What did Kurt Vonnegut, the novelist, and François Mitterand, the socialist president of France from 1981 to 1995, have in common with Donald Trump? Both, at some point, believed in what economists call the lump of labor fallacy. And Trump clearly shares that belief. As I noted in my most recent column, it underlies his hostility to immigration — well, that and his belief that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” It also underlies his protectionism. So this seems like a good time to talk about the lump of labor fallacy, how we know it’s a fallacy and why it’s a zombie — an idea that refuses to die and instead keeps shambling along, eating people’s brains.

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Persons: Kurt Vonnegut, François Mitterand, Donald Trump, Trump, Vonnegut, Mitterand, Vonnegut’s, ” Locations: France