In Hating the Producers, Arnold Kling discusses health-care spending — but first he describes the difference between right- and left-wing economists:
Right-wing economists tend to emphasize the benefits of private producers and the harms of government intervention. Left-wing economists do the opposite.For example, recently left-wing economist Jeff Madrick argued that Wal-Mart causes harm by hiring workers at low wages. He suggested government solutions, such as raising the minimum wage and changing laws to make it easier for labor unions to organize.
For non-economists, hating producers like Wal-Mart is easy. However, it gets a lot trickier once you understand some economics. It is difficult, although not impossible, to use economic analysis to blame Wal-Mart for low wages.
My own thinking is that we should be happy with Wal-Mart, not only for lowering prices for consumers, but for finding employment for low-skilled workers. If those workers are being paid according to the value of their output, then artificially raising their wages will cause them to lose their jobs. On the other hand, if they are not being paid as much as the value of their output, then what they need are other employers willing to hire them. I would say that what they need are more Wal-Marts.