Tag: minimum wage

POLITICAL: The minimum wage is discrimination against minority youths

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https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/01/walter-e-williams/bunch-liars-minimum-wage/

Minimum Wage Dishonesty
By Walter E. Williams
January 12, 2016

*** begin quote ***

During South Africa’s apartheid era, the secretary of its avowedly racist Building Workers’ Union, Gert Beetge, said, “There is no job reservation left in the building industry, and in the circumstances, I support the rate for the job (minimum wage) as the second-best way of protecting our white artisans.” The South African Economic and Wage Commission of 1925 reported that “while definite exclusion of the Natives from the more remunerative fields of employment by law has not been urged upon us, the same result would follow a certain use of the powers of the Wage Board under the Wage Act of 1925, or of other wage-fixing legislation. The method would be to fix a minimum rate for an occupation or craft so high that no Native would be likely to be employed.”

*** end quote ***

Walter Williams is among my favorite author / economists.

He often drives a metaphorical dagger into the hearts of the phony liberals, politicians, and bureaucrats!

In this specific case, the “minimum wage”.

The liberal politicians use it to demonstrate how much they care about the poor. All they care about is getting their votes.

I can’t think of a more destructive diktat then this.

I learned this lesson when the rising Federal minimum wage “forced” AT&T to automate all their elevators. While some of the all women elevator force were able to be placed in other higher skilled jobs, many were not and were fired. I know one personally who never worked again because the minimum wage cost more than she could produce. 

Anecdotal? Sure. But that doesn’t make it real.

Look at the black youth unemployment rate and tell me that isn’t real either.

Argh!

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ECONOMICS: Pulling up the lower rungs of the economic ladder

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http://cafehayek.com/2015/04/minimum-logic-maximum-straw.html

Minimum Logic, Maximum Straw
by DON BOUDREAUX on APRIL 18, 2015
in SEEN AND UNSEEN, WORK

*** begin quote ***

What minimum-wage hikes do unleash, however, is devastation upon a relatively small number of largely invisible workers – workers who are the least skilled and most disadvantaged.  Raising the minimum wage destroys jobs for many of these poor workers while making the jobs of other such workers more onerous.  But because these workers are so relatively few in number, their suffering, while very real, is easy to miss when looking at the aggregate data.  This fact explains why some – by no means a majority – of minimum-wage studies (particularly those that examine only short spans of time) find no negative employment effects.

*** end quote ***

Minimum wage “laws” are devestating to the poor, minority, low income, and senior citizens.

Why are they pushed?

Cui bono.

How many of the salaries of union and “public service” jobs are tied formally or informally to the minimum wage?

Of all the stupid legislation, this ranks right up there with the dumbest of the dumb (i.e., rounding off Pi; time zones; etc.).

Argh!

ECONOMICS: 15$ minimum wage

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://www.tpnn.com/2014/09/08/did-the-fast-food-minimum-wage-strike-just-backfire/

 

Did the Fast Food Minimum Wage Strike Just Backfire?
September 8, 2014
By Matthew Burke

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TPNN radio host Tim Constantine of The Capitol Hill Show reports that the fast-food strikers have just shot themselves in the foot…big time.

“This company called Momentum Machines, has built a robot that could change the fast food industry forever,” announced Constantine. “The robot can slice toppings like tomatoes and pickles immediately before it places that slice onto your burger, so you get the freshest burger possible.” he reported following the Astroturf strikes organized by big labor unions and not necessarily even the workers of businesses like Burger King and McDonald’s.

“The robot is more consistent, more sanitary, and complains less, than your average worker,” Constantine explained.

“Here’s the kicker,” revealed Constantine: “The robot can produce 360 hamburgers per hour,” which equates to approximately one burger every ten seconds, much faster and efficiently than any human could.

*** end quote ***

From an economic point of view, it’s a no brainer. 

Robot Burgger Makers are cheaper than “Human Resources”.

I’ve told the tale of AT&T and the Elevator Operators. http://wp.me/pg9z-2Eb

Those ladies were casualties of the Federal Minimum Wage diktat. I know one who never had the skills to get another job. Wonder who else that happened to?

Cui Bono?

So let’s look behind the scene as to why this ASTROTURF group is campaigning.

Clearly, the minimum wage burger flippers will be out of a job faster than you can say: “You want fries with that?”

