Do proponents of increasing the U.S. minimum wage to $15 per hour know they’re lying or are they just really stupid?
Whenever it comes to raising the minimum wage to $15 or $20 or more, I ask such proponents, “Would you be in favor of raising it to $100 or $1,000 per hour?” I usually get a confused look, as if I’m asking a trick question. For they are confronted with an economics question that goes beyond the parroting they’ve been programmed to carry out.
It’s not by random chance that rents in SF are so high. It’s because the collective wages across the SF Bay Area are high. Landlords know this, so the invisible hand of free markets (a la Adam Smith) has driven rents up to these levels.
When the minimum wage is artificially raised by government policy then everything else will go up too, including other people’s wages, the cost of goods & services, rents, home prices, virtually everything. This is a fact that politicians either don’t understand or refuse to explain to citizens.
Stupid or liars?
Both.
I vote ignorant instead. When employers layoff staff to compensate, then they are greedy bastards, still their fault.
Then, when employers modernize their equipment, and layoff more unproductive carbon units, they are still greedy bastards.
The left is never satisfied with logic, only their vindictive class warfare ideology will do, no matter the damage or unintended consequences
There’s a reason why self-checkouts keep popping up all over the place. As wage costs get above the productivity of the marginal worker, businesses will automate those jobs out of existence.
the next push will be for standardized box sizes so that shelf stocking can be done by automation or alternatively, a return to the Consumers distributing model where you pull up to a counter and order what you want, and after a few minutes it pops out on a conveyor.
Yes,and I pray for the day the auto makers put more robots on the assembly line.
The idea of raising the minimum wage by more than double is idiotic as most small and medium sized businesses can raise their prices by a small amount to compensate for a small raise, but the bright idea proposed by AOC shows her total lack of knowledge of the small business sector.
But progressives seem to believe everyone is Walmart or Amazon and can afford a massive raise.
What is the real story of the minimum wage in Denmark, does a burger cost $25, a loaf of bread $15? Denmark is also a tiny country with a tiny population (5.8 million) ,it is not diverse with 86% of the population ethnic Danish. What works on a small scale often doesn’t on a large scale.
Bring it one Joe, AOC,then watch the consequences.
Embrace the healing power of “AND”
Right? They’re stupid AND they’re lying like a Persian carpet.
They lack the cranial capacity to comprehend the end results of their policy, which will be explosive inflation, general ruination and famine. Followed closely by war, pestilence and death.
Reality is racisss.
…AND not widely known (except by union leaders), when the minimum wage goes up by +X% most union contracts (including ALL government union contracts) have an automatic escalator clause which increases all the union rates by the same percentage.
Actually not all wages go up. I make 3 times min wage. (12×3. ~ $35/hr).
Make min wage go up, yes your Big Mac and consumer goods and house will go up.
I will loose buying power as any raise I get will not keep up. I will not make $45/hr anytime soon. (But really. Who NEEDS to make that anyway)
Those who have worked their way up in places like grocery stores and Walmart’s to maybe 5-6 dollars above min will see the gap close faster than their increases.
Wish more people would see that.
Or-am I missing something?
No matter what the minimum wage is, be it $15, $20, $10,000 / hour, it is still minimum wage. While you may survive on minimum wage as a youth or retired senior, you cannot raise a family on it. Nor is it inteneded to be enough to raise a family on. If minimum wage is $20 per hour than you will need to make $40 or $50 an hour afford a family.
The intention is that EVERYBODY makes minimum wage, Mike.
Actually the real intention is to generate explosive inflation and get the government off the hook for their unserviceable debt. When minimum wage is $15,000/hr, a multi-trillion-dollar debt is manageable.
That’s why Korean Won are 861 Won to 1 dollar CDN. The Koreans needed to get out from under their WWII debt. 15 Won used to be worth a US dollar. They just kept devaluing it to escape their debts. People who live in Korea laugh at the money. In 1997 the Won lost -half- it’s value in a year.
That’s going to happen to us, probably pretty soon.
People will look back with envy at the 65 cent dollar we had under Chretien.
The Canadian dollar was worth $1.05USD under Harper.
Don’t forget that when everyone is earning the same wage, communism has been achieved. It’s not a bug, it’s a design feature.
Venezuela has this inflation race already won, hands down. They’re now printing 1,000,000 (yes, 1 million) Bolivar bills. That should obviate the need to carry cash to the store in a wheelbarrow. Only one problem: the new bills are only worth US $0.53. I guess maybe a smaller wheelbarrow should work.
Both.
Raising the “minimum wage” is just another way of zeroing wages.
When the real minimum is zero.
Raising the official rate to $25/h is the same as saying $25 =Zero.
Close, but you’re forgetting that the Democrats are importing their new slave class along the southern border. As illegals, this “migrants” and hidden from (and therefore not protected by) US law. Legal wage for citizens, $15/hour. Going wage for migrants, $9/hour (guessed). And if you don’t have your migrants/slaves readily available, then you go out of business because your business is too expensive to operate compared to the progressive slave-runners.
