medfører naturligvis også at der regelmæssigt bliver draget nogle paraleller der er helt ude i hampen, ofte med associationer til folk og regimer vi ikke ønsker at sammenligne os selv med eller you-know-what. Nogle af de argumenter der hyppigst anvendes til at defamere hans person er: (more…)

Here’s a punchline for all the Svend Aukens and Mette Frederiksens in the world to ruminate upon:

“The rules of distributive justice cannot be rules for the conduct towards equals, but must be rules for the conduct of superiors towards their subordinates.”

-Hayek, F.A., Law, Legislation and Liberty. Vol. II: The Mirage of Social Justice, p. 86

I denne uge har Mads Lundby Hansen fra CEPOS kunnet konstatere at Danmark har slået en sørgelig rekord - et foreløbigt punktum på en deprimerende udvikling der indtil videre kun har gået en vej. Som det fremgår af denne artikel i Weekendavisen, har Danmark nu endelig slået Sverige i kampen om at have verdens højeste skattetryk. Svenskerne har vidst, så vidt jeg ved, allerede tabt kapløbet om at have den højeste marginalskat, til Danmark, for længe siden. Som det kan ses på figuren nedenfor, har Danmark og Sverige i mange år ligget tæt hvad angår skattetryk, og placeringerne afhænger muligvis af hvordan skattetryk defineres (som pct. af BNP, BNI el. BVT f.eks.). Det mest anvendte mål er totale offentlige indtægter som procent af BNP. Tallene i figuren er fra OECD Revenue Statistics, og går desværre kun frem til (og med) 2005, hvor Danmark stadig halter marginalt efter Sverige. Desværre ligner figuren lort efter at have været manipuleret til at passe til siden i WordPress, istedet for et godt redigeringsprogram som f.eks. Photoshop eller Paint Shop Pro, men disse har jeg desværre ikke til rådighed pt. Den væsentligste information skulle dog stadig fremgå nogenlunde klart af figuren. Tallene for 2005 er hhv. 49,5 og 50,2 for Danmark og Sverige. 

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Ostensibly another term to add to all the other “-nomics” out there. The Danish extreme left-wing newsportal Modkraft.dk has a story that is quite symptomatic for the debate on gender-equality, that has gained momentum with the advent of the annual International Women’s Day. True, this actually started when some clumsy guy of the government told us that we had enough money to buy the entire world (or, not exactly that, but that was how it was perceived). Catching the scent of blood, the unions representing public sector employees have been busy craving for more money for their members ever since - arguably to cover an alleged shortfall between the public and private sector. Here’s the latest argument from the FOA to enter the debate: “Men get 20 percent more“. (more…)