Posted on 03/27/2021 1:51:33 PM PDT by econjack
The Democrats and many "Progressives" promise to increase the minimum wage to $15/hr. A recent street survey of some (really stupid) people suggests there are some out there who think $50/hr would be a "good" minimum wage.
Really?
Back in 1972 George McGovern was running for President. He had a photo op with Cesar Chevez, who was trying to get a wage increases for the lettuce pickers. McGovern voewed not to eat another salad until Chevez won his wage increase. A Sociology prof I worked with came in and told me what a great idea McGovern's boycott was.
Stupid...
The conversation went like this:
Her: "That will teach the farm owner to pay a decent wage!"
Me: "If McGovern's boycot is successful, what will happen to the demand for lettuce?"
Her: "It will go down."
Me: "And if demand goes down, what will happen to the price of lettuce?"
Her: "The price will fall."
Me: "And, at that lower price, what happens to the ability of the farm owner to grant a wage increase?"
Her: Gulp..."It goes down."
Me: "Now, suppose McGovern had said that he and everyone else in the US should eat 5 salads a day. What would happen to demand?"
Her: "It would go up."
Me: "And since the supply of lettuce is fixed in the short run, what would happen to prices?"
Her: "They would go up."
Me: "And because of the rising price, what happens to the willingness and ability of the farm owner to give a wage increase?"
Her: "It would rise."
Me: "So, can you see that McGovern did exactly the opposite of what he should have done to help the workers?"
Her: "That may be, but I don't believe it!"
Whereupon she stomped out of my office. Liberals don't want to know the truth. Instead, the try to sell the shallow understanding of the issues at hand. All the current pressure to increase the minimum wage will do for the people who used to have a job is to now say: "If I had my old job, I'd be making $15/hr." More stupidity...
Apparently most people were asleep during Econ 101 and 102.
Alas, most students come in with the attitude that Econ is a required course to just get past. It really isn’t that at all, perhaps just the way it’s presented.
Yep. Socialism will always be attractive to those who think they can get something for nothing.
Politicians attempt to use Economics to their own advantage. Economics tends to be an indifferent bitch.
It is also based on the assumption of a zero sum game.
When you believe that, some can only get more because others get less.
On the street liberals never learn. Those in power know exactly what they’re doing. Remember, to liberals in power, wrecking the economy and creating more government dependency is not a bug. It is a feature.
Yeah, youth is wasted on the young.
Generally, Economics and History (true, not revisionist) aren’t appreciated until later in life. I don’t know, for some reason I just got economics.
In the meantime, I am flabbergasted by how flummoxed people are about the simple economic laws of supply and demand and how production and prices are artificially disrupted when those economic laws are broken, basically by government interference.
As with most things, “do-good” governmental acts, especially the unconstitutional ones, do much more harm than good.
I recall that sometime after losing the election he decided to open a hotel in Vermont. He then came face to face with all of the laws he had passed and admitted that what he thought was good work, was actually making it extremely difficult for people to open new businesses and make a profit.
A classic line, one that is always true, is... “If you want to make a Conservative angry, tell him a lie. If you want to make a Liberal angry, tell him the truth.”
Think of the problem like this, if we can print enough money to pay for a 2 trillion stimulus bill and soon to be 3 trillion infrastructure bill plus all the other deficits we run every year, why not print enough money to pay everyone $50/hour....
I know it’s insane but given what people are taught these days, i can see liberals advocating something like this..
Whereupon she stomped out of my office.
She thinks like a 7th Grader and acts like a 7th Grader.
Presentation is key on subjects like Econ that some would just teach as a series of charts, graphs, & formulas. I took micro & macro Econ courses as prerequisites for admission to the MBA program because my bachelors degree was not business. Taking it at night at a small regional university meant the instructor was an adjunct part-timer. He made both of those courses come to life for me & memorable across the past 4 decades. I wouldn’t have traded him for having a full professor at all.
LOL.
They are both right.
He 99% right
She 1% right
I don’t need to discuss why he is right.
She is right in believing that an increase in prices for lettuce would result in an increase in wages for lettuce pickers. Because labor is also a function of supply and demand.
That liberal sociology professor was an awful debator. The counter argument is that the boycott isn't looking to reduce lettuce consumption long term. It is to put the farmer, who has a commodity with a long production cycle and a very short sale period, in a position where he either has to take a smaller profit by paying more or a complete loss from being unable to sell lettuce. Not saying it's correct or moral, but she could have done more than stomp off like an angry child.
Right, but I wonder how many people could simply say what is wrong with government spending over the GDP.
Answer: Inflation, the hidden and relentless tax since around 1900.
I also wonder how many could simply say what inflation is.
Answer: Inflation is government printing too many dollars (beyond the yearly GDP) into the money supply causing prices to go up because the dollar becomes less valuable.
Easiest example of this artificial flooding of the money supply is this idiotic “stimulus”. Nothing was produced or exchanged to inject the money supply with these newly printed “stimulus” dollars. Takes time (which works in these jackals’ favor), but after a few months when these dollars have integrated into the economy, prices will go up, “but nobody knows why”.
Our crazed & mostly unconstitutionally bloated government spending is the direct reason for prices relentlessly increasing since around 1900. Nobody talks about it except Milton Freidman who is dead and Steve Forbes who I guess nobody listens to. There is a direct relation between the increase of government spending and prices going up “unexplainably” - which can easily be explained by the resulting inflation.
JJ German taught me well. Best Econ class I ever had.
They weren’t asleep...they weren’t taught it at all.
I think the key to teaching is the outlandish example. My students said they wanted to end poverty (which as $9600/family way back when). I told them I could end poverty overnight...it’s easy. They asked me to explain.
I told them all you had to do was gather up everyone who made $9600 or less and shoot them. Their eyes went as big as pie plates! I then asked them: “How long would it take until the person making $9601 started bitching that he was poor?” We then had a meaningful discussion about the distribution of income and how talent is not evenly distributed.
I’ve had more than one student tell me, decades later, they never forgot that discussion.
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