… is from page 181 of F.A. Hayek’s 1950 essay “Economics,” written for Chambers’s Encyclopaedia, as this essay is reprinted as chapter 11 in Essays on Liberalism and the Economy (2022), which is volume 18 (expertly edited by the late Paul Lewis), of The Collected Works of F.A. Hayek:
While economics as a theoretical science is necessarily neutral between the ultimate goals of economic policy, there is much that it has to say about the appropriateness of different courses of action once the ends to be achieved are given.
DBx: The economist shares the stated goal of the ‘community activist’ to raise the take-home pay of low-paid workers. The economist, however, opposes – as a means to this end – a government-imposed minimum wage. The economist opposes the minimum wage not because she’s a meany or a baddie, or because she is ‘on the side’ of business rather than ‘on the side’ of labor. None of those accusations is true. The economist opposes the minimum wage because she understands that, while it will raise the pay of some low-paid workers, it will lower the pay of other low-paid workers and otherwise restrict these workers’ employment opportunities.
Disagreeing with someone over means is not disagreement with that someone over ends.
