Posted on 08/14/2017 6:15:15 AM PDT by IBD editorial writer
Economics: Last year, the "Fight for $15" movement was said to have unstoppable momentum, driven by labor unions, left-wing politicians and a sympathetic press. Then reality struck. Too bad it didn't strike sooner.
"This is a trend that cannot be stopped." "The political earth has shifted." "This movement continues to build." "Even economic experts who oppose the increased rate see it gaining momentum." That's what all the "experts" were saying last year.
It was easy to make such assumptions. Protests and strikes were on the rise, hitting 340 last year. In 2015 alone, 14 cities and states approved $15 minimum wage laws. Unions were pouring tens of millions of dollars into the effort. The Democratic Party made a national $15 minimum wage part of its 2016 party platform.
That was then. Now the unstoppable movements looks like it's grinding to a halt. According to the Employment Policies Institute, which opposes minimum wage hikes, there have been just 33 strikes and protests this year.
What's more, some Democrats have started backpedaling. Baltimore's new mayor, Catherine Pugh who had campaigned on a $15 minimum wage vetoed a $15 wage bill passed by its city council, saying it would hurt the city's economy and its unemployed.
In August, Cleveland's city council rejected a proposal to hike the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour.
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
“The government CANNOT mandate that you have any employees or tell you how many to have.”
Hence the rise of “guaranteed basic income”: the point of MW isn’t productivity, so drop the pretense of “work” and just give everyone enough to live on. (No consideration of the economic consequences of course.)
Minimum wage is affirmative action for pay checks and doesn’t work.
The intent of the $15 minimum wage was not to help waitresses and char women. The $15 minimum wage drive was to induce wage inflation to pay for Obamacare.
An increase in wages and salaries would mask and hide the impact of ever increasing health care insurance.
Now that Obamacare is moribund, dying, there is no reason to beat that dead horse
as is common, what appears to be isn’t
Macro economics is "scientific" to the extent that it allows the elites to cloak their power-grabbing (and money-grabbing, which comes to pretty much the same thing) in the mantle of "science."
Which is pretty much the same reasoning that makes man-made global warming "scientific."
Capitalism is un-scientific, you see. If you want to be scientific, you have to put away all that, and move on to socialism, which is totally scientific.
For a second there I thought, “Fizzies are back!”.
Your age is showing.
(Mine, too!)
“The government has no right to set a minimum or maximum hourly pay rate. All other questions are irrelevant.”
You are totally right on that. I have NEVER believed in the minimum wage concept. I think it is a shame that the current minimum has nowhere near the purchasing power of the 1963 minimum of $1.25 an hour which is slightly more than one sixth of the current minimum but my question to those who still believe in the minimum wage is, “Why not raise it to a thousand dollars an hour, why mess around asking for fifteen if you really are silly enough to think it accomplishes something?” While we are at it why not just pass a law that says all who reside in these united states shall be wealthy beyond imagining and have all their wishes fulfilled?
“The government CANNOT mandate that you have any employees or tell you how many to have.”
Don’t give them ideas! They used to think they could not mandate that you have to buy something or pay a “tax”.
I would like to see you document those figures. I think you just made them up.
“Maybe the push for 15 is being quietly dropped because it slams into the limits of Leftist redistributionism.”
Obviously those limits need to be raised. /s
With that tone, you can run the numbers yourself.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.