Let’s go with HRW’s idea. Let’s make the minimum wage $1,000,000 a year. Everyone who had a job would be rich. So how many people would have jobs? Those who could produce $1,000,000 of value a year.
I have looked at the minimum wage protests. Many of those protesters are barely worth the minimum wage. Raise the minimum wage and they will be unemployed.
There is no politically feasible answer. The US is past the point of no return. However, if we could somehow return to a small, intelligent, working electorate, things would improve.
The gains in productivity have vastly surpassed in income gains. If wages kept pace with both inflation and productivity since the 60s then min wage would range from 12 to 18 dollars an hour. Even a slight increase will remove many from wage subsidies like food stamps. Thus min wage increases remove a corporate subsidy in which the govt tops up workers incomes so they can survive.
Idiocracy had a great premise but the jokes got old quickly.
HRW, The gains have not come across the board. Highly skilled or trained workers are much more productive than in 1960. However, modern high school graduates (or dropouts) who didn’t take advanced placement courses in high school are almost completely worthless. They cannot be secretaries as their grandmothers did right out of high school. They are qualified only to vote Democrat and live off the government. The point of the article above is that they shouldn’t be allowed to vote. If we don’t want to exclude all welfare recipients from voting, I could do it with a one-question literacy test. It would be an algebra word problem and would effectively repeal all the measures which broadened the electorate over the last 200 years.
” … It is not expected that he will make any major new announcements such as a decision on Syria air strikes, but he will describe the efforts he is already taking, including air strikes in Iraq and building an international coalition.
“In other words, the president wants to leave no doubt he does in fact have a strategy for taking on ISIS despite his words two weeks ago — ‘We don’t have a strategy yet’ — when asked about taking on ISIS in Syria. …”
True most productivity gains have come in the manufacturing and trades sector not min wage service jobs. However, even those sectors were barely able to keep up with inflation if at all. The only sector to receive any benefit from increased productivity are the corporate executives. And you can’t tell me theur wage increases have matched their productivity.
By raising the min wage the service sector might catch up to where they were in the 70s. As an added bonus this will put wage pressure in manufacturing and trades who should be rewarded for their increased productivity. This will probably come at the expense of the executive class.
In the end we have a larger and more prosperous middle class who pay taxes. And we have a service sector who no longer need govt aid in the form of food stamps etc.
Ricky — white high school graduates or dropouts are more likely to vote Republican whereas college educated white people are more likely to vote Democratic. Other racial groups tend to vote Democratic no matter the education level.
HRW, The people who belong to that small category of people who were allowed to vote in 1800 now vote Republican. Hint: It goes well beyond “whiteness” and education level.
HRW, The big industry that has seen the sharpest rise in wages and salaries since the 1960s is healthcare. This was because of the massive federal spending of Medicare and Medicaid. I don’t mind an executive making a high salary if he sells a product or services that consumers pay for from their own pockets. I resent those who get rich from selling overpriced or unnecessary goods and services that our moronic government pays for with the income taxes paid by the declining group of producers. Yes, I resent millionaire defense industry execs even as I resent Solyndra execs, Big Pharma execs and poverty pimps who live off the government.
Wandering Views 
This article is hard on Russia and universal suffrage.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/09/the_stealing_of_the_american_state.html
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Simple solution to the article, ricky, raise the minimum wage. More people would pay taxes and less people would need social assistance.
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Raising the minimum wage *is* social assistance.
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Let’s go with HRW’s idea. Let’s make the minimum wage $1,000,000 a year. Everyone who had a job would be rich. So how many people would have jobs? Those who could produce $1,000,000 of value a year.
I have looked at the minimum wage protests. Many of those protesters are barely worth the minimum wage. Raise the minimum wage and they will be unemployed.
There is no politically feasible answer. The US is past the point of no return. However, if we could somehow return to a small, intelligent, working electorate, things would improve.
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This is an interesting article:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/the-sideshow/researchers-western-iqs-dropped-14-points-over-last-180634194.html
How this happened is illustrated quite hilariously in the first 2 minutes of the film Idiocracy
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The gains in productivity have vastly surpassed in income gains. If wages kept pace with both inflation and productivity since the 60s then min wage would range from 12 to 18 dollars an hour. Even a slight increase will remove many from wage subsidies like food stamps. Thus min wage increases remove a corporate subsidy in which the govt tops up workers incomes so they can survive.
Idiocracy had a great premise but the jokes got old quickly.
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HRW, The gains have not come across the board. Highly skilled or trained workers are much more productive than in 1960. However, modern high school graduates (or dropouts) who didn’t take advanced placement courses in high school are almost completely worthless. They cannot be secretaries as their grandmothers did right out of high school. They are qualified only to vote Democrat and live off the government. The point of the article above is that they shouldn’t be allowed to vote. If we don’t want to exclude all welfare recipients from voting, I could do it with a one-question literacy test. It would be an algebra word problem and would effectively repeal all the measures which broadened the electorate over the last 200 years.
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No, really. There IS a strategy.
Speech coming this week.
This is all rather entertaining if nothing else.
” … It is not expected that he will make any major new announcements such as a decision on Syria air strikes, but he will describe the efforts he is already taking, including air strikes in Iraq and building an international coalition.
“In other words, the president wants to leave no doubt he does in fact have a strategy for taking on ISIS despite his words two weeks ago — ‘We don’t have a strategy yet’ — when asked about taking on ISIS in Syria. …”
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-obama-address-isis-strategy-speech/story?id=25318213
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True most productivity gains have come in the manufacturing and trades sector not min wage service jobs. However, even those sectors were barely able to keep up with inflation if at all. The only sector to receive any benefit from increased productivity are the corporate executives. And you can’t tell me theur wage increases have matched their productivity.
By raising the min wage the service sector might catch up to where they were in the 70s. As an added bonus this will put wage pressure in manufacturing and trades who should be rewarded for their increased productivity. This will probably come at the expense of the executive class.
In the end we have a larger and more prosperous middle class who pay taxes. And we have a service sector who no longer need govt aid in the form of food stamps etc.
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Ricky — white high school graduates or dropouts are more likely to vote Republican whereas college educated white people are more likely to vote Democratic. Other racial groups tend to vote Democratic no matter the education level.
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But truly brilliant people vote Libertarian.
🙂
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HRW, The people who belong to that small category of people who were allowed to vote in 1800 now vote Republican. Hint: It goes well beyond “whiteness” and education level.
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HRW, The big industry that has seen the sharpest rise in wages and salaries since the 1960s is healthcare. This was because of the massive federal spending of Medicare and Medicaid. I don’t mind an executive making a high salary if he sells a product or services that consumers pay for from their own pockets. I resent those who get rich from selling overpriced or unnecessary goods and services that our moronic government pays for with the income taxes paid by the declining group of producers. Yes, I resent millionaire defense industry execs even as I resent Solyndra execs, Big Pharma execs and poverty pimps who live off the government.
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Spotted a bumper sticker yesterday: “I’m ready for Hillary!” 🙄
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The Fraser Institute’s report on Economic Freedom is interesting, but not surprising.
http://www.academia.org/u-s-is-losing-economic-freedom/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AccuracyInAcademia+(Accuracy+In+Academia)
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I’d take the Fraser institute with a grain of salt. They rank hong Kong and Singapore one and two. Not exactly exrmplenary models of freedom
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