5. Labor and Unions

Rothbard covers the principles of demand and supply curves. Prices are at the seat of the whole system. Use the logic of reality. The most mobile labor force is teenagers. Over time, capital equipment per laborer increases. Real wage rates increase. Consumer prices decrease.

Unions cannot determine wage rates without putting companies out of business and causing unemployment. They attempt to control the labor market by restricting people. Unions have very little power when labor is ample. There were no labor unions from 1885 to 1935. Unions were first established in construction, coal mining, and entertainment fields, but they were a small percent of the workforce.

The National Labor Relations Board determined what a bargaining unit was. They preferred industrial unions to craft unions. Unions made employment government-regulated rather than free-market.

Union growth has been in government agency areas.

The fifth of eight sessions from Murray Rothbard's Economics 101 series.