Friday, July 2, 2021

“Pay Them More” & Then Charge More

 by Joe Siano


For a half century, the United States federal government, which never lacks for cash, has provided Joe Biden with a solid professional salary, a comfortable pension, world class healthcare as well as sundry housing, entertainment, travel and dining benefits.

 

This President, God bless him, has never worried about how to meet a payroll, afford capital improvements, fund marketing campaigns or just keep the lights on in a business.

 

But now he is dispensing business advice.  Expect to see him on Shark Tank.

 

When asked how American businesses are to contend with staffing shortages his answer was simple: “Pay them more”. For maximum effect he delivered his response in a sarcastic stage whisper to suggest that anyone who would even broach this question is an ignoramus.

 


This may be the most tone-deaf malaprop since Marie Antionette dropped, “Let them eat cake!”

 

Biden, the taxpayer tycoon, continued by saying that businesses will “have to compete and pay people a decent wage”. 

 

Compete with who?  Compete with what?

 

Businesses always compete with each other for the best employees.  In this instance, America’s employers are competing with forces bigger and more ominous than other companies:


            The Couch

            The Lazy Boy

            The Price is Right

            Grand Theft Auto

            Porn Hub

            Weed
            Mom and Dad

Uncle Sam    


 




The Apostle Paul nailed it, “if any would not work, neither should he eat” (KJV)  He was talking about the lazy laggards who mooched off the generosity of early Christian communities who shared all things in common.  You would think that a President, who makes such a big deal of weekly Church attendance, might know this.

 

But let’s not move on from the “pay them more” part so quickly.  Businesses that are cash-strapped due to enforced government shutdowns are already paying more.  Years of Fed money pumping are causing:


·        Grocers and restauranteurs to pay more for the food they the put on their shelves and tables

·        Builders to pay more for plywood and building supplies

·        Truckers and farmers to pay more to run their vehicles and operate their implements

 

If businesses must pay more for essential supplies and the President wants them to raise wages, the proprietors have little choice but to:

 

(Say this in a loud stage whisper)

CHARGE CUSTOMERS MORE!

 

Yes, a bipartisan coalition of DC non-producers did pass a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill.  The net effect will be to:

 

·        Continue rewarding lay-abouts for sitting home and producing nothing and serving no one

·        Pump more money into the economy to chase a dwindling supply of goods and services

·        Drive the cost of all consumer and producer goods higher

·        Make life more difficult for people who are trying to do the right thing by actively engaging in productive economic activity

·        Create a moral hazard by teaching people to expect more for doing nothing instead of less for doing something

 

Austrian economics holds that consumers, you and I, are the ultimate employers.  Our purchase decisions decide what is produced, the quantity and the market price. So what Joes Biden is really telling Joe and Jane Consumer is:

 

(Say this in a loud stage whisper once again)

YOU PAY MORE
to get these bums off the couch.

Incentives matter.

 

Washington DC is sending the message that there is no dignity in work.  Only a fool would work for lower wages that may be garnered by slacking.  That is hard to argue with.

 

The old joke in the Soviet Union was, “We pretend to work while they pretend to pay us”.  In America 2021, we no longer need to pretend.



Related Articles:

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Wasted Labor Day

 

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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

 

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