32. Bauer used South Africa's skilled white labor force to illustrate his argument. These privileged workers succeeded in fending off new entrants (poor white and black workers) by wage regulation and an “industrial color bar enforced by custom and trade unions” (Bauer 1958b, 12). Apartheid in this perspective was caused in no small measure by the institution of wage regulation, though it would be interesting to understand what Bauer referred to as “custom.” The South African case particularly bolstered his claim of the (negative) effects of wage regulation beyond the economic sphere.

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 1368