> Of course, as Ev Ehrlich once said, carry that argument to its conclusion,
> and we would have 80 million people employed today in hunting and
> gathering, all of them receiving government subsidies as they look for nuts
> and berries...
Brad, I once used to write about agriculture. People used to make the same argument about the demise of the small farmers in the U.S. The problem was that a good percentage of the very small farmers were old or disabled. They had virtually no prospects of finding alternative jobs.
We would not want to protect those with good prospects for job mobility, but for others we should be careful to write them off casually.
-- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu