Minimal Thoughts On The Minimum Wage Battle
It’s been a long time since I have posted any thoughts here on my blog, but today seemed like a good day to dive back into the fray. The ongoing battle for “wage justice” and making a “livable wage” caused me to want to add my thoughts to the mix of information on the inter webs. Admittedly the Los Angeles City Council wanting to raise the minimum wage in that city to $15.00 an hour, and the labor unions that originally supported the idea, and now want to be exempted from the law, fed into my desire to comment and should cause everyone to pause and consider what’s going on.
There apparently are a fair amount of people wanting to raise the minimum wage; whether from our federal government, or within city jurisdictions, the governing bodies can tell businesses what they have to pay, as the bare minimum for their labor force. If you were a business owner, would you want someone else deciding how much you have to pay your employees? And if they (governing authorities) can tell you what to pay, how long before they also tell businesses what they can charge for their products and services?
As a young boy, I understood simple economics. If it costs more to produce something, then the costs to purchase goes up. Labor costs are a significant portion of the costs to produce a good or a service. It’s simple if you think about it; but apparently we have lost the ability to think through the consequences of our actions… even if it seems to make sense on the surface.
You can want a higher minimum wage, but you need to know the cost of what you want to purchase will go up, because all labor costs will go up and prices will have to go up to compensate the increases. They claimed it didn’t in Seattle, but they’re lying. I’ve been there and it’s expensive. If you live there, you probably had a raise in pay at your job, because incrementally everything has to adjust upward. If you can make $12.00 an hour to flip burgers, then driving delivery truck must go up as well… after all, we can’t have an entry level job pay the same as a skilled position, can we?
But my pay check is bigger! Yep. And your rent will go up, and your taxes will go up, and that new car price will go up… and on and on.
So here we go again… if I get a raise at my minimum per hour job, then I will make more money and be able to spend more and get ahead!
Perhaps it’s that kind of thinking that keeps you at a minimum pay job? You just do not possess the ability to think through the process of simple economics, and that will always make you susceptible to the government using you as a pawn to accomplish controlling you and others to make you think the government can save you and provide for you.
Has anyone considered what happens when the government runs out of people willing to work to support those who won’t? There are countless examples around the world. Let’s wake up, people!
Just my minimal thoughts on the minimum wage battle.
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