Paul Campos, Economic Illiterate

I'm sort of tempted to ask Professor Reynolds if this seems plausible to him. Does it seem plausible to him -- a law professor who is probably paid around 200K a year by the great state of Tennessee to do whatever it is he does while performing what is technically his actual job -- that he is "working" five times "harder" (using Wingnuttia's definition of "hard work") than a guy roofing houses in San Antonio in July who makes 40K a year? - Lawyers, Guns and Money, Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Now, Paul himself is a professor of law at the University of Colorado, and by all appearances about as socialist as they come, rather than economically illiterate, but really Professor, can't you do any better than that?

Of course, he precedes this by building a virtual army of strawmen which he then hacks at with great zeal, but here's the deal:

People get paid based on one thing, primarily: how valuable their skills are to others. Of course, their individual competence weighs heavily in there, too, but there are a lot of people who can do roofing. There's a somewhat lesser pool of those with the skills required to be law professors.

I, for example, am an electrical engineer. I'm well paid for the area in which I live, but compared to similar electrical engineers in other markets I'm probably average or a bit below-average in base pay. (Tucson doesn't pay all that well, but I refuse to move to Phoenix, for example.) However, the only reason the office I work at exists at all is because of one guy - an engineer who specializes in a pretty small field, and sits pretty high up in the rankings of that field.

Our home office is in California. When this engineer became available, they hired him in a heartbeat.

But he wouldn't move to California.

That was OK with the home office. They opened a branch here in Tucson.

For one guy.

We currently have 14 people in the Tucson office. I am thankful every day for the existence of this individual.

But does he work "five times harder than a guy roofing houses in San Antonio in July who makes 40K a year?" That's not the question. Can the guy roofing houses in San Antonio do the job of this engineer?

That's the only question that counts. Because if he could, he'd be making the kind of money this engineer does.

And somehow, in Paul Campos's world, having an ability that perhaps less than 1% of the working population possesses entitles the other 99% to a much bigger chunk of his income.

Campos says that the "wingnuts" paint the argument in terms of "hard work" versus "lazyness" - that rich people are rich because they "work hard" and poor people are poor because they're "lazy." This is, apparently, what we believe. (Sound like anyone you know?)

No, Paul. Rich people can be rich for any number of reasons, but quite a few of them got that way by having skills that other people don't have, and using them. Poor people, the truly poor, generally are that way because of bad decision-making skills. Granted, some get there through illness or bad luck, but tell me why someone making $250k a year who is making their mortgage payment on time should have to fork over a bigger percentage of their paycheck than that $40k/yr roofer in San Antonio? Is he "poor"?

We believe that people should be rewarded according to their worth in the free market, not "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." Because who put you in charge of determining either?