Notice how lately the protests over citizenship and a 15 dollar minimum wage revolve around demands from people who feel they are entitled. People are not asking for $15 an hour, they are demanding it with the reasoning that you can’t raise a family on $15 an hour. Sex beer and drugs are great, the responsibility that goes with its reality, sucks.
The real problem with the $15 hour wage is a little hidden. Entry level workers need minimum skill sets. High school dropout comes to mind. For the employer, he has his choice of employees. A high school grad or better; or maybe a chick with a knock out body that likes the “late shift.”
Then if it is only part time, you’ll be working two 3 hour shifts twice a day, 5 days a week. At that point you are not making $15 per hour, maybe only $10 per hour. The employer in the past could afford an 8 hour work day at $10 an hour on the assumption that it came out ok with coffee breaks, lunch breaks and bathroom breaks. 2 hours of pay would be wasted on non-necessary busy work. By switching to part time employees, the unsupervised coffee breaks, lunch breaks and bathroom breaks, health insurance and unemployment insurance, drop out of the equation. The employee gets two three hour shifts with a 4 hour break in between, a 10 hour day with 6 hours pay.
Economics actually dictates the price for labor, by using the government’s regulations, to the employers benefit. 40 hour work weeks, demand employer health insurance, 30 hour weeks don’t. Part time employees don’t have to be paid $15 dollars an hour.
Legislation may appear to placate the masses, but in the long run it acerbates the problem. Our State legislatures are a collection of the dumbest of the dumb when it comes to practicality. The thought that a law raising wages can change the economic livelihood of people in poverty is a little bit presumptuous-- great vote getter though.
A person with two kids thinking that $15 dollars an hour will help them out, knows absolutely nothing about real life. They will know poverty for their lifetime. I have a quote taped to my desk that reads, “The easiest way to teach your children about money, is for you not to have any.”
There is this "New Age" mentality of, “I want it now!” The concept of saving over time and earning ones way to wealth appears to be a waste of time (Janet Yellen can confirm it). We are now a nation that gives money back to people willing to spend and consume. Some major car company yesterday had an ad offering 20 percent back in a cash bonus for buying a car. Are we really placating the masses; or has the game gotten out of control? Reality is not a factor as long as the consumer has a credit card to abuse. Responsibility is for losers. Hmmm 100K student loan, and 100K in credit card debt, but earn 5 percent back for all of the credit card purchases. Why save at .05 percent when you can spend and get 5% back. Am I missing something here?
16 comments:
"The concept of saving over time and earning ones way to wealth appears to be a waste of time."
Those who are in control teach this when they use inflation to destroy savings, use "free trade" to destroy the power to earn a decent living, and permit the growth of megabusinesses to destroy the dream of building a small business that can be handed on to one's child. Liberty is a niche creature.
Hi Sackerson
I agree, the thing that bothers me, is that it was a group effort. We can't blame it on one person.
I don't know the author, but the quote, "The road to Hell is paved with good intensions," kind of says it all.
Here we are sipping tea, waste deep in quicksand, marveling over the quality of the tea. Humorous to a point. There isn't much we can do except enjoy the tea.
http://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/tpp-tisa-ttip-thought-for-day.html
Hi Sack
Looks like all roads lead to Los Angeles (USA) Of course, it isn't our fault, is it???
Not your fault - it's probably the same people Andrew Jackson tried to sort out. I expect the descendants of the Biddles are still going strong.
Government = Public Enemy #1
Nothing changes until confidence in government drops out and the pendulum swings to the private sector. It will take a long time for this systemic collapse to happen. The Dems and Repubs have been busy educating the electorate into Marxism and concepts such as "I deserve it"; "it's the government's responsibility to care for me, protect me, and solve my problems", etc. Creating the "Nanny State" and giving the electorate welfare, handouts, subsidies, etc. is what gets them the votes and keeps them in office and they system moving forward. As a result, it will take a long time for this system to crash.
All empires collapse due to debt and because the citizenry become ignorant, become addicted to bread & circuses, and lack vigilance. Rinse and repeat... over and over again. Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it over and over again. This has been humanity's lot in life throughout all civilizations and societies on this planet.
I read an article that made sense to me. The main point that was made was that the early colonies in America didn't last very long, they died off from hunger and disease, because those original colonies were all based on collectivism (socialism/communism). The later colonies survived because they had abandoned the idea of collectivism and required all members of the colony to work and contribute to the survival of the group. As a result they survived and grew. The created abundance for themselves. And THAT is what Thanksgiving is all about.
The early American colonies proved it, the USSR proved it, China and many others have proved it through the ages. All people in a society must work and contribute to the survival of their society. Yet, the people of America (ignorant about history) openly embrace socialism, which is destroying (or has already destroyed?) this country. If we don't rid ourselves of this disease we will go the way of all the others.
Link to article, please, AIM. I recollect reading that early colonisation failed because the incomers lacked basic skills and also thought they could manage on five hours' work a day, not realising how much of the ease of civilisation comes from tangible assets and complex social organisations built up over centuries.
And I don't think the early colonies were collectivist. They had indentured labourers, for example
Here you go Sackerson:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-26/real-non-pc-reason-we-celebrate-thanksgiving
There was another one on a different blog site but I can't remember which site it was. I also remember hearing this same information in a recorded lecture. It might have been on the von mises site (might've been a lecture by historian, Tom Woods).
Thanks! I'm becoming wary of different political agendas hiding beneath historical analysis and I understand that e.g. the Koch brothers seek to influence academic thought.
Right. One of our biggest challenges is culling the actual truth from all of the "facts". Ideologies and special agendas seep into all media and education. And, operating upon falsehoods and misinformation is a recipe for disaster in our individual lives.
Sackerson...
Also, academia in the US has become so far removed from the realities of economics, sociology (human behavior), government, mental health, and living in general that it could almost be considered a separate culture. It's the academics that have gone into finance and government, with their misguided unrealistic education and notions, that have greatly contributed to the mess we call our financial system, capital market system and governmental system. There are those who stay within the ivory towers of academia (continuing to infect the younger generation) and then there are the younger generation coming out of academia who are not prepared for life in the real world. The whole "politically correct/over-sensitive/climate change/bleeding heart liberal/socialist" profile of American academia makes me sick.
I've just learned of MMT (Modern Monetary Theory). Some of the theories make sense. It's based on ideas such as: here in the USA, we've been off the gold standard since 1971 but we still act as if we are on it; you can't compare government to a household or a business because it is neither; a gold standard has been a proven failure through history (more panics and depressions on a gold standard than on a free floating currency) and it totally limits growth; a country that is a monopolistic issuer of a currency, and who's debt is denominated in that currency, can never go bankrupt or collapse (comparison to Weimar Germany or Zimbabawe has no application); unemployment causes the most damage of anything (loss of productive capacity, decimation of morale, etc.) and is the most important thing to handle in an economy and a government that is an issuer of currency should spend and create deficits until there is total employment. These are some of the points. I plan to study this theory in depth to determine if it has validity for me. Neo-Keynesianism, Austrian Economics, Supply Side Economics, etc. have all proven themselves to not have any validity.
@AIM: I struggle with all of them but I think MMT works until your competitors set up an alternative currency and trade with each other in that instead, at which point they start to dump yours and eventually insist on your using theirs. Look for signs of that happening.
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