Here’s another good article from Doug French at Laissez Faire. He does a pretty good job of explaining (in simple terms) how the free market works in the job market. He could do a better job of explaining how government interference through regulations always screws things up, but overall he does OK.
I am simply amazed at the numbers of people in America (and around the world) who don’t have even this most basic level of understanding about economics. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised at Americans, considering that most of them are stuck in government schools.
For anyone who doesn’t know the history of government schools in America, the purpose of those schools is NOT to educate the children, but to turn them into ‘cogs in the wheel’. Mould them into compliant workers to fill the factory jobs that we used to have.
Now that we have destroyed those jobs through over-regulation, we have a nation full of people with just enough education to fill those kinds of jobs and none of those jobs to give them.
Along with a number of other subjects, economics was not one of the ones thought important enough to spend any resources on for people intended to spend their entire lives working for GM. 🙁
Our ‘public’ (government) school system has not changed with the times. We are still training people to work in factories when we need to be educating them so they can be entrepreneurs!
In the meantime, because we have not educated them to understand the basics of economics (or much else), we have the situation going on right now (again) where people are clamoring for (another) rise in the minimum wage.
Because they don’t understand basic economics, they think that will improve their standard of living. It won’t. 🙁
Read the article again…
There are so many levels of ignorance and wishful thinking going on in this country, it’s sad really. Yes, it’s true, the poor and middle classes here are not doing as well as the upper class. But the reasons for that are mostly to do with the government and NOT wage rates!
We are all going into debt. More and more and more! THAT is a huge impediment to a high standard of living (no matter what your income). The money supply continues to increase, causing inflation, which steals more of our income every day. Our government keeps on spending money like there’s no tomorrow and raising taxes in order to try to keep that up.
THOSE are the things that are hurting our standards of living. I could go on, but I hope you get the point I’m trying to make. Raising the minimum wage won’t really solve anybody’s problems, it will only delay the inevitable and make it worse in the long run.
I read a post, (“Dead Broke”), this morning by Joseph Rathjen. He writes the “Political and Social Chaos Blog”. It ties right into what I’ve been talking/thinking about. Economic illiteracy. Elites vs the rest of us. Amount of income a person has vs standard of living (personal happiness level).
The fact that ANYONE could believe the Clintons were “Dead Broke” (the way WE mean it when WE say it) says it all. I’m not sure how many people really believe it, or if it’s all just the usual media propaganda, but it seems at least a few people fell for it.
You ought to read Rathjens post. He makes some good points. I would take it even further. People like the Clintons belong to the class of the ‘global elites’. They are not JUST rich. They are rich and POWERFUL.
There is a group of people who are very rich and powerful and THOSE people do NOT care one whit for the rest of us!
THAT is why it is SO important for the rest of us to be educated! We need to know enough about how the world really works so that we don’t fall for their BS! We need to know enough to fight back when someone proposes a plan that might look good on the surface but will eventually work against OUR interests.
The latest minimum wage proposals are just one more example of this. It’s sad. Most people still don’t understand how things work. 🙁
Raising the minimum wage to $10 is estimated to eliminate 500,000 jobs. The war on coal may eliminate 2.5 million jobs and cause disruptions in electricity service.
Thanks Ron. I’ve seen varying estimates of the numbers of jobs lost due to raising the minimum wage. The cost of the war on coal will be another HUGE cost to hit our economy too, in addition to jobs lost. I saw something a while back where the cost of regulations in this country was in the TRILLIONS. No wonder we are losing our middle classes!
It is in the trillions.
I believe it Ron. It’s a real shame what we’re doing to this country. I do think it all comes down to education.
The point of raising minimum wage is to allow poverty-level Workers to at least make an hourly wage that keeps them above welfare, AND above that sad spot where they dont get qualufy for assistance nor can they live. U dumbbb dumbbb.
I meant Qualify. Too annoyed to spell. 🙂
Jade,
Hi Jade,
I hope I didn’t piss you off too bad, but this is a sore subject for a lot of people. I still think it needs to have some more discussion.
Yes, I know that is the intention of the minimum wage law. The point is, that is not how it works in the real world. If it did, we would not be talking about increasing it again. It would have already worked one of the past many times it’s been tried.
We can raise the minimum wage all we want, it will never ever make things work the way you want it to. The real world just does not work that way, no matter how much someone might want it to.
You raise the minimum wage rate up to a level that is more than the employer thinks the employee is worth and they WILL find a way to eliminate those employees. So, we wind up with more people out of work altogether.
Is that what you want? You prefer people to be completely out of work? So that instead of having a minimum wage job for a short period of time, so they can learn what it takes to move up and get a better job, just knock them right off the ladder so they are stuck forever in the welfare lines?
