Minimum Wage

No, FDR made the Great Depression worse and actually extended it because of what he did. And the reason why the Great Depression happened in the first place was because of government intervention.

 

Food Stamps ensure people are fed AND subsidize farmers. Raising the minimum wage is not a bandaid, but prevents employers from taking advantage of vulnerable workers.

 

That assumes I'd be willing to work for you in the first place.
I can afford to be fussy and I am.

Schools.
There are different schools, they pay different rates.

Some schools are better than others.

I have worked at both the best educational facilities and also some rather poor ones.
Although I aim to raise the standards in every place I work, the level of my motivation is affected by the financial incentive for me do so.


You may find volunteer teachers in your public schools, you may also find trainee teachers. It is not impossible to my mind that you have teachers working at under the national minimum wage.
Typically however, teachers in the state sector are very well paid. I would describe it as a cushy job.

 

Well how do we protect vunerable employers from workers exploiting a labor shortage? If you are going to interfere in the free market of jobs and wages it goes both ways.

 

You're right. That is the conversation when the kid has no education or training beyond high school.

 

When I interview I am definitely looking for the candidate who is ready to find out how good he/she can be.

My experience is that compensation is really a pretty crappy motivator. It may well be a major selection criterion for those with multiple offers, but it is not what keeps individuals striving to excel on a day to day basis. Now, my experience is pretty much all in the high tech world.

As for teacher salary, not everybody is motivated by "cushy" (whatever you think THAT is). And in general, teachers at the high school level and above could be making more money in some other field. Remember too that there isn't much room for upward mobility in public education. A carpenter can grow to run a crew, become an independent contractor, etc. In the sense that their job is relatively dead ended and that their education would be more highly rewarded in some other field, I would say that teachers are underpaid. We depend on the fact that teachers tend to be excited about that profession more than they are excited by compensation.

 

You are pointing out that there are costs associated with having an employee.

But, that doesn't address the issue of minimum wage.

 

There is a lot I totally disagree with here, but I think we could reach agreement on perhaps the most important issue.

We need more focus on both vocational and academic education.

In addition to your strong point about automation, our economy and our competitiveness throughout the world is moving toward high tech, innovation, clean energy, etc. - all fields where trying to work one's way up with a high school education is just not sufficient, even if it's a good high school.

Also, we've seen too many people being left behind by the rapid change in our economy. That was a clear issue during the last election cycle. We're still totally ignoring this problem. Trying to "bring back" elements of yesteryear isn't going to solve that problem. First of all, we can't kill all the benefits of doing manufacturing in countries where we sell our products. Beyond that, new manufacturing here isn't going to require the same employees. For example, when US Steel opened manufacturing here, they hired 1/10th the number of people to produce an equivalent amount of product. And, the type of employees they need are not the same. (I think this is close to your automation point.)

On a much smaller scale, I know a guy who has a cabinet company. He says one of his main interview questions for carpenters is to see if the candidate can measure an object using a tape measure! This might come from candidates who have experience framing houses now want to build cabinets, but still ...

 

we really just need a fifteen dollar an hour minimum wage, unemployment compensation for simply being unemployed in our at-will employment States; and, Industrial Automation to help with social costs.

Why would any adult not be able to be, market friendly under our form of Capitalism?

 

a simple cost of living adjustment.

 

In state education you can go on to management, head teachers etc, also into exam board management. Write books. Make educational films. Conduct online classes.
Move between schools to higher wage facilities.
In universities you can run labs and take the proceeds of any discoveries.
You can have a second career in your holidays. Go on to schools inspectors or into government education departments.
You can move to the private sector. Start your own schools.
With such short hours you can take on additional jobs.
Work anywhere in the world.

Cushy = comfortable. Easy and well paid. Good working conditions. Safe. You don't come home in pain or injured for example. Pensions. Unions. Job security.
Inflation protected pay. Clear career path for advancement.
No end of teachers say they are underpaid. Most of them haven't had other jobs or been self employed. Institutionalised, they have never left school.
Consider this well, the job is so hard a little old lady could do it.

Teaching is a vocation.
But you don't have to work in a school to do it.
Schools pay well. Nobody thinks they get paid enough. Human nature.

 

Like most things, there are individuals who have done that.

But, it is highly unusual - nowhere near the same as having a job where there is a clear line of advancement.

