Posted on 02/15/2021 1:20:36 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
With Joe Biden as president, the days of the national minimum wage at its present $7.25 per hour may soon be gone. It will likely be raised to $15 or more and also indexed for inflation, whether it is stuck into a COVID bill or sent to Congress on its own.
But this enactment would be a joblessness bill for “the least, the lost and the last” among us, the very people who suffer the most economic hardship.
The unemployment created by this pernicious legislation always attacks the poor and the unskilled, precisely the people who can least afford it. But it is even more crucial to understand this economic law in the age of pandemic, given present high unemployment rates. Let us, then, more clearly understand the malevolent effects of this unwise legislative enactment.
What determines wages? At what level would wages register were there no laws on the books whatsoever regarding this matter?
The long answer is that discounted marginal revenue product, DMRP, or productivity for short, determines wage levels. What, in turn, is that? Many people talk about productivity, and we all know, roughly, what it means, but what are the exact specifications of this concept? It is all about how much you add to the firm’s bottom line.
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If the business receipts rise by $5 for every hour you are on the shop floor, or behind the counter, or pushing a broom, then that is the level of your productivity. We posit, here, that the reason for the increase in sales is solely due to your efforts, all else held constant.
(Excerpt) Read more at westernjournal.com ...
It makes one wonder what other workers will want for their labor. If you can make $15 an hour at McDonalds, what will home health aides ask for? They start at about $9.50 an hour. I’m sure many jobs will be automated, but some just can’t be.
The only point of the minimum wage is that all union wage contracts are tied to it. If the minimum wage gets increased, then under contracts union wages must increase the same.
The MARXISTS know this. It is their way to get more and more people dependent on their huge government.
These employees will have to bring more than a HS diploma to his job. Illegals? Chow.
The purpose of the first federal minimum wage was to prevent black companies from underbidding union/white companies on federal contracts.
Up until that bill was passed, the black unemployment rate was lower than the white unemployment rate.
That changed the very next year.
Why do you hate black people?
Why do you think you have a right to dictate what other people should be allowed to work for?
My guess is you are a union goon.
https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/thomas-sowell-on-the-differential-impact-of-the-minimum-wage/
https://www.creators.com/read/thomas-sowell/09/13/minimum-wage-madness-part-ii
So, you admit that increasing the minimum wage is harmful to employers, yet you want to do it anyway, just slowly? If increasing the minimum wage was in *any way* beneficial, proponents should argue to raise it immediately, and by a large amount. The minimum wage is a bad concept and should be removed entirely.
We will never win that argument because it’s based on how people FEEL about the issue. They got us by the short hairs on this one.
There should be NO mandated minimum wage. Jobs are worth what someone is willing to pay for the work that needs doing. If no one will do it for $5 per hour the wage must go up or the job remain undone.
The real minimum wage is ZERO as may people will find out if this passes.
It’s like the guy who came home to find his wife doing it with the neighbor. He was willing to forgive her until he saw the size of his d—k. He knew he couldn’t compete with that so he said “I give up you can keep her.”
My solution:SIMULTANEOUSLY eliminate the minimum wage and allow people to withdraw $100k from their IRA’s/401k’s tax free. Wait 6 months to find out how badly we’ll need the Mexicans.
See post 12
The problems with perception of a minimum wage are evident.
1. They don’t intend to provide a living wage.
2. They aren’t intended to provide a living wage.
And finally
3. No one ever thought of them as providing a living wage.
That should clear everything up.
If the minimum wage is good, why do you want to raise it slowly, and why do you want to cap it? The minimum wage either is beneficial, or it is not.
Have some intellectual honesty and call for a $50 minimum wage, to be enacted tomorrow morning. If you won’t do that, because you think it’s a bad idea, you’re right—you just need to think it through so you can see why the plan you just proposed is terrible.
As a woman, I wish I had that problem! LOL
But seriously, I took a seminar on Economics for Journalists and learned just how bad the minimum wage is.
Especially during Covid, this is a really wrong time to do this, especially by practically doubling it.
Facts are stubborn things:
“It is no accident that before the advent of the minimum wage law, unemployment rates for all age categories were similar. Afterward, the unemployment rate of youths was double that of middle-aged people and the unemployment rate of black people was double that of white people. This is due to the minimum wage, not to any imaginary white or age “privilege.””
It doesn’t matter what I think because the democrats are in control. And if you don’t offer an alternative, they’re just going to ramrod through a $15 minimum and wreck the economy in the process.
As far as what I think, I think the minimum wage is good as long as it’s in a protected economy that has full employment and the rate is set at a reasonable level. Some of those minimum wage workers don’t have the skills, knowledge or self esteem to negotiate for themselves. And I’m not opposed to government stepping in and setting a minimum wage.
However, our economy is far from full employment. And our economy is not protected well. Trump has helped, but his tariffs were more directed at China and not general protective tariffs. Notice I tied tariffs to the unemployment rate.
Of course your proposed super high $50 minimum rate is ridiculous. It’s higher than the average wage in the US is now. It’s an unrealistic extreme. It’s like saying if a little salt on your food is good, why not just down the whole can of salt.
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