Maybe we should have a benefit fund for lawyers, poor dears !! At $400 per hour to read one letter ( as long as its not more than 2 sentences long) , $800 an hour for perusing documents ( deliberately made confusing ) or actually talking Can't think how they manage on so much !!
"I recommend Haiti and Mexico both places where labor rights are in shambles." Yep, very, very good point! It was the bureaucrats in DC, labor regulations, the unions, and other laws protecting the little guy that made america great and prosperous and lifted the teaming masses out of their 1000 year historical condition of stinking peasantry/poverty. It had nothing at all to do with those canards such as sound property rights, rule of law, individual liberty, and capitalism. If only Haiti would enact the labor laws we have, the prosperity of the average Haitian would soon rival the USA! We should import some of our fine command and control DC bureaucrats and union bosses to Haiti. It would be for the good of their people! I wonder why the communist countries never discovered the miracle of labor laws! If they had we would surely all be (happily) speaking russian right now!!
Seriously guys $7 per hour is not worth even considering and you wouldn't unless there was absolutely nothing else !! I don't like Socialism much but companies have gotta share the rewards more fairly. You either have a team effort OR the management screwing the workers battle ! Which do you think will be competitive ? A lot of top people have ability but some have very little ( probably brown-nosed their way up)
Haha. Today, Sunday, I took the kids on a Sunday lunch outing (for take-home). With all the talk about sub sandwiches, we went to Subway! Guess what. Only 3 varieties of $5 footlongs. Previously I think 8 varieties. All I know for sure is that 5- footlong sandwiches, no drinks, no chips, no cookies (this was for take-home where cupboards are stocked and stocked well) cost out of pocket, $32.46 including sales tax. Does this have anything to do with minimum wage, I don't know. It is certainly an interesting (and timely by coincidence) departure from the well-known and quantitatively successful marketing campaign of the recent past.
Before you guys spill your ideas on a virtual paper, ask yourselves why we have those regulations? Minimum wage, minimum age, overtime after 40h/week, unemployment benefits, social security etc etc. Was it because it was all peachy and nice before those laws were enacted? Read up on life in the US before WWII and you will quickly realize why we have those laws. if that does not convince you travel to any country where minimum wage does not exist and see the prosperity for yourself. I recommend Haiti and Mexico both places where labor rights are in shambles. There are many more but those two are really close to home. I am speechless there are actually people who believe that. PRODUCTIVITY
Things did not get better because the government working with unions passed laws. Conditions for workers got better because capital investment increased the value of a unit of labor, and thus employees could demand higher pay. For most of the history of mankind, people have lived in poverty because on average since the invention of Agriculture, a man could not produce much beyond the value of what he consumed less what government would take from him. This is why most people were poor years ago and this is why people are still poor in the undeveloped parts of the world. (undeveloped=low levels of capital investment) Then in the early part of the 20th century, technical innovation brought on by capital investment increased the value of a man's labor, lifting millions out of their natural impoverished state of existence. Think about how much more a farmer can produce, using a GPS navigated tractor, than he can using a wooden plow pulled by an ox. Think about how much more a factory worker can produce, using a computer controlled laser cutter, guided by CAD software, instead of a hand tool. Think about how much more an office worker can produce using a personal computer, running a spreadsheet, than he can using a hand-punch mechanical calculator. In all of these examples, the difference is that capital investments have multiplied the value of the worker's labor. This process basically began in the 19th century, but reached critical mass in the Western world after World War II. This is why, things have been better for workers since the 1950's....because of what capitalists have done, not because of anything that Governments and Unions have done. The reason people in places like Haiti are poor, is because the region lacks the rule of law and safety for capital investments, and thus the Haitian worker doesn't get to have the value of his labor multiplied by capital like an American worker does. If you understand these points, than you understand why no act of government can magically raise the value of a workersâ labor from $6.55/hour to $7.25/hour, only capital investment can raise the value of a manâs labor. Since mandating a price floor at $7.25/hour doesnât actually increase the value of that labor, the only result that can come from a minimum wage hike is the unemployment of minimum wage earners, and an increase in poverty as those people join the ranks of the unemployable.
An hour of labor is like any other commodity. It is subject to supply and demand. Most min wage jobs are held by people that are transitioning from one economic level to another. My first job was at a burger joint. I got $1/hour (min wage). You know how long I was there? Less than 6 months. Found another job washing dishes, making salads etc...at a full service resturaunt, and I made more money. If the government is going regulate minimums in wages, then they should do the same with goods, right? After all, what good does it do to raise wages, if the cost of goods keeps going up. It's the same logic. Where does it end? By setting the wage higher than where it should be (the market) they just make it more likely that people will stay in low paying jobs. If you look at this as a function of the "market" it's easy to see that the government has no business telling someone A: how much you're worth, and B: How much to pay for labor. The comparison with regulations that cover age, etc... is so far off the mark it doesn't even deserve a response.
Ok so letâs make minimum wage $1. Employers could hire so many more people then. Then weâd have 0% unemployment. Right!?