20 Replies to “Minneapolis and the $15 Minimum Wage”
Liberals won’t get it.
It involves looking more than two seconds into the future.
If anyone has been to a McDonalds lately the time it takes to get an order has at least tripled.
In the long term it all falls apart anyways when we’re all unemployed and no one can afford to buy things. Robots now out of business later.
All these neo-leftist capitalists like Bezos don’t seem to see the low wage worker as the backbone of the economy.
You would think they would learn from Seattle that there are more negative consequences than positive ones,….but the one constant the left is known for is that they never seem to learn anything when it comes to logic or common sense.
Has anyone seen a study of the costs for commercial and industrial real estate after $15/ hour in a city or county? What happens to rental rates and occupancy?
My ignorant guess would be that Minneapolis rents and occupancy rates will decline, and the rental rates and occupancy rates will increase in the next city over. It will be complicated by things like franchise agreements and exclusive territories, which often follow city boundaries. IOW, that Subway franchise can’t simply move three blocks down France Ave to the suburbs, because that is another franchisee’s territory.
I wonder if a Pizza Delivery from the suburbs that serves Minneapolis has to pay their delivery drivers $15/hour when they drive into Minneapolis? And who is going to enforce that?
It is amazing what the left does. In order to curb liquor, tobacco and other “sins” they tax as much as they think they can get away with. The thinking is that if you make the “sin” more/too expensive, you will have less “sin”.
Using this logic, why would anyone want to raise the minimum wage. You are making it more expensive to hire labor. Thus, because labor is more expensive, you will use less labor.
They don’t care about the consequences. I remember an interview with Obama where the interviewer asked him what he thought about the fact that raising taxes would likely decrease revenue because it could kill business. His response was, ” we don’t care, it’s about fairness.
If governments think they can legislate the weather, they certainly can legislate the economy
Well isn’t this the core issue of the day as AI and robotics slowly/quickly snuff out jobs. I have had a number of businesses but my only retail foray had a high labor component. We paid more than minimum wage but the BC government was always raising that wage. The reaction was always the same as we reviewed are revenue streams and cut those who were not yielding a solid return.
It always becomes an equation of how much money and term are invested in an idea before an alternative opportunity becomes more interesting. That process often cost workers hours of work or at the worse their job. While wages were always a factor it was rarely the cause of why we made changes. That might be more a commentary on the ability to generate investable ideas than not.
The food service automation venture capitalists and their bankers will
certainly sleep a lot easier with a mandated $15 an hour minimum wage
strapped to their human competition. Then there is the other shoe set to
fall that many other wage rates for more skilled work are set as 100% of
minimum wage plus an additional percentage by long standing practice.
The domino graphic at the top of this SDA post could use some work, but the idea is good…
It’s no surprise that the Globe and Mail favor this idea of $15 an hour being good. They won’t have to answer to the unemployed when this blows up in their face.
The National Post took a different view: http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/a-very-credible-new-study-on-seattles-15-minimum-wage-has-bad-news-for-liberals/wcm/a9a706bf-9174-4283-a729-adb6d96342eb
Note that some of the studies that support $15 minimums go back a few years, to the time when having robots flip burgers seemed like “flying cars to offices” and aways into the future. The time has arrived, alas the flying cars to the offices have not.
And neither have robots been shown to very effectively replace any plumbers that I know of. So it looks like the $1000. +/- water heater replacement is going to stay… 😉
It is only the agenda that matters to the left.
Yes, all the American government unions have their wages tied to the minimum wage (probably plenty of private unions too) so that’s why they’re pushing the $15/hr minimum.
Outlawing robots will be added to the Dems platform next election…all except for the “exempt industries” where their globalist buddies will be located.
“Relevant” was never a word progressives could spell.
The Captain is assuming the Lefties are serious with the $15/hr thing being a solution to working poverty.
Personally, I think they are saboteurs. They’re wrecking the economy -deliberately- in the hope of looting it later.
Didn’t Trump say “you’re fired.” Must be his fault.
The $ 15.00/hr minimum wage reminds me of Rent Control in the city of Berkeley. Wait! Let me explain … I am speaking of the unintended consequences of liberal do-gooder programs. In Berkeley, the Rent Control program was terrific for the dirty hippies selling hand-made roach clips on Telegraph Ave. … but it caused the housing stock to radically shrink for the 40,000 (give or take) Graduate and Undergraduate Students at UC Berkeley … and no … there weren’t near that number of dorm rooms, student housing, or sorority bedrooms (and I can personally testify to that last one). The student housing stock shrunk for one simple economic reason … landlords would rather lease to long-term, stable, renters in lieu of students who were transient. When the rents $$ are controlled, then landlords look to the most stable, permanent renters they can find. Landlords who may have been happy to rent to students at HIGHER $$$ rents … weren’t interested in doing so at arbitrarily Socialist-controlled rents. Therefore, there was always a CRISIS for UC Berkeley students finding housing. And landlords lost the free-market incentives to IMPROVE their housing. Investment in rental units shrunk.
