tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post5796852583717814614..comments2024-03-26T06:17:49.527-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: Debating the Minimum WageStuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-88268927607674813982014-05-12T10:22:46.495-07:002014-05-12T10:22:46.495-07:00Government involvement ... is why many people no l...<i>Government involvement ... is why many people no longer pay attention to their neighbors and act accordingly</i><br /><br />I agree. Proximity engenders accountability. Not only does the real economy function at a local level, but so does a social economy. The centralization of these functions is a cause of progressive dysfunction as it increasingly causes a dissociation from reality.<br /><br />Also, as you have noted, the corruption of individuals, the destruction of families, etc., has a correlation, and perhaps a dependence, on the progress of social programs uprooting the natural or "traditional" order. It feels good to shift the burden of responsibility, but the consequences are negative progress in a real sense.<br /><br />Oh, well. Perhaps we will discover a new stable state, previously unknown to mankind and Nature. The experiment must continue!n.nhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04252447117532342957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-11073366833738023172014-05-10T04:27:03.520-07:002014-05-10T04:27:03.520-07:00n.n
Is that a governmental function of local chur...n.n<br /><br />Is that a governmental function of local churches, people of goodwill and/or other groups? As long as government is a player one is guaranteed that there will be no solution and creating a dysfunctional economy surely isn't going to ameliorate it. Government involvement in a lot of areas in which they have no standing, despite the "promoting the general welfare, is why many people no longer pay attention to their neighbors and act accordingly.Dennishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14962996070458991675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-74523755940636384162014-05-09T20:37:35.376-07:002014-05-09T20:37:35.376-07:00Dennis:
Your observation of disparate input is wh...Dennis:<br /><br />Your observation of disparate input is what makes social insurance an unquestionable aspect of our society. It's not really a fundamental flaw, but a pragmatic response to imperfections of human nature. The challenge is to limit redistribution or rehabilitation schemes, so that they do not sponsor progressive corruption, and do not offer an incentive to corruption. This is where religion (i.e. moral philosophy) becomes an integral aspect of a free, civilized society.<br /><br />Remember, money does grow on trees, and in binary signals populating our networks and computer systems. The focus needs to be on wealth production in the form of products and services financed by capital and derived from labor. The focus also needs to be on local and perhaps regional development, where real economic activity actually occurs, and not just intermediate processes which create an illusion of wealth.<br /><br />It's also worth noting that there does exist structural inequality. For example, the difficulty of realizing full employment, with compensation to match cost-of-living, is directly proportional to the density of a population center. This is why Democrats in particular, whose power derives from high-density population centers, are such adamant advocates for social insurance. It's certainly not out of goodwill. Since their strategy to accrete power has been to denigrate individual dignity and devalue human life.<br /><br />I think both perspectives need to be addressed. The classical economic perspective which reflects the laws of supply and demand; and the social economic perspective which reflects the imperfections of human nature and civil structures. In a democracy, both perspectives must be addressed in order to earn consent of the governed.n.nhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04252447117532342957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-2806907493312425092014-05-09T06:03:01.190-07:002014-05-09T06:03:01.190-07:00n.n.
