LAWS OF CONSERVATION.

A friend of the Democrats named Hilary Rosen makes a comment on CNN about the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

Rosen argued that, as the wife of a multimillionaire, Ann Romney’s experience wasn’t typical of most working mothers. Her suggestion that Romney didn’t work sparked instant online rebuke.

Republicans argued back, and several high Obama Administration officials, including Mrs Obama, issued rebukes.  A clarification Ms Rosen issued later did not surprise me.

“This isn’t about whether Ann Romney or I work. Other women of some means can afford to make a choice to stay at home and raise kids,” said Rosen on CNN. “Most women in America, let’s face it, don’t have that choice. They have to be working moms and home moms and that’s the piece that I am not hearing from the Romney camp. Instead everybody’s attacking me, that’s fine. Attack me. But it does not erase his woeful record on this issue.”

Time for a refresher course on the Say Aggregation Principle.  "Thus, to hope that a family can "get by" on one income with current levels of labor force participation by women is to hope that the laws of conservation in economics don't work." It has less to do with Republican policies, or the lack thereof, than it has to do with increases in labor force participation by women, which, at the margin, bids up the prices of goods and services.  And sometimes women opt out of the labor force because it's not worth it.

Perhaps it's time for Ms Rosen to have a conversation with Elizabeth (Two Income Trap) Warren.