Posted on 05/21/2015 6:46:16 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Vegetable farmers in Brandenburg are worried about the future of the famous Spreewald gherkins, as the new national minimum wage has driven prices up.
Spreewald gherkins aren’t just any old gherkins. They hold a certain status in Germany, to the extent that they are designated by the EU as a Protected Geographical Indication, designed to protect local specialties. And yet the greatest threat to their survival isn’t coming from international competitors, but from German politicians.
Producers say that the national minimum wage introduced by the Social Democratic Party (SPD) as part of the coalition agreement is forcing prices up.
“More than 200 years of tradition will come to an end if consumers don’t carry on buying our gherkins,” conserve producer Konrad Linkenhell told the Berliner Morgenpost. “Because of higher wages, the raw ingredients have become massively more expensive—by more than a half. It’s a disaster,” he said. …
(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.de ...
Well stated. Do you want rental chits for your servitude, or potatoes, comrade? Perhaps vodka?
The firm was aware of the risk of government mandate of increased costs for the factor of production called labor. Evidently it calculated poorly.
The firm may freely choose to raise the price it charges now. Predictably, demand declines. But you say this is not a market, presumably because the cost of one of factor of production, labor, was increased by government action? I am not endorsing that action but am aware that such things have happened in the past. The firm must also have been aware.
Command economies stink. The point of my posts is that in our mixed system, firms should still be responsible for assessing risks, rather than being too big, or too culturally important, to fail.
There’s nothing more stupid than a liberal... except for all the people who listen to the stupid things liberals say without questioning them.
This is the purpose of education in America today, to suppress the natural inclination of humans to question what they are told.
The purpose of education is to make the populace so stupid they listen to the liberals without questioning them.
Education is succeeding. The liberals are stupider than ever and what they say gets heeded more and more every year.
The stoeies linked at this page in the right column are informative. I see the new minimum went into effect in January but there are part time job types at 5-10€ an hour.
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