Who Needs Jobs?

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. Banning Chain Saws

   • Pierre Lemieux

   Pages 1-6

3. Two Different Approaches

   • Pierre Lemieux

   Pages 7-15

4. Work as a Cost

   • Pierre Lemieux

   Pages 17-28

5. The Value of Consumption

   • Pierre Lemieux

   Pages 29-43

6. The Lump-of-Labor Fallacy

   • Pierre Lemieux

   Pages 45-58

7. Exchange, Competition, and the Division of Labor

   • Pierre Lemieux

   Pages 59-70

8. Exchange over National Borders

   • Pierre Lemieux

   Pages 71-84

9. Exporting Jobs

   • Pierre Lemieux

   Pages 85-92

10. Efficient Jobs

    • Pierre Lemieux

    Pages 93-111

11. How to Destroy Efficient Jobs

    • Pierre Lemieux

    Pages 113-123

12. Economic Growth

    • Pierre Lemieux

    Pages 125-133

13. Artificial Jobs

    • Pierre Lemieux

    Pages 135-150

14. Aggregate Demand

    • Pierre Lemieux

    Pages 151-159

15. Do Jobs Matter?

    • Pierre Lemieux

    Pages 161-170

16. Back Matter

    Pages 171-201

    PDF

In Who Needs Jobs?, Lemieux explains how jobs are not the goal of economic life and how creating jobs should not be the goal of public policy. He delves into how income and prosperity are created (businesses producing what consumers demand), proposes solutions to the unemployment problem, and provides readers with the knowledge to navigate the jobs discussions of politicians and economists in America. With his approach, Lemieux takes this controversial and complex topic and makes it understandable, using economic analysis and real world examples.

• economic growth
• growth
• poverty
• development aid

"Pierre Lemieux once again debunks one of the most pervasive delusions driving government economic policy. His lucid writing and vivid examples show why federal programs that seek to create jobs are almost guaranteed to breed boondoggles and undermine productivity throughout the economy. Unfortunately, politicians profit from such schemes no matter how much taxpayers suffer." - Jim Bovard, author of Attention Deficit Democracy (2006) and Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty (1994)

"In accessible non-technical language, Pierre Lemieux uses economic analysis to explain why successful policies allow technological change to occur that destroys some jobs, creates other jobs, and improves the standard of living." - Peter Van Doren, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute, USA and editor of Regulation

"When government regulations create more jobs, is that good? Economists say no. Economist Pierre Lemieux also says no, but beautifully explains why. In one anecdote, he tells us how the chainsaw destroyed logging jobs and made Americans much better off. One of his most powerful messages is that workers' living standards improve when technology destroys jobs. Read, enjoy, and learn." - David R. Henderson, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, USA

Pierre Lemieux is an economist affiliated with the Department of Management Sciences of the Universite du Quebec en Outaouais, Canada, a Senior Fellow at the Montreal Economic Institute, and a Research Fellow at The Independent Institute (Oakland, California). He is author of several books, as well as several newspaper and journal articles.

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