Editing Labor Shortages (section)

<blockquote>
''We've talked about the problem that the [[National Academy of Sciences (NAS)|National Academy of Sciences]], [[National Science Foundation (NSF)|National Science Foundation]] faked a labor shortage during the 1980s under the leadership of Ronald Reagan, passing to Eric Bloch, as head of the NSF, and passing to Peter House as head of the Policy Research and Analysis Division. We've heard nothing on this front, even though we claim that there was a study done in 1986, that clearly showed that we were going to fake a science and engineering shortage that could have been cured by the market, which is what happens in the market economy.

- '''Eric Weinstein''' on [[40: Introducing The Portal Essay Club - What if everyone is simply insane?|The Portal Ep. 40]]
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
''I feel gaslit when grown-ups talk about labor shortages in market economies w wage mechanisms.

''It's basically an admission that capitalism is meant as a TRICK where workers can't benefit from markets.

''Let's talk about the ongoing equities shortage & printing shares for workers.

''You see, longterm labor shortages don't exist in large market economies.

''But the news media counts on workers being too dumb to understand the wage mechanism. So everyone in media pretends to believe in labor shortages. Like they were jackalopes.

''Let's print shares & not visas.

''Let’s talk about “equities shortages” which are no more real than “labor shortages”. That way every S.O.B. who whines about a labor shortage will hear: “Oh. It’s because of the Stock Share Shortage. You just have to print new shares of your company to get your workers energized.”

''Let’s stop this “labor shortage” dead in its tracks. Let’s not print visas. It’s time to recognize workers are suffering from a *share shortage*. We need to print shares not visas and add them to compensation packages.

''Bingo! Look at that: totally fictitious problem solved.''

- '''Eric Weinstein''' on [https://x.com/ericrweinstein/status/1560827111182520321 X, August 19, 2022]
</blockquote>

[[File:Jackalope.jpg|thumb|The mythical Jackalope as analogue for labor shortages in large market economies with wage mechanisms.]]