Posted on 04/18/2015 9:53:04 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
We might be inclined to laugh off the national demonstrations calling for a $15/hr minimum wage for burger-flippers, as the suggestion should be received as utterly ridiculous in any intelligent economic debate. But the left isn’t laughing. They’re undoubtedly ecstatic at the media legs such demonstrations have maintained against all odds, and they can’t wait to roll out these downtrodden fast-food workers as a reason to increase the federal minimum wage, victims as they are of an evil system of economic organization that dares assign a value to labor performed in the context of supply and demand.
That evil is, of course, a free market.
One might imagine that defending the “unfree” alternative to a free market would be an untenable position. And it certainly is, if the economic realities that govern marketplaces and history are any consideration. But what social engineers and statists lack in a cogent argument against a free market, they make up for with sly packaging. They suggest that the appropriate role of government is to rein in the excesses of the free market, thereby making the market (somehow) more efficient via sensible impositions in the marketplace.
What must first be understood is that government attempts to raise the minimum wage amounts to little more than price-fixing, and price-fixing is the touchstone of countless tyrants and Democrats of times long gone. So it’s astonishing that any of it can possibly be considered a novel policy position to make the current marketplace more efficient.
A prominent example in the 20th century might be FDR’s razing of agricultural products in 1933 to raise the prices of produce and livestock. Ever the humanitarian and man of the working class, FDR’s policy enactments culled over six million pigs and plowed under untold amounts of farm produce.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The supply of agricultural products dropped while demand was relatively stable, and as a result, prices increased. This end result was advantageous for farmers who enjoyed a higher price for their product -- less so for the impoverished and hungry Americans who found food scarcer and less affordable.
The FF chains will either shut down or, more likely, invest in robots to replace 95% of their workforce.
The unemployment line is what $15/hr will get them.
Anything that upsets the status quo or political equilibrium works to the Marxists advantage.
Is this why the WalMarts are closing?
WalMarts are closing a few locations, but they say its only temporary. More importantly, they are laying off by the thousands.
SEE HERE:
and here:
burger king has announced that we can all say goodbye to $1.00 hamburger specials, and hello to $10 dollar basic hamburgers thanks to these greedy folks who are hell bent on ruining it for everyone
Look for massive layoffs, and massive food and energy price increases- look for huge price increases on EVERYTHING. Apparently these idiots won’t be happy until the whole damn country is waiting in soup lines and living in cardboard boxes- Gee- can’t wait to become a third world country afte4r all this icky progress we’ve made in recent years!
its been reported that those walmarts that are closing were in fact locations where there was a lot of ..ah..”contention” over the so called “minimum wage”.
The higher the minimum wage goes, the fewer jobs available.
Thousands of jobs that were once available for those with minimum education or skills have been destroyed by minimum wag (and many of those that are left have been taken over by illegal aliens willing to work under the table bypassing the government regulations). This hurts American workers not help them.
Businesses are not social welfare offices. Anyone that is hired must generate at least what it cost to pay the worker (both in wages and benefits). If not the business has a few choices, raise prices, eliminate the job, close the business.
Is there some legislation or law which mandates that these people work at these Fast Food establishments?
I mean, do they HAVE to work there or can they find employment elsewhere?
Perhaps being a bit rough here, but the only skills I see in the vast majority of the “Fight for $15” folks, are: Breathing, crapping, eating, breeding, and bitching.
Not exactly a value-add to any business. . .
A $2.00 a hour maximum wage law would produce lots of new jobs.
I saw news coverage and the footage was exclusive black & Hispanic workers; neither group had much command of the English languages, and I suspect the reason they resorted to blocking traffic instead of striking was because they realized the latter just left a lot of black & Hispanic children going hungry. Fast food in general is becoming a very “minority” thing; the menus at many large chains are reflecting the Mexicanization of this country. As whites dwindle in numbers, the whole impetus will shift to non-white “takers” demanding more from non-white “makers”.
I still occasionally eat fast food; I usually stand out like a sore thumb when I do (and I don’t go inside unless I’m in a “white” area).
Stupid idiots. Thing is, all of those dips want to end up living like Gossip Girl socialites and they’ll end up losing a lot more in the long run, like having people who can afford to buy from them.
You know, working at fast food at an older age was something you did as a retiree or as a loser who for one reason or another, ran out of steam and failed to use their youth wisely. Like being someone who had a bunch of kids out of wedlock use to be relegated to fast food or being a maid for a middle class family.
As for becoming Third World, I don’t know. America is different. I do think things are going to get hairy, but not difficult for those who have led responsible lives.
RE: A $2.00 a hour maximum wage law would produce lots of new jobs.
Switzerland has NO minimum wage law.
Their latest unemployment rate is 3.5%.
Its per capita income is above $59,000
Singapore has NO minimum wage too. Their latest unemployment rate is 1.9%. The Gross Domestic Product per capita in Singapore was last recorded at 36897.87 US dollars in 2013.
Going to use my economics degree in action here:
In an unfettered market, the interplay of supply and demand will result in an “equilibrium wage.”
When politicians impose a minimum-wage mandate that is above the free market equilibrium level, there will be more unemployment.
Because of massive immigration, both legal and legal, there is a massive oversupply of low skill labor in America. (Notice the same people that are promoting illegal immigration are the same people demanding an increase in the minimum wage, and, you can’t have both.)
The result is obvious: wages, benefits, and working conditions have declined or stagnated for the last 25 years.
Because of hundreds of thousands of foreign work visas, USA wages for software engineers and related professions have stagnated for 15 years.
One destroys jobs and the other guarantees poverty or low wages for millions of American-born citizens.
Per capita income in Switzerland is pushed higher due to their tax rates.
Personal income tax is 40%. Social security is 6.25%. Sales tax is 8%.
Why not $50 and hour? $100 an hour? Why not just have the government print a million dollars for everyone?
I don’t demean any work. I worked hard as a restaurant short order cook when going to college. It is hot, fast work, and you either stay up or you sink. So, in terms of hard work based on the minutes of life that any person sinks into it, it’s just as occupying of those minutes as any other intense work. I’m glad there are folks there doing it.
Why should it pay less? Because of the market. There are more people able to step in and quickly learn it, because it’s low skilled work. So there are lots of people filling out applications. There are fewer filling out applications to be the guy on the scaffold cleaning windows on the 80th floor of skyscrapers. Who will make more? The guy who is doing something not as many are able or willing to be doing. That’s not saying that the minutes of either man’s life are worth more or less in the eyes of God. But in terms of what I can offer to see who will take it at that price, then I can offer less for the low skilled job and more likely find someone to accept that work at that price.
That’s what drives people to gain more skills, more education, more certifications, more licensures, etc. They are working to increase their market value by gaining skills that not as many people have.
In the long run, forcing high wages for low skills is the government short circuiting the system that drives people to gain unique skills that are good for a country and help make it prosperous. Would I rather be a skilled person in a nation of skilled people, or would I rather be king of a bunch of folks who’ve been intentionally held back? The first would be much more gratifying, and in the long run it would also be more secure.
If we weren’t importing so many illegals, there would be an ability to make wages higher. Since we would be hiring our own and of course, would be hiring someone who speaks fluent English and would likely make something of the position. No matter how you look at it, bad news all around.
The US can’t do it anymore.
Just like married to the federal whore. It never is about how much she spends or impedes business costing everybody their salary, it is about how much we get paid.
Minimum wage increase means less promotion salary and more taxes for government, notwithstanding that it is a direct form of worker taxing the business in redistribution.
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