That is only one reason NOT to raise the minimum wage. That was only speaking to the minimum wage workers. How does raising the minimum wage affect the rest of us? It not only makes things worse for all those people who COULD have had a minimum wage job, it makes it worse for EVERYBODY else.
Do you REALLY think someone who makes $10/hour now is going to be happy to continue to make only $10/hour once that becomes the minimum wage? Of course they will NOT! So by increasing the minimum wage, you will increase everyone elses wages and the prices of EVERYTHING will go UP! The prices of everything else will go up more than the wages will and we will all be worse off.
I know it’s not easy to live on minimum wage. I did it for a long time. I would please ask you to clarify exactly what you mean when you say that they don’t get/qualify for assistance, “nor can they live”. Personally I have never asked for any kind of assistance (other than college loans that I did pay back) so I don’t know what it takes to qualify, but it seems that most people who really need it can get it.
Yes, I know times are tough, but I stand by my assertions that we are over-regulating ourselves and causing our jobs and opportunities to leave for greener pastures. I think the minimum wage laws hurt a lot more than they help and history shows that they have never yet lived up to their promises.
I would LOVE to see this country open up it’s rules and regulations and let more people start their own businesses, hire people for whatever deals they want to make between themselves, and grow those businesses to where they are very successful. But that’s not going to happen as long as people insist on passing ‘feel-good’ legislation.
I stopped reading you when you said a minimum wage job makes things worse for all those people who COULD have had a minimum wage job. Lol!! You’re silly. And lost on the job front for minimum wagers.
Hi Jade, does that mean you didn’t read the articles I was referring to in my posts?
It has been proven every time they raise the minimum wage that many people are priced out of work (those who would have been able to be employed at the previous minimum wage).
Do you think it’s better for those people to NOT be able to work at all?
Are you saying you don’t think employers would find ways to get rid of people they can’t justify paying for? Even tho that is already starting to happen due to increasing costs of employment regulations?
I did work at minimum wage jobs myself for a while. Even worked at a few BELOW minimum wage jobs. I thank god I was able to convince someone to hire me. I did NOT have the skills when I started, but that chance they gave me allowed me to LEARN those skills I needed and so I was able to earn more as I learned more about the job(s).
I’m not sure what you mean when you say I’m “lost” when it comes to minimum wage jobs. Like I said, I worked at plenty of them, I DO have personal experience and I also know plenty of other people who did and who do work at those kinds of jobs from way back and still today. And again, pretty much every economist agrees with the principle that the minimum wage prices out the people at the bottom of the ladder. Are you saying we’re ALL just making this stuff up?
So, what DO you mean? Just curious.
Dear Capt Jill, i will admit, i did not read the articles you referred to. Srry. And no. It has Not been Proven as you say… Im not saying anything that you said i said. I simply do not agree with you on your opinion of minimum wage. 🙂 the only part of your long comment that i picked up on was how you said, and this was two comments back, something about the way that minimum wage workers take away from the Real minimum wage workers. Ummmm okay, captain sail on!
After reading the rest of this messg… Funny. Honesly, i dont think ive ever worked for minimum wage. Even back when i was giving blow jobs… I made $100 an hour. 😉 carry on in your economic mindset that isn’t working in your “real world” captain.
Isn’t That the kind of message you’ve been hoping for? Get off your high horse.
Poverty. It causes PROLEMS in society like crime, prostitution, disease, hunger, and the worse of all is uneducated which plays into all of the above.
Hi Jade, sorry I didn’t answer you sooner. It’s probably so long ago you’ve forgotten all about it. I’ve been having a hard time keeping up with everything lately. Yes, actually it WAS the kind of comment I was looking for. No, I don’t mind at all that you disagree. That’s kind of the point of a discussion (at least for me). I’d hate to lose your input just because we disagree.
I’m not sure what you’re referring to when you said I said something about minimum wage workers taking away from REAL minimum wage workers. What??? I don’t find anything like that in any of my comments.
Just so you know. I have worked at quite a few minimum wage jobs. NO, it wasn’t easy. BUT, I did make it work and eventually found better jobs. I think most people do.
Yes, I agree with you that poverty causes problems in society. AND I also think that problems in society cause poverty. For one example, lack of opportunity due to restrictions on a persons ability to work for themselves, will keep a lot of people in poverty when if allowed to do their own thing (whatever that might be), they could probably make it out of poverty and maybe even get rich some day (who knows?).
I think there are all kinds of reasons for poverty. I don’t really think raising the minimum wage is any solution (at least not for very long). I don’t know if you know it, but it HAS been tried quite a few times before. IF it worked, we wouldn’t be having this discussion since there would be no more poverty in America.
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