How does this compare to the $15.00/hr minimum wage ? Well, the increased minimum wage will surely REDUCE the number of low wage jobs. And as the number of these jobs shrink, employers will get choosier and choosier with their hiring practices. It’s basic supply and demand. We witness the SAME economic TRUTH with every recession. The marginal, semi-functional, employees get cut … while the quality employees remain. So … when I look at all the hired UNION GOONS holding their pre-printed “$15.00 or DIE” placards … I suspect that not a single one of these LOSERS will ever get one of these “Fight for Fifteen” jobs. All of these jobs will go to hard-working immigrants (both legal and illegal). So congratulations ! Your FAILURE to understand Econ 101 has doomed you once again. Enjoy your welfare check … which MY President is going to restrict. So soon you will be WORKING for your welfare. And the American taxpayer thanks you for your (marginal) work.
I find that reading the published literature of Policy-alternatives (Socialism) that they have a particular dismissive attitude for those in marginal professions…It is predictable & odorous.. They don’t give a F&ck about the $15 earners, other than gathering votes
It was Hillary who said “We are going to end coal mining and we will need to do something for those Coal mining families”…..Typical
Coal miners & all those who use their hands take pride in their toil & being told they will be retrained as “School Crossing Guards” is dismissive…They didn’t vote for the fool
It is very nice to see such concern for low-wage-earners and their employment opportunities. The analogous law, a Maximum Salary law, would produce much greater effects than preventing a Minimum Wage law from being enacted, so perhaps there would be some support here for such a concept?
There is a discussion here explaining it: https://uneducatedeconomics.wordpress.com/2017/07/02/minimum-wage-and-maximum-salary/
at the very least, based on my limited understanding of economics (compared to all the complex models, policies, history of said discipline) this period of low inflation is now soon going to end.
again the tranna lieberal cabal fcuks it up completely.
Liberals won’t get it.
It involves looking more than two seconds into the future.
If anyone has been to a McDonalds lately the time it takes to get an order has at least tripled.
In the long term it all falls apart anyways when we’re all unemployed and no one can afford to buy things. Robots now out of business later.
All these neo-leftist capitalists like Bezos don’t seem to see the low wage worker as the backbone of the economy.
You would think they would learn from Seattle that there are more negative consequences than positive ones,….but the one constant the left is known for is that they never seem to learn anything when it comes to logic or common sense.
Meanwhile some economists writing in today’s Globe and Mail swear up and down that the minimum wage has no effect on unemployment:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/ontario-gets-it-right-with-move-to-higher-minimum-wage/article35499483/
It’s funny how the only economists who ever claim this are “labour economists”. No one else ever does.
I’m thinking a “labour economist” is to economics what a “quack doctor” is to medicine.
Has anyone seen a study of the costs for commercial and industrial real estate after $15/ hour in a city or county? What happens to rental rates and occupancy?
My ignorant guess would be that Minneapolis rents and occupancy rates will decline, and the rental rates and occupancy rates will increase in the next city over. It will be complicated by things like franchise agreements and exclusive territories, which often follow city boundaries. IOW, that Subway franchise can’t simply move three blocks down France Ave to the suburbs, because that is another franchisee’s territory.
I wonder if a Pizza Delivery from the suburbs that serves Minneapolis has to pay their delivery drivers $15/hour when they drive into Minneapolis? And who is going to enforce that?
It is amazing what the left does. In order to curb liquor, tobacco and other “sins” they tax as much as they think they can get away with. The thinking is that if you make the “sin” more/too expensive, you will have less “sin”.
Using this logic, why would anyone want to raise the minimum wage. You are making it more expensive to hire labor. Thus, because labor is more expensive, you will use less labor.
They don’t care about the consequences. I remember an interview with Obama where the interviewer asked him what he thought about the fact that raising taxes would likely decrease revenue because it could kill business. His response was, ” we don’t care, it’s about fairness.
If governments think they can legislate the weather, they certainly can legislate the economy
Well isn’t this the core issue of the day as AI and robotics slowly/quickly snuff out jobs. I have had a number of businesses but my only retail foray had a high labor component. We paid more than minimum wage but the BC government was always raising that wage. The reaction was always the same as we reviewed are revenue streams and cut those who were not yielding a solid return.
