Item #6: Minimum Wage
President Obama used the word "jobs" 31 times in his recent speech. You can't really be sure it is what he wants, though. He also advocates against jobs. He mentioned wages 9 times in the same speech, and made a big pitch for a higher minimum wage. He is evidently unaware of the simple economic relationship between wages and jobs. If wages go up, jobs go down. If he understands it differently, he is certainly not making a case why he his ideas should be adopted.
Your Wizer has long advocated the elimination of all wage and price controls so that the real economy can kick in. Even so, quite simply, it is the best possible outcome for the lower class. Everybody does better when everybody is working. Everybody works when the government doesn't prevent them from working. The government prevents working by eliminating the possibility of employment of low skilled workers. Why is the government outlawing jobs?
If a worker isn't worth hiring at $7.25, how is he going to get a job at $9.00? How? How does that open up even an opportunity for him to feed his family? The simple economic truth is he is then that much further away from getting a job. Then, there's the inflationary effect of the higher wages paid to people who survive the layoffs. All prices go up to meet the new minimum wage. The beneficiaries are not the people who got a 75 cent raise, when the cost of their burger has gone up 75 cents too. Nobody benefits from that, except maybe the investor who has bet on inflation. Perhaps that is Obama's target beneficiary.
Even though Obama's message was 31 for jobs and 9 against jobs, the fight against jobs is the one he appears ready to fight.
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