I believe there was an experiment done a few ...n.n.<br />I believe there was an experiment done a few years ago that took a variety of people in different economic conditions and started them off with exactly the same amount of money to work with during the experiment. As I remember the experiment was stopped because the people who had money before had all the money afterwards and those who did not did not.<br />Not surprisingly, most of the Enlightenment thinkers were very poor at handling money matters and constantly hitting up their sponsors for more money. The same is true of a significant number of those touting a minimum wage. Most of them waste the taxpayers money at such levels that it is mind boggling and demonstrate little knowledge of economics or the proper stewardship of it.<br />I just wish that for once in their lives they actually worked through how money works its way through an economy, it might actually help to ask the question as to the whys and wherefores of money and the necessity of it, the "multiplicative factors" involved, and knowing what it takes to operate a business.<br />Yesterday I had thought to create an example of a small business, its fixed and variable cost, it city, state and federal requirements and taxes, et al so as to get people to think about how much is entailed. I would be happy if there was thought to the idea of a "medium of exchange."Dennishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14962996070458991675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-70243311286548755162014-05-08T22:12:31.727-07:002014-05-08T22:12:31.727-07:00Aside from pegging one's view of women's e...Aside from pegging one's view of women's economic security as being about access to contraception and proximity to an abortion clinic, I am just heartened to see that Cosmopolitan now seems to be interested in the plight of less-well-off women, with or without orgasms. <br /><br />Maybe we'll see an airbrushed 53-year-old female trailer park resident named Bev on the cover of the next issue, with her frosted hair done up from two Tuesdays ago, outfitted with the latest saggy jeans, a designer Champion sweatshirt, and flip-flops. You know, the real America Cosmo has always believed in, bringing the truth down to the people! Maybe they'll have a feature on regulars at Applebee's. Or how smoking is still "in" in different parts of the country. Do women in middle America have orgasms? Find out on page 36, next to the Revlon ad. Then there won't be big media telling people like Bev how to feel about their bodies no more. Not with the power of Cosmo on girlfriend's side! Snap. Dang, with Cosmo's permission, girls like Peggy will be back on the town! Good times are a'comin'!<br /><br />Yeah, but let's be serious. That kind of coverage ain't never gonna happen. Cosmo's not that kind of magazine. Let's see... contraception, abortion and (how to have multiple) orgasms. There's a winning platform for women's progress and liberation! If they're not having kids, whether by contracepting or aborting to prevent them, (which is the postmodern pinnacle of women's "reproductive health" -- now known as the "Fluke Method"), they'll have more time for orgasms. And if they're earning $10.10 an hour, they'll have even more orgasms. It's not just public policy, it's a lifestyle: the Obama Orgasma in Organza Bonanza. And then the Republicans won't be able to hold them down, or tie them up. After all, Republicans can't bring women to orgasm. It's all Bush's fault. And Joe Biden is a genius. <br /><br />And that's what being a liberated woman is all about? How silly. When was the last time a Cosmo editor made 10 bucks an hour? The last time they even thought about $10 bucks in an hour was their coffee break at Starbucks sipping a soy latte that requires 10 words to describe how they want it done. Spare me.<br /><br />TipAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-36994114130223638822014-05-08T17:11:42.144-07:002014-05-08T17:11:42.144-07:00I don't know about the minimum wage, but the f...I don't know about the minimum wage, but the fancinating data is "Labor force participation rate" rather than unemployment, and the gender divide, with women near an all time high just below 60%, and men at an all time low of 70%.<br />http://correctionspageone.blogspot.com/2011_12_01_archive.html<br /><br />I'm not sure who Romney's 47% are who are just looking out for government handouts, but compared to 1948 with 88% of men are employed, and only 32% of women we're in a totally different world from then.<br /><br />Meanwhile perhaps minimum wage would "help" the women working in rural nursing homes or other "low value" work that merely helps people, versus computer work that converts everyone into a number and scams a way to extract a new monthly charge on an unneeded virtual service?<br /><br />Any manufacturing is also totally different, with low skill work being now largely exported, men who used to be able to graduate from high school, get a good job at a lifetime employer to raise an income upon are much harder to find. And its women who are being scammed into the college degrees in exchange for debt, which may or may not pay off, but what are the young men doing who aren't going to school, and aren't going to higher education?<br /><br />I see that the idea of "living wage" is hopelessly naïve, that is to say, once you factor in "debt" and access to credit, people can spend far beyond their means, and hope for the best, and in a bull market and high employment, perhaps the debt is eaten quickly, and in a bear market and poor job pickings, debt is a deadweight that pulls even the most newly conscientious debtors back under water without some sort of "bailout" to start fresh, like the banks always have access to.<br /><br />So my thought is raising the minimum wage is a "mostly harmless" way to help people on the bottom, but unless you can help them out of debt, its spitting in the ocean and rewarding their credit card companies who can extract interest for another year or two that otherwise would have lead to bankruptsy.