Matt Yglesias

Mutant Labor Markets and Inequality

If you like this blog, then you’ll love Ecocomics, the blog about comic books and economics. For example, why can’t mutants just do an honest day’s work?

Each mutant possesses a special skill which has its own inherent value. Because of this, a mutant can be viewed as a craftsman or a skilled laborer. Mutants with enhanced strength can work in construction, demolition, or even transportation. Storm could irrigate the crops of all the suffering farmers in the midwest and California when the droughts of summer are destroying their crops. Quicksilver could sort the daily mail output of the United States in 3 hours. And the extraordinary power of these abilities would only make the economic effect of using mutant powers that much more extraordinary itself. Time, labor, and machinery costs would all be cut dramatically.

Tragically, most mutants use their powers to either save the world or terrorize it. At least this is the popular depiction in Marvel Comics. Imagine what Magneto could do if he worked in construction. For one thing, all of those New York City public works project would have their completion dates moved up from 2018 to roughly five minutes from now. But instead, he spends his time sinking Russian submarines and making asteroid bases to live in. For the love of God, the man has the power to build himself a high-tech home in space. He could repair the Hubbell telescope with no trouble whatsoever.

This could be an interesting topic to explore. An influx of mutants into the labor market might lead, initially, to massive layoffs. Quicksilver could replace a huge number of mail carriers, and Colossus and Magneto would displace many many construction workers. Concern would immediately develop that even though our new, mutanted-up society was more prosperous overall, that the gains were not being widely shared. Instead, a relatively small number of high-powered mutant laborers, and those who had the good fortune to already own capital whose value can be enhanced by mutant labor, would reap essentially all the gains. The majority of people would be left behind.

We could, however, rectify the situation with a substantial progressive income tax levy. That, in turn, would provide the funds necessary to finance generous public services—clean, safe, complete streets; excellent schools and hospitals; efficient mass transit systems—that would benefit everyone. Of course you’d hear the argument that this kind of hefty taxation would eliminate the most talented mutants’ incentive to work hard and create value. And you might even hear the argument that the best way to finance services is to cut taxes on well-endowed mutants, and then create so much growth that the tax cuts pay for themselves.

Comic Book Prisons

Last week’s genius Gitmo quip belonged to Glenn Greenwald who observed “Actually, the only person to even make an escape attempt from a SuperMax is Green Arrow, who hasn’t succeeded despite the help of Joker and Lex Luthor.” That said, Adam Serwer correctly observed that this isn’t quite right:

Greenwald clearly doesn’t remember the Magneto incident of 2003, in which the mutant supervillain escaped from his glass prison facility after Mystique increased the iron content in his guard’s blood, which Magneto extracted using his ferrokinetic powers and then used to destroy his cell. Obviously, we need to discover if Gitmo inmates do have mutant abilities, which will undoubtedly require more waterboarding, and this has to be done before the administration gets a dime to close Guantanamo. In fact, I’m pretty sure Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the subject in 2002.

Indeed, the 1996 non-canon DC Universe miniseries “Kingdom Come” by Mark Waid and Alex Ross is largely consumed with the difficult question of super-villain incarceration. As a fictional problem, this shouldn’t be overstated. Note also that the Powers series, which I like a lot, has to rely on the pretty odd deus ex machina of the “powers drainer” to make its “realistic” superhero noir work.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

This is not a very good movie. But some of my friends have gone off the deep end and started making absurd and overblown claims about its awfulness. So to be clear, lots of problems with this one. But it’s definitely better than Daredevil, Elektra, X-Men: The Last Stand, Punisher: War Zone, Fantastic Four, or Fanastic Four 2.

But why quibble? It’s not good. And in a larger sense, it’s horribly ill-conceived. Wolverine isn’t a character whose origins we’re curious about. Wolverine is a character whose origin is that he has no memories and we don’t know where he’s from other than that at some point he was mixed up with a shady covert ops program that bonded adamantium to his skeleton. That’s the origin. That’s the character. Apparently the Origin comic on which the film is based was written specifically in order to pre-empt Hollywood doing the origin. But Marvel’s initial instincts were right—it’s integral to the character that we don’t know his origins.

Meanwhile, as a Canadaphile it was disappointing to see Logan, a Canadian, depicted as having served in the American army in World War One and World War Two. Given that the Canadian military actually entered both wars years before the American military did, it would be kind of odd for a Canadian with a taste for warfighting to have waited around for the states to get involved.