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Fall 2008

ISSN 0890-913X

Volume 24, Number 1

Categories: Economics | Fall 2008

Three Contemporary Economic Myths About Income and Material Well Being

Steven Horwitz, St. Lawrence University

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EDUCATIONALNOTESTheJournalofPrivateEnterprise24(1),2008,131-144ThreeContemporaryEconomicMythsAboutIncomeandMaterialWellBeingStevenHorwitzSt.LawrenceUniversityAbstractAmajorchallengefacingeconomicseducatorsishelpingstudentscriticallyassessthemediacoverageofeconomicissues.Themediaareoftenthepurveyorsofavarietyofeconomicmythsthatsimplydonotstackuptothefacts.Overtheyears,Ihavecollectedseveralofthesemythsandprovidedempiricaldatathatcallsthemintoquestion.Inthisessay,Iprovidedataandeconomicanalysesthatunderminethreeofthosemyths:Livingstandardsaredeclining,thericharegettingricherandthepooraregettingpoorer,andjobsarepayinglessthantheyusedto.JELCodes:A22,D31,D63,E24Keywords:Recenteconomichistory,Incomedistribution,Labormarkets,StandardoflivingOneoftheproblemswefaceteachingeconomicsiscombatingabarrageofmediareportsthattheworldisalwaysgettingworse,whenacloserlookattheeconomicdatafrequentlysuggestsjusttheopposite.Obviously,badnewsandtalkofimpendingdoomsellmorepapersthanthelonger-run,moremundane,newsthatlifecontinuestoimproveforthevastmajorityofAmericans.Whatfollowsisacollectionofthreeofthemostfrequentlyrepeatedeconomicmythsofourtime,followedbydataandanalysisthatillustratewhythosemythsare,infact,myths.Specifically,Iofferresponsestothefollowingthreecontemporaryeconomicmyths:Livingstandardsaredeclining,thericharegettingricherandthepooraregettingpoorer,andjobsarepayinglessthantheyusedto.Theworkbelowwasoriginallydevelopedasawebpagealmosttenyearsago.Whatfollowsisaslightrevisionofthatpage,includingsomemorerecentdatatosupportsomeofthearguments.Someofthedataremainabitold,buttheyarestilleffective.Boththeoriginal131

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Metadata [hide]

Title	Three Contemporary Economic Myths About Income and Material Well Being
Authors/Creators:	Steven Horwitz, St. Lawrence University
Year:	2008
Volume:	24
Number:	1
Pages:	131 - 144
Publisher:	The Association of Private Enterprise Education
ISSN:	0890-913X
Document Type:	Educational Notes
Keywords:	Redistribution of Income, Economic History, Standard of Living, Labour Economics

Citation:
Horwitz, Steven / 2008. "Three Contemporary Economic Myths About Income and Material Well Being." The Journal of Private Enterprise, 24(1): 131-144.