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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated
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From: LindyBill11/3/2007 7:50:50 AM
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The Supply And Demand of Do-Gooders
By George Borjas

As readers of this blog well know, I keep stressing that the laws of supply and demand tend to explain many labor market outcomes pretty well and that it is foolish to ignore them. Here is yet another example:

"Armed with a Georgetown University diploma, Beth Hanley embarked in her 20s on a path hoping to become a professional world-saver. First she worked at nonprofit Bread for the World. Then she taught middle school English in central Africa with the Peace Corps. Finally, to certify her idealism, she graduated last spring with a master's degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University.

But now the 29-year-old faces a predicament shared by many young strivers in Washington's public interest field. After years of amassing so many achievements, they struggle to find full-time employment with decent pay and realize they might not get exactly what they set out for. Hanley, a think tank temp who dreams of aiding the impoverished and reducing gender discrimination in developing countries, is stuck...

Numerous young Washingtonians bemoan the improvisational and protracted career track of the area's public interest profession. They say the high competition for comparatively low-paying jobs saps their sense of adulthood, forcing them to spend their 20s or early 30s moving from college to work to graduate school and back to work that might or might not be temporary."

If I may paraphrase Hillary Clinton: we cannot afford all the goals the do-gooders want to accomplish. We should be grateful that the laws of supply and demand keep the number of do-gooders in check.
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