Professional Documents
Culture Documents
6’11”
The rewards of a skill that is in limited supply
depend on the demand for that skill. Men’s
professional basketball is extremely popular, and
the top NBA players make millions of dollars
HUMAN CAPITAL
Not all skills are inborn. Some people have
invested in training and schooling to improve
their knowledge and skills, and therein lies
another source of inequality in wages. Human
capital, the stock of knowledge and skills that
people possess, is also produced through on-the-
job training.
People learn their jobs and acquire “firm-specific”
skills when they are on the job. Thus, in most
occupations, there is a reward for experience. Pay
scale often reflects numbers of years on the job, and
those with more experience earn higher wages than
those in similar jobs with less experience.
Some jobs are more desirable than
others. Entry-level positions in
“glamour” industries such as media
tend to be low-paying. Because
talented people are willing to take
entry-level jobs in these industries at
salaries below what they could earn
in other occupations, there must be
other, nonwage rewards. It may be
that the job itself is more
personally rewarding or that a low
paying apprenticeship is the only way
to acquire the human capital
necessary to advance.
KELSEY MERITT,
first ever Filipina
Victoria Secret
Model (2018)
COMPENSATING DIFFERENTIALS
Non monetary differences between jobs where higher
or lower wages are paid because of differences of the
desirability of the job itself
Compensating differentials are also required when a
job is very dangerous. Those who take great risks are
usually rewarded with high wages.
High-beam workers on
skyscrapers and bridges
command premium wages.
o Philosophical issues- deal with the “ideal.” What should the distribution of
income be if we could give it any shape we desired? What is “fair”? What is
“just”
oPractical issues- deal with what is and what is not possible. Suppose we wanted
zero poverty.
How much would it cost, and what would we sacrifice? When we take
wealth or income away from higher-income people and give it to lower-income
people, do we destroy incentives?
ARGUMENTS AGAINST REDISTRIBUTION
This argument rests on the proposition that “one is entitled to the
fruits of one’s efforts.
When you agree to sell your labor or to commit your capital to use, you do so
freely. In return, you contract to receive payment, which becomes your
“property.”
The more common arguments against redistribution are not philosophical.
Instead, they point to more practical problems. First, it is said that taxation and
transfer programs interfere with the basic incentives provided by the market
All of this leads to a reduction in total output that is the “cost” of redistribution