Market failure

Aren’t the “dry bones of economics” graphically revealed by the statistics on “Scottish Public Sector Employment”? (Perspective Extra 30 May)

Say just for illustration the figures given were turned inside out and the table upside down.

Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen would have 81 per cent employed in the private sector compared with 53 per cent in Orkney.

Hence the ranking in the table is inverted with Aberdeenshire and Aberdeen top and Orkney bottom.

No cigars for guessing income statistics show Orkney 31st and Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire near the top.

Arguably these figures show an unequal distribution of jobs between the private and public sectors.

Couldn’t it be argued from the perspective of economic ethics this is a “market failure?”

Ellis Thorpe

Inverurie Aberdeenshire