Downfall of Unionization and Rise of Licensing

The chart below comes from an economic study on the impact of licensing requirements on the economy.  This graph shows data from 1950 to 2008 illustrating how over the last 50+ years the amount of occupational licensing has increased while the amount of unionized workers has decreased!  Read the whole paper at http://ftp.iza.org/dp5505.pdf

The Difference A Mile Makes(Gas Price Differences Between States)

In economics 101 we learn about the impact that taxes and subsidies have on supply and demand.  The usual example that is given is a situation where the sales tax for widget A is increased.  As a result the demand curve shifts left resulting in a new before tax price and quantity demanded of widget A.  We then see that when you add in the sales tax, the price of widget A increases(P1 to P2) relative to when there was not tax(see below).




Despite being told that this impacts us in our everyday lives, the concept of taxes having a real impact on prices is still abstract for some.
To make this concept a little more concrete lets look at the differences in gas prices between US States.  Here is a list of the taxes that individual states charge on every gallon of gasoline as of January of 2012.  Here is a link showing the lowest to the highest average daily gas price by state.
When you compare these two sets of data you see that the states with higher gas taxes tend to also have higher overall gas prices.  Just drive from Williamsport Pennslyvania(has 15th highest gas tax in US) to Rochester New York(has the highest gas tax in US).  Rochester on 3/24/12 had an average price of 3.978 per gallon while Williamsport had on average price of 3.900, a difference of 9.78 cents.  The state averages differ by 15.7 cents.  The state gas taxes differ by 16.7 cents.
Part of this difference is a direct result of this tax difference.  When you look at the 25 states with the highest gas prices 21 of them also part of the 25 highest gas taxing states(Do remember that there are MANY other factors(supply and demand factors) at work here and that this is not a scientific comparison, just food for thought).

Just remember whether you believe higher taxes are right or wrong, taxes WILL impact prices!

An Essay on The Principle of Population Thomas Malthus

In 1798 the famous economist Thomas Robert Malthus introduced his essay on the principle of population with:

"At the end of each day, the world now has over two hundred thousand more mouths to feed than it had the day before; at the end of every week, one-half million more; at the close of each year, an additional eighty million.  Aware of these alarming statistics, many national governments, influential institutions, and private enterprises are trying to encourage increased production of all the necessities of life, particularly food, in the hope of preventing mass starvation...there has been enough success in recent years to forestall, at least temporarily, a major disaster..."

200 plus years later at the end of each day there are over 490,000 more people, 3,430,000 more each week, and 178,360,000 more people each year.
Source: Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision, http:/esa.un.org/unpp, Friday, June 26, 2009; 3:41:46 AM. 


Despite population growth more than doubling it is less expensive to maintain the basic necessities of life than any other period of history!  Food production has increase exponentially, prices have decreased, and land usage has remained constant.  Check it out here.

One example:

Environmental Benefits of Innovation

Over the last 50 years the earths population has more than doubled.

With such a large increase in world population you would think this would mean a larger portion of land and people would have to be devoted to producing food.  You would also think that this would have a negative impact on the environment through the cultivation of land, fertilizer run-off, etc.

Fortunately over the last 50+ years agricultural innovations have been developed and implemented which have   resulted in a decrease in the amount of land used for agriculture and an increase in land productivity.  Some of these innovations came from genetics others from engineering.

What Does Unemployment Really Look Like?