Lump of labour
Also called: Fixed number of jobs
Assuming there is a fixed amount of work to be done, so that anyone who gets a job takes one from someone else.
How to spot it
Claims that new workers, machines, trade or earlier retirement “take” jobs, with no mention that work grows when people make and buy more.
Example
“If the new baker opens a shop, the old baker loses customers and the town loses a job.” (The new baker also buys flour, hires a clerk, and her customers spend the money they save somewhere else.)
How to answer it
Ask what happens to the money saved or earned. It gets spent, and spending creates demand for more work. The amount of work isn't fixed: it grows with what is made and wanted.
Related
- Zero-sum thinking: Assuming that one person's gain must be another's loss, as if the total were fixed.
- Broken window fallacy: Counting what is spent and gained, and ignoring what that money would otherwise have done.
- Fallacy of composition: Assuming that what is true of the parts is true of the whole.