patrick.net

Schiff is right. This was covered in the other thread on minimum wage.

The majority of the schiffstorm was caused by his use of the term 'mentally retarded'. Political correctness is the biggest scourge of the 21st century.

I say we split the US treasury into two parts.
One for Liberal pie in the sky expenditures, and the other conservative Conservatorship.
Each budgeted accordingly by part, and that's all each part gets.

Businesses can register which party they want to be taxed and how they run their business.

I bet 100% of Warren Buffets companies would be conservative, as well as Bloomberg, Gates, Starbucks, and every Liberal schil that injected politics into their products, would also jump ship and become conservative.

And each party can pass labor laws that dictate their finances accordingly. $15 minimum wage for registered Democrat voters.

And I would give the Liberal pie in the sky budget less than two years before it was totally broke and defunct.

I think the underpaid should move to Australia as minimum wage there is $21 per hour. Which will work out great until the Aussies smell the coffee like Sweden has.

mell says

The majority of the schiffstorm was caused by his use of the term 'mentally retarded'.

Hah no. I like best the part of the interview where he says he never eats at McDonalds. But he's perfectly willing to ASSERT that the workers there are all high school kids working for pocket money. No Schiff! He bases his entire judgement of an employment situation on his FANTASY of how things are.

The average age of a fast food employee is I believe 29. And I've never seen anyone under 30 at the one near my workplace.

Vicente says

The average age of a fast food employee is I believe 29. And I've never seen anyone under 30 at the one near my workplace.

I have seen a lot of youngsters serving at fast food places all along 80 east (a route often traveled for many years from SF to tahoe) - hard to put a number on them, but definitely the majority is below 30 IMO. Regardless of your opinion on the minimum wage debate, the majority of the outrage was because of the use of 'mentally retarded'. Just google every "Schiff outrage" report and it is has 'mentally retarded' somewhere in the headline.

Vicente says

He bases his entire judgement of an employment situation on his FANTASY of how things are.

What's wrong with that? Mish has built an entire blog life around the same kind of thinking. IT must make you sort of miss your days as a libertarian. Throwing reality out the window makes analysis nice clean and simple.

In that interview, I would have liked to hear her drill down with questions getting Schiff to elaborate on how poverty is the fault of government programs, and also whether he can acknowledge the back door subsidy to big companies that pay the minimum wage, that actually is provided by food stamps.

I'd like to hear Schiff give an in depth explanation of the beautiful things that happen economically when you reduce government aid AND have no minimum wage.

While they're at it, they should also get him to weigh in on whats going to happen in future decades when more and more jobs are automated. Does he relish the idea of ever increasing numbers of people in extreme poverty ? Does he have thoughts on solutions.

Perhaps the answer is "tough love."

I have seen mentally challenged individuals working in a Carls Jr.

Infinity better for them to work there than be placed in some state run facility run by over paid Calpers workers.

A raise in the minimum wage would definitely effect this program.

marcus says

While they're at it, they should also get him to weigh in on whats going to happen in future decades when more and more jobs are automated. Does he relish the idea of ever increasing numbers of people in extreme poverty ? Does he have thoughts on solutions.

So sad, so sad that Marcus doesn't realize that those jobs were automated because of the minimum wage.

Marcus, ever wonder why the unemployment is so high for the 16-24 age group?

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

I give him a buck every few weeks and a piece of baloney. Hey, fang, here's
your fucking steak! I tell him and he's happy as a pig in shit.

You throw him some Arkansas round steak as a reward?

You 1%er, you.

marcus says

Vicente
says

He bases his entire judgement of an employment situation on his FANTASY of
how things are.

What's wrong with that? Mish has built an entire blog life around the same
kind of thinking. IT must make you sort of miss your days as a libertarian.
Throwing reality out the window makes analysis nice clean and simple.

It kind of makes you wonder what kind of mopes would listen to and follow the advice of, the two most moronic humps that are continuously wrong about everything............Schiff and Mush, and now because they denigrate McDonald's employees. Are those two screwballs THAT hard up for mopes' money that their answer to their lack of ignorant and willing blind dupes, is that?

What's next, sabotaging the Special Olympics?