It’s kind of amazing. How did the governing caste and their minions become so myopic and parochial? They got a lotta nerve sneering at others and calling them “rubes”. Maybe they can’t think outside the “one size fits all box” or resist bandwagons. It’s like they don’t know what country they live in, the USA is not a homogenized country like say, Denmark.
You have to conclude that the intent is too continue crushing poor people and working people.
The real miimum wage is zero, and a lot of people currently employed will receive it, if such poilicies are adopted. Using “self congratulation as the basis for public policy” will fail, as always. Coincidentally, AOC, and JT have a combined IQ in that neighborhood.
The main effect of raising minimum wages is that unemployment will increase for low-skill, entry level and no-skill workers. Employers will reduce hours, benefits and do whatever it takes to maintain productivity levels to stay afloat and profit or go out of business. Only when there is a shortage of workers will wage inflation actually drive up costs and prices in general. Paying workers to stay home artificially induces a shortage of workers adding to wage inflation while reducing overall productivity (stagflation).
When someone proposes that the government raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour I usually respond by telling them what a wonderful idea that is and propose that at the same time the government guarantee a minimum hourly profit for small business owners of $15 per hour. If not, why not? After all, the hourly profit is essentially the business owners wage. That usually throws proponents into a tail spin. I’ve yet to meet one who even considered it. It really points up the prevalence amongst leftists of what Thomas Sowell refers to as “stage one thinking” i.e. an abject inability to consider any of the necessary inputs or costs for a given policy, or its knock-on effects.
I like this idea. Well done!
But DD … “MacDonalds can afford it”
Yes. I know the educationally illiterate don’t understand. They know nothing of how the REAL world works.
The second part of the San Francisco problem is environmentalism. There is a shortage of new dwellings because of restrictions which makes the existing product more rare and raises the prices as a matter of course because of supply and demand.
You just described the same problem that exists in Greentopia, er, Victoria/Vancouver Island, and Wangcouver to a lesser degree.
The ultra-leftist greenies that keep getting elected, ensure that development rules are stiff, difficult, and expensive to implement. These Einsteins still haven’t learned that businesses PASS the costs on to the customer. That’s saying nothing about the ALR either, which removes significant lands out of development, reserving them for fantasy farms that don’t and will never exist.
Is it any wonder the average single family dwelling in greater Victoria has just hit $1 Million? Yet the same leftists elected here complain about the high cost of housing and how it hurts the young and the poor.
Can’t Fix Stupid!
No, the environmentalism is why they’re now flushing raw sewage from their streets into the storm drains and into the ocean – unequal application of the law.
Zoning laws and green-space regulations are what to what you’re referring. Dr. Thomas Sowell has many great write-ups on it, here’s one:
https://www.creators.com/read/thomas-sowell/09/15/the-affordable-housing-fraud
One of the first things taught in an introductory economics course is supply and demand. When a growing population creates a growing demand for housing, and the government blocks housing from being built, the price of existing housing goes up.
Want to increase minimum wages, to $15 from $10 for example. Easy – for each food order, add a dollar to the cost.
C’mon it’s only a buck, no big deal. Next. Now the restaurant doesn’t have to raise their prices. Nothing to it. Right? Wrong.
People think their bubble informs them of reality. They couldn’t more wrong but they never test their biases, so sure of wisdom.
Because common sense has become a superpower amongst the perpetually ignorantly offended, opportunity cost is a mystery.
It’s only the basis of human decisions, no big deal. Justin decides where you eat, what you wear, if you live. Don’t worry, be happy.
The idiots want job destroying higher wages while bringing in unlimited scab labour from shithole countries to drive down wages. Difficulty in discerning their anus from an excavation? Want higher wages? Create a labour shortage.
But, but, but … Robert … The government can simply impose price controls to go along with their wage controls. The government can solve your hypothetical problem. The government (your fellow citizens taxes) OWES us all a living. Right? /sarc.
Nothing to do with the stupidity of politicians and everything to do with the stupidity of voters.
I too have often asked libs why we limit the minimum wage to such low levels. Surely the world would be a fantastic place if everyone made $100/hr. Heck, why should anyone even have to work to earn that $100/hr. Just pay everyone $3,000,000/yr for staying alive and consuming goods. Of course, if we paid every citizen that much money, just think of the astronomical sums that would have to be delivered to SNC Lavalin and Bombardier etc.
Count it as a vote for dishonest politicians AND stupid voters.
If that sort of stupidity had ensued when I had my little business, SLAM, that would have been the door permanently shutting for both in the auto bus. and recycling!
And %0 would be the wages of my employees, and I would have sold my abilities to another business!
