William Vickrey Quotes
Practically, the desirable situation ought to be one in which any reasonably responsible person willing to accept available employment can find a job paying a living wage within 48 hours.
Vickrey, William. "Today's Task for Economists." The American Economic Review, vol. 83, no. 1, American Economic Association, Mar. 1993, p. 1.
Actually, the proportion was not so well balanced. Americans were wanting more consumer goods and there was a shortage of labor in 1776. That shortage was particularly critical with various skilled craftsmen ranging from gunsmiths to experienced sailors; carpenters to surveyors. But there was also a shortage of unskilled workers, so Paine’s point was correct: Unemployment was not a problem in colonial America.
William Spencer Vickrey was a Canadian-American professor of economics and Nobel Laureate. Vickrey was awarded the 1996 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with James Mirrlees for their research into the economic theory of incentives under asymmetric information, becoming the only Nobel laureate born in British Columbia.
