# Study says: the more you lean left, the less you know about economics **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 7, 2010, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-the-more-you-lean-left-the-less-you-know-about-economics/538643 "2010-05-07T16:23:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 130
**Author:** ![carm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@carm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carm)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-the-more-you-lean-left-the-less-you-know-about-economics/538643/130 "2010-05-11T20:30:29Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I guess it depends how you guys are defining margincal product, but on the surface this appears to be, logically speaking, insane. It would mean the sum total of people within a given economy are earning less than they’re producing. Unless their money is being sent to Mars, the marginal product is being earned by someone, so you appear - again, at a glance - to be saying that total production is greater than total production. Would you care to clarify what you mean here? If the firm can make more out of an extra worker’s input than it will cost to hire them, they hire them. Up to the point where they haven’t enough capital to make it worth hiring more. But everyone who was employed up to that point is producing more than they are being paid for. This extra production is what makes profit for the firm, pays for materials, land etc, and pays the salary of the guy who hired them. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-says-the-more-you-lean-left-the-less-you-know-about-economics/538643)._