Every minimum-wage hash-slinger should have the right to buy a Lamborghini any time they want. It’s all about fairness, right? (sarcasm = off)
By the way, paying a high minimum wage doesn’t necessarily guarantee productivity. Shortly after my father died, I hired a local high school kid to cut my lawn and shovel my snow. Minimum wage in B. C. at the time was around $12.50/hr, so I paid him $15 in the summer and $20 in the winter.
The kid fell down on the job when it came to the snow. I never figured out if he was thick as a plank or simply lazy. Then the twerp quits on me and didn’t have the decency to officially tell me.
That’s not how it works. Lamborghini’s are symbols of conspicuous, excess, consumption. Nobody needs to (or is allowed) to drive that fast. So all Lambo’s MUST be banned. Along with the Ferraris, et.al. When they are CANCELLED … then we’ll all be “equal” … Right?
Then, we can drive our 3-wheeled EV’s with a rage of 125mi. (Because who “needs” to drive further than that?) … as deemed “equitable” by the DEI* (Department of Equity and Inclusion).
* Seriously … our local lilywhite (and Asian) HS, just hired an African-American Asst. Principal. And her first duty was to create a Dept. of Equity and Inclusion whose purpose is to require incoming Freshmen (Freshpersons) to undergo “Equity and Inclusion” training. BLM members will be doing the “training”. Yes, get your grandchildren OUT of the public schools ASAP! Even in wealthy, white, communities where the schools are rated high (because the parents value education).
BADR
Parents out here pay for their kid’s cellphones and plans, their xboxes, and throw ridiculous spending money at them, but its still not good enough. So, paying a kid from down the street $20 to mow the lawn is an insult.
I find myself looking back, when I rode that single speed banana seat bike in the 70s, all over hell’s half acre in Coquitlam, picking up empties, so I could buy an Uncle Ben’s pop, a bag of chips, and a couple packs of hockey cards. Well earned rewards for a bit of work.
Today’s kids picking up empties? Are you KIDDING? There’s climate change protests to attend!
The kid I hired was in junior high school at the time. (Hoo boy–I’m showing my age by using that term, eh?)
He had absolutely no idea what he wanted to do with himself once he graduated. As a former educator, I thought I could make some suggestions as to how to get information on career options or what he would have to deal with if he decided to attend a post-secondary institution. While I was teaching at Armpit College, I had a lot of students who didn’t know what they wanted to do, had no idea why they even enrolled in our department, and were generally uninterested.
When I paid him, I didn’t bother making change, telling him to put the difference towards his future education. After all, if he, say, took up a trade, he would have to buy tools and if he went to university, there would be books to buy.
The response to my advice and financial generosity was almost always “I dunno” or a blank look on his face. Completely clueless that in 3 or 4 years, he would legally be an adult and would have to be responsible for himself. Instead, he would have rather made YouTube videos, though I don’t think he was the type to make a successful living from that, let alone be an “influencer”.
Some of his apparent stupidity I think I can safely attribute to helicopter parents who probably wrapped their little precious in bubble wrap lest he get an owie.
On the other hand, maybe I was lucky to have had parents who grew up during wartime, including being bombed and shot at, and learned how to take care of themselves from an early age. I think they expected the same of me when I was much younger.
@B A
Aww, the kid was too busy with his cell phone to give you proper service.
A lot of politicians do understand this. They also understand that a lot of voters don’t understand it.
At $1,000 an hour we could all live in big houses and drive fancy cars!
You also left out the most important reason democrats push this, the escalator clauses usually found in government union contracts, by mandating an increase, they reward their most loyal supporters
And to help everything go up, the politicians grease the skids with an increase in the ‘CARBON’ tax.
They know that a large increase in the minimum wage will cause massive inflation. They have three goals:
1. Devalue the debt.
2. Devalue people’s savings and destroy their financial security.
3. Devalue social safety net transfer payments and make them more dependent on government.
Both. Too many uninformed voters believing the lies of “anti-poverty” activists and vote buying (with the employer’s money) politicians lies.
And it works, uninformed and misinformed voters are the scourge of democracy.
“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.” ~Bertrand Russell
Its true that the minimum wage raises the costs of everything related to it.But that’s really a stupid way of looking at it. The real question is whether the resulting increase in wages makes your income go up relative to the other costs unrelated to the price of labour.
I have never seen a con/lib economist answer that question.
“Do proponents of increasing the U.S. minimum wage to $15 per hour know they’re lying or are they just really stupid?” Yes!
The Left doesn’t care. Not about wages being payment for services rendered. Not about production must equal three times the payroll. Not that wages are not a reward for showing up. Not that even at $1,000 an hour there will still be people living under a bridge.
No, the Left just wants to manipulate the lazy and gullible who believe they are owed for existing.
…AND not widely known (except by union leaders), when the minimum wage goes up by +X% most union contracts (including ALL government union contracts) have an automatic escalator clause which increases all the union rates by the same percentage.