Friday, December 14, 2012
Robots and Robber Barons
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/10/opinion/krugman-robots-and-robber-barons.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1& Due 17 Dec 2012. What argument is Krugman making when he speaks of the old "capital vs. labor" argument? What does he says about the wage gap of college students? And what about the robber barons??? Are they back??
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The argument Krugman makes when he speaks of the old "capital vs. labor" is he says how the economic discussions are not relying on those topics. Instead the discussions are about the distributional issues on workers, or either on the gap between more or less workers. For the wage gap of college students, Krugman mentions college students having stagnant incomes just as they did in the 80s and 90s. However, the profit has been at the expense of the workers. The robber barons have had the antitrust laws collapse during the Reagan years and never recovered. These are known as the monopolies. In addition, the robber barrons are back.
ReplyDeleteThe argument of "capital vs. labor" that Krugman is talking about is that capital is increasing profits at the expense of laborers. This means that advanced capital, such as machinery, is taking jobs away from the high-skilled workers, such as college graduates. The wage gap between college graduates and those without, has been stagnant for the past 10 years or so. This is because of the advanced technology that is replacing the high-skilled laborers. The robber barons are taking the punishment, all because the corporations are using capital instead of labor.
ReplyDeleteKrugman argues that the old "capital vs. labor" argument is pertinent again today because capital seems to be increasing at the expense of labor, in the "pie chart" of the economy. What does this mean? Well, capital resources seem to be outperforming, or becoming larger, than labor resources. Krugman hypothesizes that this is resultant from an increase in technology that is increasingly removing needs for human labor, particularly the labor that is produced by college graduates. Krugman says that because of this, the wage gap between those workers with a college degree and those without has not changed very much since its rapid change during the 80s and 90s. These "robber barons" that he talks about are the monopolistic companies and corporations that are seeing an increase in corporate power as a result of the decreasing power of the laborers, as well as domination of their individual markets. Though these robber barons aren't recovered and real yet, they have a possibility to be by not distributing profit onto the wages of their workers.
ReplyDeleteKrugman presents the argument of capital vs. labor to present to the reader his concern on the subject. Advances in technology (capital) aren't allowing laborers of more elevated skill to benefit from their knowledge. Capital is increasing profit, which is good for companies, but bad for the laborers. College students are probably suffering the most from this just because the gap between graduates and non-graduates is not very significant anymore. Is Technology harming our society? I think it might be. When we begin to rely on machinery more than knowledge I think that's a problem. The robber barons are definitely back!
ReplyDeleteKrugmans argument on "capital vs labor" is that we are seeeing capital increasing at an all time high at the expensivef of labor. What this means is that with the more advanced technoilogy that is being put into the field, it is taking even the high skilled jubs away from laborers. This is why are seeing the wages of college students agaisnt those without a college degreee remain stagnant over the past decade. The "robber barrons" are the cprperations that are fusing together to form mega-corporations which are closely approaching the territory of an monopoly status. They are back, and you can tell because while their corperate earning are rising, they are paying their laborers at a stagnant price.
ReplyDeleteThe argument Krugman is making when discussing “capital vs. labor” is that capital is increasing at an extreme rate at the expense of labor. So, he is commenting on how machinery and other technologically advanced capital are taking jobs and other opportunities to work away from high skilled laborers. As a result, workers with college degrees and those without them are witnessing their wages remain stagnant and not increase with the level of education. While with the robber barons, these corporations bordering monopoly status, they are back and paying their workers low, stagnant prices. So, the workers earn less as they make more profit.
ReplyDeleteKrugman's argument on capital vs. labor says that today's capital is taking jobs away from highly skilled workers. Also that capital is increasing at a quick rate but is costing us labor. With that being said he is basically saying that a high degree in college doesnt matter unless you are in a specialized category or workforce. These big name corporations are not paying their workers enough and the more money the corporation makes the less money the workers get.
ReplyDeleteThe topic of capital versus labor is being discussed once again due to ongoing controversies dealing with issues between more and less educated workers or on the increasing incomes of famous people in finance and other fields. Krugman states the gap has not changed much since the early 1990s, even recent college graduates had nonflowing incomes even before the "financial crisis". His believed reasons for this are "one is that technology has taken a turn that places labor at a disadvantage; the other is that we’re looking at the effects of a sharp increase in monopoly power". Since there is a progressive increase of monopolies, you can say that robber barons are back, and are causing a huge disadvantage in labor, and lowering the wages of many people.
