[marketcorrection] Don Boudreaux: Muckraking Fiction

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Posted by Don Boudreaux:
Muckraking Fiction
http://marketcorrection.powerblogs.com/posts/1173395370.shtml


   22 May 2006
   Editor, The Chicago Tribune Magazine
   Dear Editor:
   Eric Schlosser's account of the American economy of 100 years ago is
   to economic history what Star Trek is to space exploration: popular
   but phony ("'The Jungle' Turns 100," May 21). For example, the
   so-called "monopolists" back then did not charge "whatever price they
   liked" - unless they liked to charge low prices. Data from the period
   show that the real prices of kerosene, coal, meat, steel, tobacco, and
   other allegedly monopolized products fell continually and
   dramatically,* suggesting that being a big firm is not synonymous with
   having monopoly power. Also, the vast bulk of child labor took place
   on farms, not in factories. And that which did occur in factories was
   in steady decline for at least 25 years before Upton Sinclair wrote
   "The Jungle."
   Like Sinclair's novel, Schlosser's celebration of it is a piece of
   muckraking fiction.
   Sincerely,
   Donald J. Boudreaux
   Chairman, Department of Economics
   George Mason University