Milton Friedman on "Equal Pay for Equal Work"

The College of William & Mary (1978). Dr. Milton Friedman discusses so-called "equal pay for equal work" and explains how capitalism makes people pay for their prejudices.

There Is No Male-Female Wage Gap:
"A study of single, childless urban workers between the ages of 22 and 30 found that women earned 8% more than men."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704415104576250672504707048.html

Equal Occupational Fatality Day
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2011/04/next-equal-occupational-fatality-day-in.html

Labor Market Gender Arbitrage: Multinational Corporations Profiting From Sexism By Hiring Female Talent in S. Korea
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2010/12/gender-arbitrage-mncs-profiting-from.html

From Armen A. Alchian's entry in THE CONCISE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ECONOMICS:
"In a paper coauthored with Reuben Kessel, Alchian, who was himself subject to discrimination as an Armenian, and Kessel pointed out that discrimination was more pervasive in private firms whose profits were regulated by the government, and then explained that this is what the analysis of property rights would predict. Discrimination is costly—not just to those discriminated against, but also to those who discriminate. The discriminators give up the chance to deal with someone with whom they could engage in mutually beneficial exchange. Therefore, argued Alchian and Kessel, discrimination would be more prevalent in situations where those who discriminate do not bear much of the cost from doing so. A for-profit company whose profits are not regulated would see the cost of discrimination in its bottom line in the form of lower profits. A company whose profits are limited and that is already at the limit would face no cost from discriminating. Alchian and Kessel used this analysis to explain why regulated utilities discriminated against Jews and why labor unions discriminated against blacks. This analysis explains why Alchian has never trusted government—but has trusted free markets—to reduce discrimination."
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Alchian.html

This excerpt is from Milton Friedman Speaks: Lecture 14, "Equality and Freedom in the Free Enterprise System"
http://www.freetochoose.net/store/product_info.php?products_id=42

In this lecture he refers to a book published in 1964 called "The Economics of the Colour Bar: A Study of the Economic Origins and Consequences of Racial Segregation in South Africa" by William Harold Hutt. It can be downloaded for free from the Ludwig von Mises Institute:
http://www.mises.org/books/colour.pdf

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[CarlosMarti123]

Isn't it amazing how every government policy ends up having the opposite results and consequences of its intentions?

[kenzaifun]

@xsumuhdihx I come from former USSR. Middle class family. Well to all those

who born in USA let say, and promote socialist ideas, why don't you buy a ticket

to north korea and go live there for a year. In USSR where we had central planning

economy ( where they tell stores what goods to stock on, and what prices to use ), you could NOT

get simple things like : jeans, video players,etc. To buy a car you had to go on a waiting list for years.

I guess it's hard for people to see that

[UCSDEngineerDoctor]

@kenzaifun Well said.

[UCSDEngineerDoctor]

@CarlosMarti123 Describes OBAMA to a tee.

[hrvad]

@georgelopezblows The problem with such hypocritical capitalism supporters is that they are not pure liberty supporters. Today most liberalists who support legal intoxicants are named libertarians. The keyword to look for if you want to find hypocricy is "conservative". The conservative outlook is - rhetoric notwithstanding - a basic collectivist/socialist philosophy and it pulls in the exact opposite direction from all the freedom loving ideals that Republicans subscribe to

[sc0pl355]

@LittleDesertFlower78 Yeah, exactly. The road to a zero sum game ends with the working man doing a lot of work for nothing and still starving at the end of the day. The working man needs someone to fight for his interests. The business owners need goods and services as much as workers need money. If the workers stick to their guns, then they'll all benefit.

[LittleDesertFlower78]

@sc0pl355 Check out the Grapes of Wrath.. The scene where only few jobs but hundreds of men/families in need.. Then they start outbiding (undercutting) each othr 2 get them.. In the end, same few jobs went 2 few 'lucky' men, who then had 2 work for $1 a day (when initially offered $5, be4 bidding competition 4 jobs began).. So NONE of them do well after.. And the farm owners make off like bandits. -- When I saw that, suddenly I TOTALLY understood why/how unions 1st formed.. It was an epiphany!.

[daPlumber702]

@imabookie3 Actually it has, Rates of productivity and earnings, per capita income have gone down steadily.. Inflated by a multitude of different bubbles the last 4-6 years have been the product of. Teen employment rates are lower than ever, black teen employment rates are deplorable. In other words Milton was as right as was possible, and you, having the evidence in front of your face have got it wrong. Amaaaaaaaaaazing.

[knightschwartz]

mass immigration is destroying the west. The EEOC is unconstitutional. The cult of equality and democracy is wrong.

[tehatemachine]

@DivinelyMochaDipped communism is a subcategory of socialism. so yes they very much are the same. Socialism has only worked in small communities where everyone knows eachother,. But on a large scale it's obsolete.

[tehatemachine]

@kenzaifun They Eat 3 square meals a day, They sleep on a warm bed at night, But their mom wouldn't buy them an Ipad. They are the 99% :D