IT'S ALWAYS THE PEASANTS

The conservatives' love of the Free Market Fairy is undiminished by crooked banksters or negligent oil drilling companies but if some of the little people respond to obvious financial incentives, there's hell to pay. Recently, some of the radio gasbags have made some noise about extended unemployment benefits making people less willing to take low-paying jobs, mostly based on this column:

Landscapers find workers choosing jobless pay
Jaclyn Trop / The Detroit News
Last Updated: May 10. 2010 6:47PM

But the fact that some seasonal landscaping workers choose to stay home and collect a check from the state, rather than work outside for a full week and spend money for gas, taxes and other expenses, raises questions about whether extended unemployment benefits give the jobless an incentive to avoid work.

The federal jobless benefits extension "is the most generous safety net we've ever offered nationally," said David Littmann, senior economist of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market-oriented research group in Midland. The extra protection reduces the incentive to find work, he said.