It always becomes an equation of how much money and term are invested in an idea before an alternative opportunity becomes more interesting. That process often cost workers hours of work or at the worse their job. While wages were always a factor it was rarely the cause of why we made changes. That might be more a commentary on the ability to generate investable ideas than not.
The food service automation venture capitalists and their bankers will
certainly sleep a lot easier with a mandated $15 an hour minimum wage
strapped to their human competition. Then there is the other shoe set to
fall that many other wage rates for more skilled work are set as 100% of
minimum wage plus an additional percentage by long standing practice.
The domino graphic at the top of this SDA post could use some work, but the idea is good…
It’s no surprise that the Globe and Mail favor this idea of $15 an hour being good. They won’t have to answer to the unemployed when this blows up in their face.
The National Post took a different view:
http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/a-very-credible-new-study-on-seattles-15-minimum-wage-has-bad-news-for-liberals/wcm/a9a706bf-9174-4283-a729-adb6d96342eb
Note that some of the studies that support $15 minimums go back a few years, to the time when having robots flip burgers seemed like “flying cars to offices” and aways into the future. The time has arrived, alas the flying cars to the offices have not.
And neither have robots been shown to very effectively replace any plumbers that I know of. So it looks like the $1000. +/- water heater replacement is going to stay… 😉
It is only the agenda that matters to the left.
Yes, all the American government unions have their wages tied to the minimum wage (probably plenty of private unions too) so that’s why they’re pushing the $15/hr minimum.
Outlawing robots will be added to the Dems platform next election…all except for the “exempt industries” where their globalist buddies will be located.
“Relevant” was never a word progressives could spell.
The Captain is assuming the Lefties are serious with the $15/hr thing being a solution to working poverty.
Personally, I think they are saboteurs. They’re wrecking the economy -deliberately- in the hope of looting it later.
Didn’t Trump say “you’re fired.” Must be his fault.
The $ 15.00/hr minimum wage reminds me of Rent Control in the city of Berkeley. Wait! Let me explain … I am speaking of the unintended consequences of liberal do-gooder programs. In Berkeley, the Rent Control program was terrific for the dirty hippies selling hand-made roach clips on Telegraph Ave. … but it caused the housing stock to radically shrink for the 40,000 (give or take) Graduate and Undergraduate Students at UC Berkeley … and no … there weren’t near that number of dorm rooms, student housing, or sorority bedrooms (and I can personally testify to that last one). The student housing stock shrunk for one simple economic reason … landlords would rather lease to long-term, stable, renters in lieu of students who were transient. When the rents $$ are controlled, then landlords look to the most stable, permanent renters they can find. Landlords who may have been happy to rent to students at HIGHER $$$ rents … weren’t interested in doing so at arbitrarily Socialist-controlled rents. Therefore, there was always a CRISIS for UC Berkeley students finding housing. And landlords lost the free-market incentives to IMPROVE their housing. Investment in rental units shrunk.
How does this compare to the $15.00/hr minimum wage ? Well, the increased minimum wage will surely REDUCE the number of low wage jobs. And as the number of these jobs shrink, employers will get choosier and choosier with their hiring practices. It’s basic supply and demand. We witness the SAME economic TRUTH with every recession. The marginal, semi-functional, employees get cut … while the quality employees remain. So … when I look at all the hired UNION GOONS holding their pre-printed “$15.00 or DIE” placards … I suspect that not a single one of these LOSERS will ever get one of these “Fight for Fifteen” jobs. All of these jobs will go to hard-working immigrants (both legal and illegal). So congratulations ! Your FAILURE to understand Econ 101 has doomed you once again. Enjoy your welfare check … which MY President is going to restrict. So soon you will be WORKING for your welfare. And the American taxpayer thanks you for your (marginal) work.
I find that reading the published literature of Policy-alternatives (Socialism) that they have a particular dismissive attitude for those in marginal professions…It is predictable & odorous.. They don’t give a F&ck about the $15 earners, other than gathering votes
It was Hillary who said “We are going to end coal mining and we will need to do something for those Coal mining families”…..Typical
Coal miners & all those who use their hands take pride in their toil & being told they will be retrained as “School Crossing Guards” is dismissive…They didn’t vote for the fool
It is very nice to see such concern for low-wage-earners and their employment opportunities. The analogous law, a Maximum Salary law, would produce much greater effects than preventing a Minimum Wage law from being enacted, so perhaps there would be some support here for such a concept?
There is a discussion here explaining it: https://uneducatedeconomics.wordpress.com/2017/07/02/minimum-wage-and-maximum-salary/
at the very least, based on my limited understanding of economics (compared to all the complex models, policies, history of said discipline) this period of low inflation is now soon going to end.
again the tranna lieberal cabal fcuks it up completely.