You aren't connecting any of this with any kind of logic.

And, your comment about "little old lady" shows a certain level of ignorance.

 

30 years experience.
I work along side little old lady's. They do the same job as me.

And I am one of those individuals who has done it.
Who does do it.
If you cannot see the path to advancement, can think of more reasons not to advance than to, you have peaked. Reached your maximum pay grade.

I have worked in a great many jobs, sectors and fields. State sector career advancement is the best and clearest of all. And by a very long way indeed.
If you want better than this in the private sector, you won't find it. Dream on.

 

More like tax incentives for businesses that pay solid wages. This is better done by the states than federally since every state is different.

 

Maybe you should wander back toward the topic.

 

I'm not very excited about the state trying to determine whether my companies and every other company are paying a "solid wage".

 

I always say, if you have nothing to add, troll.

 

If people want to eat, squab is a very tasty dish with natural free range ingredients that can be found in almost any downtown city center. Subsidizing farmers isn't exactly high on my list of things to worry about, but since you're worried about their plight, I'm sure there's some kind of gofundme page for farmers that you can contribute to. Employers who take advantage of vulnerable workers are doing what all employers do. Believe me, if I didn't have bills coming in addressed to me (one of the reasons I'm ready to move back home) on a monthly basis, I'd have lots more time for my hobbies. Am I being taken advantage of?

If only all the world's problems were so easily remedied.

 

So far, you haven't proposed a remedy to any problem related to minimum wage.

 

No. I'm pointing out that an employee has to generate the value that determines his wage. It is a business transaction, not a social welfare service. The employer is entitled to his money's worth, and he can't pay more than the value he gets without losing money on the employee, which leads to having his business fail.

Minimum wage is fine- IF it is tied to equivalent performance, which the laws of business economics will do automatically regardless of the written laws. If the legal minimum wage is raised to $20, nobody worth less than that will have a job, because hiring them would be the same as throwing money away. Now, you don't have to be too smart to understand that, so unless you are someone who sells $20 bills for $15 and thinks you will make it up on volume, it should be clear..

You might also consider that when an employee makes $10, that is not his real cost to the employer. The employee pays 6% social security for himself out of his money- but the employer pays another 6% out of the business money. So now, the $10 wage has become a cost of $10.60 to the employer. Then add other fees the employer pays for the benefit of the employee- workmans comp insurance, which can vary from a few percent of the gross earning to almost 100% depending on the job classification and state. Unemployment insurance- both state and federal; and there are many others that vary with the nature of the work and the location. On the low end, this makes a $10 employee cost at least $12.50, even as much as $15 or more- and that is before the employer makes a dime from the deal. None of those costs would exist if the person wasn't employed there, they are directly related. The value of the employee productivity must cover them, plus a profit for the company, or that person will lose the job.

That's not counting things like medical benefits or any extras a particular company may choose to offer as incentive- profit sharing, child care, pregnancy leave, sick leave, etc. Those benefits as well are expenses accruing to the cost of keeping an employee.

There is no free money. You are either earning it- or you are stealing it.

 

It isn't how wonderful I am, I just made a life plan, didn't do drugs, booze, crime, have kids out of wedlock. THAT is why I am where I am. It was nothing but hard work and long hours, and smart use of my time and money. Nothing anyone else could not have done. My kids are doing as well too, all 6 of them. When you teach people helplessness, you get helplessness. Teach them to survive and think, they will survive and think. Our society now teaches failure. Yes, they TEACH it. That is why our country is in decline. We have not taught the young to survive and flourish.

Now who's fault is it? The liberal messages sent out, from affirmative action, women being told they are better at things then they are, etc. My folks didn't, and I didn't tell my children how to be failures, I taught them to survive and flourish, which we should be teaching our school children how to survive and flourish.

 

I have, END any minimum wage, and teach kids and young adults how to move over minimum wage.

 

But who pays for it? If you care, you pay for it. If I care, I pay for my own.

Liberals believe in the faceless group and no personal responsibility, while conservatives and libertarians think of the individual and personal ownership, or personal failure.

 

But it appears they are failing for the last 50 years, so we are where we are now, a huge welfare society that has too many hangers on the productive people.

 

The problem IS the minimum wage, so get rid of it and there ya go.