We passed the tipping point long ago.
Posted on 04/14/2013 4:49:57 AM PDT by Kaslin
What happens when the U.S. Secretary of Labor visits a church in Charlotte? If an incident earlier this month is any indication, faulty political promises and destructive economic policies continue to spread.
It took place on April 3rd. Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Seth Harris made an appearance at a Baptist Church in North Carolina’s largest city, along with Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx. He was visiting to promote President Obama’s proposal of elevating the federal minimum wage requirement from the current $7.25 to $9.00 an hour.
Harris and Foxx gathered in a large room within a Baptist church building. They sat in a large circle with several “average” (which means “hand-picked, pre-screened, and pre-approved by the Labor Department”) Americans living in Charlotte who work at jobs that pay only minimum wage. As news microphones and cameras caught all the action, Harris facilitated a “discussion” with the minimum wage earning Charlottean’s, and explained how their lives would benefit from the President’s new proposed mandate.
Harris told the group participants that if the minimum wage requirement was raised to $9 an hour, a full-time worker at the current minimum wage would earn an extra $3,500 more per year. A total of 557,000 workers in North Carolina “would directly benefit from that proposal,” he said, noting that President Obama is seeking to “lift people out of poverty” by imposing this new proposed requirement.
It all sounded so good. But in reality, there were problems.
For one, mere laws don’t “lift people out of poverty” – genuine wealth creation does. Using the force of government to mandate that a business owner pays a worker a specific wage does not ensure that wealth is being created. On the contrary, such laws are coercive mechanisms of wealth redistribution, and they only ensure that an increasing amount of existing wealth is taken away from one individual or group and transferred to another.
History, even recent history over the course of our lifetimes, demonstrates this. While roughly half of the world’s population -about 3 billion people - live in measurable poverty today, the other roughly 3 billion are measurably “middle class,” and mostly facing upward mobility.
So what has happened to the more fortunate 3 billion? We have not been “minimum waged” to wealth. We’ve been fortunate to live in countries where we’ve been relatively free to privately own property and advance in the marketplace and amass wealth for ourselves.
The best examples of this have been post-World War II Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong, along with the increasingly liberated economies of China and India. Many Americans seem oblivious to this capitalistic, free market transformation that has taken place over the last few decades – surely if we were aware of this we wouldn’t have elected our current crop of politicians who are taking us in the exact opposite direction – but the transformation is nonetheless real.
Another problem with Harris’ promises is that they are based on the false assumptions that government bureaucrats understand the inner-workings of a business than a business owner does, and that government mandates always produce their desired outcomes. Can every small business in Charlotte – or anywhere else in the U.S. – afford to “absorb” the increased labor costs that will ensure with a higher minimum wage mandate? Harris is frequently asked about the un-intended consequences of his policy proposals, and will frequently say “I reject the notion that this kills jobs.”
Did you hear that business owners? He “rejects” it, so it is obviously not a concern. In fact, Harris promised the minimum wage earning Charlotteans that raising the minimum wage requirement will actually improve wages overall, and stimulate job creation.
Harris, by the way, took no time at all in Charlotte to meet with the business owners that would be impacted by the proposed wage mandate. When you have degrees from elite schools, and your work experience is based exclusively in the worlds of academia and law, and you wield the power of government (these characteristics describe both Harris and Barack Obama), it’s easy, apparently, to believe in the infallibility of your ideas. There’s no sense wasting time on the “non-believers.”
For now, Americans have put their collective trust in politicians who have promised to re-distribute us all to a better, “more fair” existence. Let us hope and pray that we see the error of our ways – before the country is irreparably damaged.
Minimum wage has nothing to do with helping anybody. Union contracts are figured in multiples of the minimum wage. Raise the minimum wage and it’s an instant raise to all union members.
To really get started good, the inflation must have a strong wage and salary component.
Raising the minimum wage is the method chosen to jump start the general rise. Raising wages when there is 16% or better unemployment is difficult. If there is a national 30% jump, the general wage inflation will be off to a good start.
A backhanded query, resolved by an elimination of opposites.
Most businesses already pay $9+ per hour. The ninnies that listened to this buffoon don’t even try to understand econ 101. “Dat Big Mac you be lovin’” will go up $1.00. And I’m sure you’re eating more than 3500 per year so there goes the profit! Does that help clarify things a little?
Minimum wage is a joke. The reality is that every increase in minimum wage creates inflation- the price of everything handled by minimum wage workers goes up to compensate for their wage increase. That rise in price devalues the income of everyone making more than minimum wage. If not outright abolished, then minimum wage should be lowered to some point well beneath the market value of labor.
Not only does it create inflationary pressures, but they are artificial pressures at that.
Exactly...
First of all each state should be dictating their wage labor laws, not the federal government
Minimum wage for part-time under 18 workers should be eliminated...the market place will dictate the prevailing wage...
It might suck to work for $4.00 an hour for a few years until you actually learn some job skills, but it would be a nice incentive to learn good work ethics...and "earn" a raise..
It also will vastly improve the teenage unemployment numbers...
If the Balloon Head in Chief really wants prosperity, why doesn't he push for $9,000.00 an hour?
Then regular workers could make $360,000.00 per week. That should help for a while.
We passed the tipping point long ago.
“Minimum wage has nothing to do with helping anybody. Union contracts are figured in multiples of the minimum wage. Raise the minimum wage and it’s an instant raise to all union members.”
Exactly. In New York they just passed a 9 dollars an hour minimum wage. BUT its raised incrementally three times before it reaches 9 dollars. As a result, the unions get raises three times in a row.
The only way to make minimum wage work is to make it regional, the minimum wage in LA should be at least 30-40% higher than in Omaha NE.
Also the minimum wage should be tied to creating a CLOSED border.
I once had a relative who was a liberal. Harvard educated (taught there too) and very theoretical. But I don't think those exist anymore. Now we have left wing statists (who want to ban guns and free enterprise) and stupid people who automatically buy into any emotional argument put forth by the leftists.
I actually had more disposable income then, than I do now.
Sure, just like spending borrowed money to get out of debt.
We are doomed.
5.56mm
Prosperity is built on productivity and wealth creation, which are concepts foreign to the Democratic Socialists of America.
America cannot “minimum wage” itself to prosperity, but it can export jobs and drive itself down to nothing.
Wake up people.
Bring back US jobs. Now.
That means you Republicans. Hire Americans.
Uneducated unskilled workers that do not speak English well are not worth $9/hr.
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