Muốn hiểu kinh tế học

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When singers turn to economic issues, who plays the role of victim? Very often it is people who have lost their jobs, such as in Bruce Springsteen’s “My Hometown,” about a textile mill leaving the singer’s hometown. (Springsteen is not generally considered a folk singer, but many of his songs have folk roots (nguồn gốc dân gian) and channel folk vibes.) That sounds terrible, and for many former workers it was.

But in fact the mill was relocated further south, where presumably it helped to create other jobs. Was this development an egalitarian way to help spread prosperity to a poorer part of the country? Did it help spur the transition (thúc đẩy quá trình chuyển đổi) of New Jersey to a service economy? That seems to have worked out: Average household income today in Freehold, Springsteen’s hometown, is more than $133,000. Or were more sinister forces (thế lực nham hiểm) at work? Was the factory closing a form of regulatory arbitrage (kinh doanh chênh lệch giá) against trade unions that protect worker interests?

No matter what your view, the song doesn’t clarify (làm rõ) the issue very much. Nor should it be expected to.

As a general rule, music and the arts excel at pointing attention toward the seen — that is, identifiable victims or beneficiaries. In contrast (ngược lại), many of the most important insights of economics (hiểu biết về kinh tế) concern the unseen — that is, people who benefit in non-obvious ways, and sometimes many of them actually are unidentifiable. Automation, for instance, will throw some people out of work, but economics teaches us that in the longer run it usually benefits society, through both lower consumer prices (giá tiêu dùng thấp hơn) and the creation of jobs in other, less visible sectors of the economy. You don’t hear many songs about that.

Not surprisingly, Bob Dylan is the hero of the story.