Brainpower: The More the Better
4 June 2007
Editor, USA Today
To the Editor:
Dale Powers argues that the hiring of foreign skilled workers "wastes" the brainpower of Americans ("Don't waste U.S. brainpower by hiring foreign workers for coveted jobs," June 4). Mr. Powers' brainpower as an aerospace engineer might be awesome, but it's weak in economics.
The number and kinds of jobs in a market economy aren't fixed. They expand and change as entrepreneurs seek to use all available talent as productively as possible. Consider the microchip - which, after all, is a substitute for lots of human brainpower. If Mr. Powers' argument were correct, the advent of this device would have cast millions of smart, educated Americans into low-skilled jobs. Instead, of course, the microchip has created for talented Americans countless high-wage jobs whose existence was inconceivable thirty years ago.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Editor, USA Today
To the Editor:
Dale Powers argues that the hiring of foreign skilled workers "wastes" the brainpower of Americans ("Don't waste U.S. brainpower by hiring foreign workers for coveted jobs," June 4). Mr. Powers' brainpower as an aerospace engineer might be awesome, but it's weak in economics.
The number and kinds of jobs in a market economy aren't fixed. They expand and change as entrepreneurs seek to use all available talent as productively as possible. Consider the microchip - which, after all, is a substitute for lots of human brainpower. If Mr. Powers' argument were correct, the advent of this device would have cast millions of smart, educated Americans into low-skilled jobs. Instead, of course, the microchip has created for talented Americans countless high-wage jobs whose existence was inconceivable thirty years ago.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Tuesday January 22, 2008 at 4:50pm