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I've got a couple of conflicting answers on this question, so I ask if anyone here has the knowledge base to give me a definitive answer. Is the Iron Law of Wages something that should be primarily associated with David Ricardo or with Thomas Malthus? I have seen Ricardo pop up in conjunction with this clue many times, but an economics grad student is insisting that this is wrong, and I'm not really qualified to judge.

My understanding is that Malthusian theories were reformulated by Ferdinand Lassalle into what is now called the Iron Law of Wages, but that David Ricardo was the first to actually develop the theory of the Iron Law of Wages. As far as I know Malthus never actually talked about the Iron Law of Wages, but that his theories formed a big part of the background of the Iron Law.

Edit: I'm not sure if Lassalle called his concept the "Iron Law of Wages" or if that is what we retrospectively call the thing he talked about in his writings.

I just checked it out on the Torrey Pines Database. Definitely go with Ricardo ... every time a question mentions it (and is asking for an economist), the answer's him

That's not what is being asked. We know Ricardo always is the answer to associate with the iron law of wages, it just isn't clear that that is or isn't in error.

Joshua Rutsky wrote:Is the Iron Law of Wages something that should be primarily associated with David Ricardo or with Thomas Malthus?

The primary question was who to associate with the Iron Law of Wages; the answer is definitively Ricardo. Who actually came up with Iron Law of Wages is something that can be debated.

I hope this serves as a word to the wise that the phrase "primarily associated with" is a pretty vague one, and question writers should avoid it in favor of better descriptive phrasing if at all possible so as to best factually describe the relationship between things in the clues and the thing that is the answer.

Matt, you're also missing the point. I don't think Joshua is asking what people should buzz with if they say "This person is primarily associated with yadda yadda"

whitesoxfan wrote:

Joshua Rutsky wrote:Is the Iron Law of Wages something that should be primarily associated with David Ricardo or with Thomas Malthus?

The primary question was who to associate with the Iron Law of Wages; the answer is definitively Ricardo. Who actually came up with Iron Law of Wages is something that can be debated.

This is the point.

A quiz bowl player currently "primarily associates" the Iron Law with Ricardo. But quiz bowl as a whole should be accurate, so should quiz bowl BE associating Iron Law with Ricardo, or should we be associating it with Malthus?

jonpin wrote: A quiz bowl player currently "primarily associates" the Iron Law with Ricardo. But quiz bowl as a whole should be accurate, so should quiz bowl BE associating Iron Law with Ricardo, or should we be associating it with Malthus?

That.