<br /><br />I'm a pessimist on the whole picture, but I think the best thing we could do in my mind is loosen bankruptcy laws, and that would "punish" banks with lose and exploitive marketing for easy credit, and help people who will never otherwise escape.<br /><br />My dad declared bankruptcy when he was 70, in 2005 before they changed the laws, and most of the credit card debt came from a few years in the 1990's when he lost his job. My dad was proud, but a friend convinced him that he had already long overpaid the original money he used, and the balance he owed was all from crazy interest rates and transfer fees and all the tricks they use to extract more money for "easing" repayments into infinity and beyond.Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-76052079218289289772014-05-08T17:11:24.787-07:002014-05-08T17:11:24.787-07:00I don't know about the minimum wage, but the f...I don't know about the minimum wage, but the fancinating data is "Labor force participation rate" rather than unemployment, and the gender divide, with women near an all time high just below 60%, and men at an all time low of 70%.<br />http://correctionspageone.blogspot.com/2011_12_01_archive.html<br /><br />I'm not sure who Romney's 47% are who are just looking out for government handouts, but compared to 1948 with 88% of men are employed, and only 32% of women we're in a totally different world from then.<br /><br />Meanwhile perhaps minimum wage would "help" the women working in rural nursing homes or other "low value" work that merely helps people, versus computer work that converts everyone into a number and scams a way to extract a new monthly charge on an unneeded virtual service?<br /><br />Any manufacturing is also totally different, with low skill work being now largely exported, men who used to be able to graduate from high school, get a good job at a lifetime employer to raise an income upon are much harder to find. And its women who are being scammed into the college degrees in exchange for debt, which may or may not pay off, but what are the young men doing who aren't going to school, and aren't going to higher education?<br /><br />I see that the idea of "living wage" is hopelessly naïve, that is to say, once you factor in "debt" and access to credit, people can spend far beyond their means, and hope for the best, and in a bull market and high employment, perhaps the debt is eaten quickly, and in a bear market and poor job pickings, debt is a deadweight that pulls even the most newly conscientious debtors back under water without some sort of "bailout" to start fresh, like the banks always have access to.<br /><br />So my thought is raising the minimum wage is a "mostly harmless" way to help people on the bottom, but unless you can help them out of debt, its spitting in the ocean and rewarding their credit card companies who can extract interest for another year or two that otherwise would have lead to bankruptsy.<br /><br />I'm a pessimist on the whole picture, but I think the best thing we could do in my mind is loosen bankruptcy laws, and that would "punish" banks with lose and exploitive marketing for easy credit, and help people who will never otherwise escape.<br /><br />My dad declared bankruptcy when he was 70, in 2005 before they changed the laws, and most of the credit card debt came from a few years in the 1990's when he lost his job. My dad was proud, but a friend convinced him that he had already long overpaid the original money he used, and the balance he owed was all from crazy interest rates and transfer fees and all the tricks they use to extract more money for "easing" repayments into infinity and beyond.Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-11808059859989162162014-05-08T16:32:14.030-07:002014-05-08T16:32:14.030-07:00While money does grow on trees, which is an inhere...While money does grow on trees, which is an inherently renewable resource, or in electrical signals powered by nuclear and coal plants; wealth does not, and only exists as a product of capital and labor converting limited, finitely available resources to a usable and useful form.<br /><br />Incidentally, this is why we have health care "reform", because money, and its representative binary signals, do indeed grow on trees and stored in seemingly limitless petabyte drives. Perhaps it's time to invest in exabyte drives to fill the demand for money... and extend Planned Parenthood to accelerate reduction of the problem set.n.nhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04252447117532342957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-50253796125171756142014-05-08T16:20:17.939-07:002014-05-08T16:20:17.939-07:00The issue is cost-of-living. Minimum wage is a re...The issue is cost-of-living. Minimum wage is a red herring. As is "equal pay for women", which features selective discrimination.<br /><br />That said, redistribute one million. No, one billion, to each man, woman, and child, then set them loose in the arena.<br /><br />Do the proponents of raising minimum wage even understand the laws of supply and demand? Perhaps Democrats want to address the cost of placating their base, including finance and welfare policies, and the consequences of a devaluing capital and labor. <br /><br />The Left's 1% need to stop hiding behind "good intentions" and abortion/murder (i.e. reducing the problem set). They have been a leading sponsor of corruption and dysfunction in America and globally.n.nhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04252447117532342957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-49439404044484380302014-05-08T12:26:33.471-07:002014-05-08T12:26:33.471-07:00One cannot convince the unknowing that they are ig...One cannot convince the unknowing that they are ignorant when told lies.Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-64442284256385277282014-05-08T07:35:47.107-07:002014-05-08T07:35:47.107-07:00This comment has been removed by the author.Dennishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14962996070458991675noreply@blogger.com