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Jobs & the Economy blog
Bastiat's Broken Window Is the Best Economics Lesson in Five MinutesFrederic Bastiat's 1850 parable of the broken window, explained step by step and applied to taxes, subsidies and make-work, plus its limits.The Reagan Tax Cuts Rate by Rate and the Tax Reform of 1986What the 1981 law cut, the 1982 law took back, and the 1986 reform rewrote, with the arithmetic and an honest look at growth, revenue and the deficits.Nixon's 1972 Landslide and the Birth of the Blue-Collar RepublicanRepublicans did not always have working-class voters, and the Nixon years show how the shift began and what holds that coalition together."Immigration Always Helps the Economy" Is Only Half TrueThe slogan says more immigration means more growth. The real economics is more interesting than the slogan or its opposite, and who comes matters most.College, Apprenticeship or Trade School, How to Compare Your OptionsThree roads lead to good work for different people. A table compares four paths on time, cost, pay while learning and licensing, and says who each one suits.What America's Shop Class Lost, From Smith-Hughes to the Perkins ActWashington built vocational education in 1917, then drifted to college for all. The story from Smith-Hughes to Perkins, and what it means for families.Adam Smith Was Never the Cheerleader for Big Business Liberals ClaimCritics say free-market conservatives just carry water for corporations. Adam Smith's own pages show why pro-market and pro-business are different things.How the jobs numbers work, answered in eleven questionsEleven plain answers on unemployment, U-3 and U-6, the two surveys, participation, revisions and seasonal adjustment, so you can read the report yourself.The Small-Business Owner's I-9 Hiring Checklist, Line by LineEvery employer must complete the I-9, and most get tripped by the same few mistakes, so here is the checklist by stage, with a reason for each item.Why your raise feels smaller than the number your boss pays outEvery job has two prices: what the employer pays and what you take home. How payroll taxes, mandates and a health-insurance tax rule build the gap.Smoot-Hawley in 1930 and the Tariff Lesson Republicans Should Know WellThe most famous tariff in American history was a Republican law. What it did, what the economists argue about, and the doctrine it teaches us.The best case for raising the minimum wage and where it breaksThe strongest argument for a higher federal wage floor, stated fairly and answered point by point, with the Earned Income Tax Credit as the alternative.The license you need to braid hair and the jobs it quietly killsOccupational licensing grew into a gate on roughly a quarter of American jobs. Who it keeps out, what the research says, and the reform that is spreading.Seven myths about Reagan's economy that both sides still repeatReagan's economic record is better and messier than the slogans on either side, and Republicans argue best when they know the difference.How to ask for your Sabbath at work and what Groff v. DeJoy changedA step-by-step playbook for asking an employer for a religious accommodation, and what the Supreme Court's unanimous 2023 ruling in Groff v. DeJoy changed.How a small business owner can fight a federal rule before it is finalA step-by-step playbook for finding a proposed federal rule, filing a comment that agencies must answer, and using the laws that give small firms leverage.The new employer's checklist for the first year of payroll and taxesA grouped checklist for the first hire, with the reason behind every item, from the EIN to the W-2, plus payroll arithmetic worked on a hypothetical employee.Seven Right-to-Work Myths From Both Sides, Tested Against the RecordBoth camps in the right-to-work fight over-claim, and a conservative who wants to win should know which claims on his own side will not survive a fact-check.What Right-to-Work Means and How Taft-Hartley Let States DecideRight-to-work is a state law that exists because Congress let states choose in 1947. What it bars, what it leaves alone, and how Janus changed public jobs.A paycheck worksheet that shows where every dollar of your pay goesWork through one hypothetical $1,000 paycheck line by line, from Social Security and Medicare to withholding, then add the employer's half.