News of fast
food labor strikes continues pouring in.
Minimum wage workers are looking to increase their hourly wage to $15,
which they contend to be a “just” living wage.
In my own Soprano State of New
Jersey, the voters have
recently approved a state constitutional amendment to increase the minimum
wage by a buck and to mandate annual cost-of-living increases.
Please indulge me in a little thought exercise.
Let’s say that you go down to you local burger joint to ask
for a job. The boss tells you that he can pay $7 but say that you want $15. He says “too bad, take it or leave it”. So you take it. However you also take an additional $8 from
the cash register for every hour that you worked in order to get up the $15 per
hour that you feel you deserve.
Most people would call that stealing. If most of your coworkers did it, the burger
joint might soon be out of business and you would need to find a new gig.
Now let’s consider another scenario. As before, you apply for the job, you ask for
$15 and the boss offers $7. This time
you pull a gun on the boss and tell him that it will be $15. End of discussion. You also make sure that you bring your gun
with you on payday to ensure that you are getting your $15 per hour.
If nothing else, this method is more honest and straightforward
than stealing from the register. At
least the boss knows where his money is going.
Still, most people would still call it a crime.
Now let’s run through this one more time.
You and your fellow workers convince your elected
representatives that you really deserve $15 an hour, not $7. So then the State sends your boss a note informing
him that he will be giving you a nice raise.
The letter also advises your boss that he must do so under the penalty
of law. “Penalty of law” is a polite way
of saying that guys with guns will come by to ensure compliance “or else”.
Question: how is having the hired guns of government to
extort an extra $8 per hour out of your boss any more moral or any less of a
crime than doing it yourself?
I now turn the thought exercise over to you, the reader, to
complete.
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"Half the people are stoned and the other half are waiting for the next election.
Half the people are drowned and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction."
- Paul Simon
Half the people are drowned and the other half are swimming in the wrong direction."
- Paul Simon
Raising the minimum wage is ridiculous. It is Kabuki theater meant to make people believe they are better off when they are not. Economic equilibrium will occur. It will take multiple steps to get there. First, the employer will decide to only keep the employees who return at least that value, he'll raise his prices and he'll find ways to automate the process. The price increases reduce the overall revenue, so he has to fire more employees than he initially needs to on paper. This happens to every employer. So if fewer (especially the least skilled) people are employed and prices are higher who benefits?
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