CALM-DOWNWARD MOBILITY.

In our annals of Libertarians Smell, Bryan Caplan holds a special place. He is perhaps best known for telling women they were freer in the 1890s than now because, although they didn't have the vote and were basically the property of their husbands, they didn't have to live in a welfare state. He's said some other even creepier, wackier things.

Today he has a post which we may consider his Christmas present to the world. In the holiday spirit he generously tries to understand why the littlebrains don't think capitalism is the berries, don't appreciate their bosses, and keep demanding absurdities like a living wage.

4. The main lesson of labor econ is that markets for labor closely resemble markets for other goods. Why then are people so eager to believe that unregulated labor markets are terrible? Part of the reason is that the little differences are occasionally traumatic. Wages don't adjust like stock market prices, so involuntary unemployment is a real and frightening prospect.

Workers fear the trauma of involuntary unemployment, and get frightened. (Irrational of them, really -- involuntary unemployment and the descent into poverty that often comes with it are just Acts of God, like hurricanes. And global depressions are the butterfly effect. They can't be helped, certainly not by statism.)

5. Another important reason, though, is that markets where people trade vaguely-defined products for cash tend to be acrimonious. When products are vague, the side paying cash often feels ripped off, and the side receiving cash often feels insulted.

So, see, it's traumatic on both sides! Bosses grumble over the injustice of paying you for your servitude, and you feel insulted, not so much by the lack of income as by the lack of validation.

In most markets, sellers strive to standardize products to preempt this acrimony. In labor markets, however, this is inherently difficult because every human is unique.

You're not a widget; you're YOU. And sometimes YOU are inadequate, and must work two jobs to earn your place in a men's shelter.

As a result, employers often lash out at workers because they feel cheated, and employees often resent employers because they feel mistreated.

6. These problems are amplified by the fact that our jobs are central to our identities. So when we feel mistreated by a boss (or by co-workers the boss fails to control), we experience it as a serious affront. This in turn leads people to demonize employers as a class.

The lashing! The resentment! The demonization! Good thing Caplan has a degree in straw-counseling or you might think this has something to do with money rather than fee-fees.

7. Once you demonize employers, it's natural to (a) look to government for salvation from current ills, and (b) imagine that existing "pro-labor" laws explain why the demons in our lives don't already treat us far worse. This isn't just the root of our secular religion. If you take the demonization of employers and salvation by government literally, you end up with Marxism or something like it.

Gasp! The "M" word! Now I hope you both learned a valuable lesson. Now back to work!

Seriously, do these guys even know any real people?