Posted on 05/22/2015 8:27:17 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Wise words from Warren Buffett. The Oracle of Omaha predicts how the rush to sharply raise the minimum wage will end. (Spoiler: badly for the people the policy purports to help.) And Buffett also offers a smart alternative to help low-income workers:
In my mind, the country's economic policies should have two main objectives. First, we should wish, in our rich society, for every person who is willing to work to receive income that will provide him or her a decent lifestyle. Second, any plan to do that should not distort our market system, the key element required for growth and prosperity.
That second goal crumbles in the face of any plan to sizably increase the minimum wage. I may wish to have all jobs pay at least $15 an hour. But that minimum would almost certainly reduce employment in a major way, crushing many workers possessing only basic skills. Smaller increases, though obviously welcome, will still leave many hardworking Americans mired in poverty.
The better answer is a major and carefully crafted expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which currently goes to millions of low-income workers. Payments to eligible workers diminish as their earnings increase. But there is no disincentive effect: A gain in wages always produces a gain in overall income. The process is simple: You file a tax return, and the government sends you a check.
In essence, the EITC rewards work and provides an incentive for workers to improve their skills. Equally important, it does not distort market forces, thereby maximizing employment.
The existing EITC needs much improvement. Fraud is a big problem; penalties for it should be stiffened. There should be widespread publicity that workers can receive free and convenient filing help.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Re:”Good old Warren wants to shift the burden from himself to the taxpayers.
The real solution is to control unchecked immigration.”
Good for you you caught that. The reason wages are so low is the government interferes in the labor market in may ways.
Both rampant legal and rampant illegal aliens reduce those who work for a living to the status of neo-slaves and neo-serfs.
Sure he gets the minimum wage part, then this...
The better answer is a major and carefully crafted expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which currently goes to millions of low-income workers.
All this accomplishes is redistributing wealthy, so that those who make more money take home less.
Isn't that just grand. s/
Aw government theft, that's the ticket. Robbin' Hoods all over the nation...
The more Buffett opens his piehole, the more I am starting to agree with Obama.
Buffett is one of life’s lottery winners.
I am not a fan of Buffett, but this is actually a good proposal. It rewards work.
People who receive EITC are working. They may not have a good job, but depending on the size of their family, they could make $20 or more an hour. This also leaves in place a low minimum wage giving young and low skilled workers more potential employment.
The EITC is a reality. It rewards work it also doesn’t punish success as the amount of money given declines as wages increase, so there is no disincentive to try to make lots more money by working longer and harder.
Of course they would. It is the quid pro quo of Crony Capitalism. The businesses are protected by government programs and rules creating barriers of entry to competitors and they also feed directly off the government through contracts and work grants.
He is not a Marxist.He is a crony and a Fascist. He survives and grows through government regulations. His trains are protected through special laws and their profits are protected by denial of permits to build alternative forms of transportation such as pipe lines.
He is interested in maintaining government subsidizing low come workers. Low income drives federal benefits. If people could not live on a low income due to the removal of low income supports salaries would go up (or there would be major unrest), but then tax costs would go down.
Buffet is for everyone else paying for low income workers.
The EITC may be a reality, but it subsidizes low paying jobs, which could be construed as a form of "corporate welfare" since companies don't have as much incentive to raise wages to retain good workers.
Also, the EITC does punish success since you can work 40 hours and earn x dollars plus the ETIC for weekly wage Y, or you can work 44 hours and earn x+4 dollars plus EITC-4, for the same total of Y dollars. Where's the incentive to work that extra 4 hours?
The "incentive" doesn't really kick in until you earn too much to qualify for EITC.
You may think it subsidizes low wages and corporations, but it doesn’t.
The types of jobs that people do who receive EITC will not have wages raised until their are too few people to fill those jobs at the wages supplied. The existance of the EITC has no bearing on the wealth created by any particular position. It makes no difference to the corporation what benefits an employee receives from outside sources. Only the benefit the employee provides to the corporation is their concern. Higher benefits to low wage workers doesn’t increase the profitability that the worker provides to the company.
If a wage earner didn’t get EITC he still would not be worth more than he is being paid. As for incentive. Money today is always an incentive to low wage workers. Having more now is the incentive to work more hours. If they had knowledge and practiced delayed gratification they would most likely not be low wage earners.
Don't you think that's a distinction without a difference? The Political “Spectrum” isn't a line, it's a circle so the Fascists and the Marxists are right next to each other.
They don’t give millions to leftist causes until they are first huge business successes. And we’re just talking about the few, huge corporations. Most small business that employ the bulk of the nation’s workers don’t have that kind of money to waste. If you’re making billions, then you mind have freedom to waste millions on social causes.
We have gone this road before and seen that it does not work to raise minimum wage. But now that we are tied into this totalitarian global market rats nest, and no one is looking out for the economic well being of Americans, I surely don’t want the US sinking to the depths of China and India in order “to compete for global jobs.”
I see the future of the US: getting paid 25 cents per day as an “honorable” slave to the New World Order. No way, Jose. I would rather crash and break everything.
Difficult to separate the two.
They really can’t be separated. My point is to make some other goal the top priority. Work to obtain it and the money will come.
If good service/well made goods are supplied, the money takes care of itself.
If money management fails, the goodness of the service/goods will not keep the business afloat.
Cannot provide goods and services to benefit whoever needs benefitting when the business fails due to insufficient cash flow.
Largest cost for most businesses is the payroll and associated costs.
Most businesses like to keep their employees happy, for maximum production, but try to keep the costs to a minimum, else the cash flow suffers.
An employee that wants more money, needs to cause the cash flow to increase due to their specific efforts and not because some outside economic ignoramus thinks what's fair and proper.
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