Government leavin’ the yout’ on the shelf

When I was a young lad in northern England, there was much distress as the Thatcher government swallowed the bitter pill and proceeded to shut down or privatize loss-generating nationalized industries that existed primarily as “make work” programs.  The Specials’ 1981 hit “Ghost Town” was an early cry of outrage.  The lines “No job to be found in this country” and “People gettin’ angry” sum up the reaction of many thousands, an attitude that survives to this day in the North of England.

Today, economist Don Boudreaux explains just why scarcity of jobs is never a problem and why government attempts to make work are misguided shots at the wrong target.