ReplyDeleteJaime Caldaro
ReplyDeleteKrugman argues capital vs. labor to present the modern dilemma on hiring labor. Advances in technology (capital) are defeating craftsmen and other skilled workers. Hiring of experienced skilled workers is diminishing with the advancement of technology. This technology revolution is increasing profits and decreasing labor. This is decreasing the gap between non-graduates and graduates. Yes, they are back many corporations are so large they control whole industries and will likely become monopolies.
Krugman's argument for the "Capital vs. Labor" controversy is that there is a much larger gap between the experienced and skilled workers and the not so experienced and not so skilled workers. Like the wages of a college student. The wage gap between a worker with a college education and a worker without one used to grow a lot in the 1980s and 1990s but now they haven't much changed. As for the Robber Barons according to Krugman robots and robber barons are the ones who are taking our jobs and moving them elsewhere or making them cheaper to the "baron".
ReplyDeleteThe argument provided by Krugman of "capital vs. labor" is saying that at the expense laborers, capital is increasing profits. This basically says that higher levels of capital are stealing jobs from high-skilled workers, like people with degrees. There is a huge wage gap between college graduates and non-graduates. It has been stagnant for the past decade. This is due to the advanced technology that replaces those workers. The barons must take a punishment. And this is all due to the fact that they're using capital instead of laborers.
ReplyDeleteThe argument that Krugman is making when he speaks of Capital vs. labor means the assets put into productive use vs human labor. Another thing he says is the wage gap which is the gap between workers with college education and those without, hasn't changed much since the rapid increase during the 1980s and 1990s .Robber barons are a bit back as corporations are increasingly using their growing monopoly power to raise prices without passing the gains on to their employees.
ReplyDeleteKrugman's argument is that capital and labor are increasing at two very different rates. While capital rates are increasing at extreme rates, labor rates aren't. Krugman states that humans are now losing their place within the work field to robots who can produce and work faster than the humans, and for cheaper too. In fact, robots are becoming cheaper than Asian labor. This effects college students with a degree and those without them because college students are losing their jobs to these machines and will soon be forced to to work the jobs of those without degrees. The pay of both college graduates and students in relation to those without a degree is leveling out, meaning they are reaching a point where they are being payed the same. This is due to the robber barons because they are joining together to form bigger corporations and monopolies in which they take more profits and give less to their employees.
ReplyDeleteWhat Krugman means by the capital vs labour argument is that while corporate capital seems to be on a steady increase, labor and employee wages aren't feeling the effects of that. The wealth isn't distributed into the working population. Now, more companies are opting for capital resources as opposed to labour resources. With the progression of technology comes the loss of human resources. What workers can do, technology does faster and at an increased rate of efficiency. Also the wage gap between the unskilled and the college grads is pretty stagnant over the decade. This is due to bigger profits for monopolies and corporate powers while holding back the wealth from employees.
ReplyDeleteKrugman is saying that capital is increasing profit while employee wages are not. Companies are choosing capital resources over human resources and thus, money isn't being distributed among the people. College graduates are losing opportunities at jobs. Robber barons are definitely back as profits for the companies are increasing but wages are staying the same.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteKrugman states that capitals increase is superficial, because although it appears to be rising, there are no rises in wages. Wealth hasnt been properly distributed into the population/factors of production. College graduates are using job opportunities because employers are choosing capital over human resources and hiring unskilled workers. This is a direct result of inflated monopoly profits, that hold back wealth from employees.
DeleteAccording to Krugman, wages are not rising however capital is. Wealth isn't being distributed the right way; and it seems that college graduates are using job opporunities out of school becuase of the nature of the job market. Employers are are prioiritizing capiatl over human resources which means that they are hiring unskilled workers. Wealth is being withheld from employers due to inflated monopolist profits.
ReplyDeleteThe argument that Krugman presents of capital vs. labor to present to the reader his concern on the subject. Advances in technology (capital) aren't allowing laborers of more elevated skill to benefit from their knowledge. Capital is increasing profit, which is good for companies, but bad for the laborers. College students are probably suffering the most from this just because the gap between graduates and non-graduates is not very significant anymore. Is Technology harming our society? I think it might be. When we begin to rely on machinery more than knowledge I think that's a problem. The robber barons are definitely back!
ReplyDelete-Jacob Hochman