We currently have monetary inflation and low interest rates to stimulate the economy which apparently doesn't look like it worked. What I hope we get is deflation to fix the imposed imbalances, which will make minimum wage incomes worth more. The other option is continuing to print, which has been why the minimum wage is so low. If gas was 1$ again we wouldn't be harping about the minimum wage.
The downside to end the printing is higher interest rates and a severe recession in the short term, which we have avoided twice inside a decade with inflationary policies. Either way we have to hit bottom, clean out all the trash, and move on. The current path enriches the top at the expense of the bottom and old folks who were living on cd's.
The minimum wage purchasing power sucks from our elected leaders and the banks financing a trillion of government related debt per year with funny money, but it keeps them rich and in power. If they did the right thing, they would be defunded politically and removed from office. History says they will continue to debase for as long as they can, unless there is an uprising of an informed populous. We don't have an informed populous, so it's frog in a slowly heated up frying pan for us, unless something changes.
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George:
Is it a “minimum wage” or a “political wage“?
Consider for a moment that the minimum and maximum wage is zero. Should labor be free and able to sell their service at any price? If a 15 year old would like to earn some money for a summer trip and will gather stray shopping cart for $5 per hour he/she would be denied employment due to the political wage. If a 16 year old with zero skills seeking employment, would need to be paid $10.10 per hour by an employer, would the employer be willing to pay this first time labor market entrant with zero skills $10.10 per hour? Is it rational for the employer to substitute capital for labor? Do the existing minimum wage earners, with a wage rate rising from $7.25 to $10.10 per hour, are some laid off, with the remaining worked harder?
What about the seen and the unseen. The politico, armed with the political wage, merely picks winners and losers. The politico is quick to point out the winners and how their benighted edict regarding wage created the winners. The losers, the unseen as it where, are those first time job seekers with low or zero skills that are never hired. The proponents of the minimum wage never address the unseen as it doesn’t make enhance their notional argument. Yet the unseen are losers.
Black teenage unemployment is roughly 50% while white teenage unemployment is roughly 24%. Sometimes the unseen become the seen.
Ponder this question: If a raise in the minimum wage is such a grand idea and supposedly lifts people out of poverty, why not raise the entire continent of Africa’s minimum wage to $50 per hour and end poverty in Africa?
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