Markets would have crashed without WW2 era price controls on labor.

https://np.reddit.com/r/Destiny/comments/6qlxcd/cenk_uygur_vs_ben_shapiro_live_at_politicon/dkyb98o/

The government had to control wages due to an artificial loss of to the supply of labor in the country (WW2), otherwise the markets would have crashed. I have a feeling someone would try to mention that the markets would have been fine if the government didn't control wages, but that's simply not true. Markets aren't designed to deal with massive artificial changes to it's supply of labor, so you have to regulate it in someway.

R1: Markets are perfectly capable of handling shocks to supply.

In WW2, the government stepped in with a broad policy of price controls in an attempt to control inflation in the face of wartime shortages. The user claims that these controls were necessary. In fact, absent an increase of the money supply, hyperinflation would not have occurred. To raise revenue for spending without increasing the money supply, the US government borrowed money by issuing war bonds, and increased revenue by raising taxes.

All things equal, absent price controls, these steps of borrowing and raising taxes (in favor of printing money) could have adequately raised revenue without causing hyperinflation. In this world, prices and markets may have allocated goods more efficiently and with fewer shortages (and less rationing) than they were in practice.

Price controls on labor threatened to create conditions in which workers would strike, owing to legislatively depressed wages. In response to pressure, the US government incentivized employers to spend more money on compensation (like healthcare) instead of directly on wages. This increased the benefit from working without increasing take-home pay. The user fails to recognize this increase in compensation as a free lunch when they imply that this increase in compensation is not equivalent to an increase in labor cost due only to increased wages.

The claim that price controls on labor were necessary, or good, in the WW2 total war economy are wrong. Despite price controls on wages, spending on labor increased and did not cause damaging levels of inflation, and given wage increases instead of an increase in compensation (and assuming the government would, as it did historically, raise revenue by borrowing and taxing instead of printing money) damaging levels of inflation would also not have occurred.

The employer provided healthcare paradigm, an unintended consequence and legacy of the WW2 era price controls on labor, was created by unnecessary and poorly-conceived policies.

Feedback welcome. This is my first R1, please ^^don't be gentle.