Big Labor knows that a rise in the minimum wage will directly escalate the Union wage scale. And bureaucrats know that the Gooferment pay scales will all rise to “compete”. Big Unions knows bigger paychecks means bigger Union dues.

So once again, we find the roots of the “minimum wage problem”.

Now dare I say this is a racial or “Social Justice” issue. Not for it, but against it. What is the Black Youth Unemployment rate? Will increasing the minimum wage decrease that? Not likely! And, how is it justice to put people on the dole. 

Talk about “moral hazard”? It’s not even close. 

Argh!

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POLITICAL: The minimum wage restricts progress up the economic adder

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http://cafehayek.com/2013/10/bonus-quotation-of-the-day-18.html

Bonus Quotation of the Day…
by DON BOUDREAUX on OCTOBER 6, 2013
in SEEN AND UNSEEN, WORK
… is from page 26 of the 2009 Revised Edition of Thomas Sowell’s Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One:

*** begin quote ***

Young people who begin by working at McDonald’s seldom spend their careers at McDonald’s. Just in the course of one year, McDonald’s has more than a 100 percent turnover rate. What those who leave take with them is not only such basic experience as showing up for work regularly and on time, cooperating with others, and knowing how to conduct themselves in a business environment, but also a track record that enables them to move on to other and very different occupations at progressively higher levels in the years ahead. The experience and the track record from McDonald’s are likely to be more valuable in the long run than the modest paychecks they earned serving hamburgers.

*** end quote ***

Sorry, but this is an absolute hot button with me.

50% black teen unemployment is a national disgrace!

The correct minimum wage is ZERO!

And aren’t unpaid interns a violation of the minimum wage laws?

Oh yeah, that’s for smart white kids with connections.

Politicians and bureaucrats are either as dumb as a bag of rocks or the cruelest idiots ever known!

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NEWJERSEY: More “State” Gooferment stupidity — minimum wage diktats

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http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2012/01/progressive-push-in-legislature.html

Monday, January 09, 2012
A progressive push in the Legislature
by Hank Kalet,

*** begin quote ***

New Jersey Democrats are flexing their more progressive muscles. The party is making two important progressive goals their top priorities — an increased minimum wage and marriage equality.

Sheila Oliver, the Assembly speaker, announced today that bumping the minimum wage to $8.50 from $7.25 an hour would be a top priority of the Assembly legislative session that starts tomorrow.

She called it an “economic stimulus that doesn’t come in the form of more debt or increased spending” and “is a recognition that thousands of households in New Jersey are struggling to subsist on minimum wage jobs that do not allow them to support their families.”

*** end quote ***

Let’s just take on one piece of stupidity … minimum wage legislation!

Make it one hundred dollars an hour!

Absurd. Sure, but why? Because if you don’t understand that a wage is a reflection of the value that the position creates. Wish and hoping ain’t going to change the realities.

Now let’s examine the motivation for why politicians want to “raise the minimum wage”.

We know that businesses lay off or restructure to avoid it. Full timers become part time. Hours get cut. And, on the margins, businesses close and everyone one loses. So why?

It’s very simple.

When the “minimum wage” is raised all the politicians, bureaucrats, and Gooferment “workers” get a raise. And, usually union contracts are pegged to the minimum wage, so they get a raise as well.
So why would a Democrat want to raise the minimum wage? It’s a payoff of taxpayer money to the Democratic base.

Argh!

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RANT: More about the minimum wage

Published on by reinkefjLeave a comment

http://lewrockwell.com/orig12/berwick9.1.1.html

Nightmare On Pennsylvania Avenue
by Jeff Berwick
The Dollar Vigilante

*** begin quote ***

Thank goodness I was strapped in tight! Are you kidding, Krueger? I can refute your entire book in one sentence and there is no rational thing you can say in response. Ready?

If that is true then raise the minimum wage to $1,000/hour and tell me how that will not result in unemployment rising to 99.5% or higher. At that rate, only people currently making more than $1,000/hour would be employable.

I mean, really. This is Obama’s new senior advisor?? This will probably shock him then, but removing the minimum wage completely would result in full employment. Heck, I’d even hire Alan Krueger to wash my car all day long for $0.15/hour. That may be something he is actually good at, too.

*** end quote ***

Isn’t that the million dollar question?

What’s the “correct” minimum wage?

Depends if you treasure liberty?

Answer is zero.

It’s not the Gooferment’s biz what two willing individuals agree to.

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