You are really quite the word-smith but when you brought up the lunch box part, that was truly old school and beyond funny.

Thanks for the good laugh.

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

lunch box series

Price controls don't work for very long. If raising the minimum wage is the answer, why not make it $500 per hour? Wouldn't that help people even more?

There is also another way to look at Walmart and all the low priced imported goods: the low cost of those goods allow people live a higher standard of living than if nothing were imported and everything was produced with domestic labor. Even though wages are low, prices are low as well.

These minimum wage arguments and the "1%" thing always seem imply some sort of class warfare - i.e. it's the overpaid CEO's that are to blame, and the gov't should essentially force them to pay out some of their profits to their "underpaid employees". Essentially these arguments totally ignore the skill involved in being a CEO, the difficulty or risk involved, or even the education required.

Here's an idea: lets just all smoke pot and complain about the 1%.

How does increasing the price of something (labor) make people want to buy more of it?

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

Old school? I thought the lunch box angle was the explanation for all the
vampire show movie sequels and a confection like the Hobbit sprawled across
three (autumn lunch box selling seasons) ridiculously flabby movies.

Well, 40 years ago it seemed as though everything that was made and/or marketed to kids always included a cheap metal lunch box too. Imagine all the lost money by people that don't have the hoarder tendency and can't sell their childhood junk(old lunch box) on Ebay.

bullshitmagnet says

Price controls don't work for very long. If raising the minimum wage is the answer, why not make it $500 per hour? Wouldn't that help people even more?

Yes, that's great logic. It's cold in Chicago--if someone says they wish it was 70 instead, you could come back and say--that's ridiculous. If warmer is better, why not make it 1000 degrees.

bullshitmagnet says

There is also another way to look at Walmart and all the low priced imported goods: the low cost of those goods allow people live a higher standard of living than if nothing were imported and everything was produced with domestic labor. Even though wages are low, prices are low as well.

Not really. People would have a higher standard of living with higher wages and slightly higher prices. All we're doing now is raising the standard of living for the Chinese, et. al.

bullshitmagnet says

These minimum wage arguments and the "1%" thing always seem imply some sort of class warfare - i.e. it's the overpaid CEO's that are to blame, and the gov't should essentially force them to pay out some of their profits to their "underpaid employees". Essentially these arguments totally ignore the skill involved in being a CEO, the difficulty or risk involved, or even the education required.

Class warfare already exists and the lower class is losing. Big time. Let's take a look at the "skill" and education that you speak of. Are CEOs better educated than scientists? Are they more "skilled" than mechanics? What "risk" is there?

Once you can answer those questions, then tell me how much that extra "skill" and "education" is worth. Because right now, CEOs make ~ 100 times what the average worker does. Does that seem appropriate?

bullshitmagnet says

Here's an idea: lets just all smoke pot and complain about the 1%.

Whatever makes you happy, but IMO, it's not the 1% fault. It's the system's fault. I'd be happy to collect their paycheck too...

Absolutely we need the anointed ones to tell us what to do. I mean it is right there on TV the public servants are beyond reproach, selfless with complete integrity, they must be and their pay is commensurate.

We mopes wander around aimlessly with flailing arms, thank god we have the noble public servants to guide us as we couldn't possibly think for ourselves. I mean we barely get around on our hind legs.

Can you imagine how bad it would be if we didn't have our noble overlords telling us what to do. We would just be rooting around for grubs to eat.

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

Right. People thought Star Wars was a science fiction movie when it really
was an ad for a lunch box.

What I meant was that during a certain period, the lunch box was part of the marketing or or release of a new show or movie. Then came the 'action figures', and now if you travel at all and have to use public restrooms in a truck stop, it's camouflage hats and t-shirts with the duck dynasty crap on them. The OCC(Orange County Choppers) stocking hats are out of style too.

But in the end, all of the crap with any relationship to a recent fad, hits the landfill sooner.

upisdown says

Then came the 'action figures', and now if you travel at all and have to use public restrooms in a truck stop, it's camouflage hats and t-shirts with the duck dynasty crap on them.

Absolutely they should have the regulator action figure as shown on TV he keeps people safe from the insidious business owners with episodes showing this agent of the status quo shooting and incarcerating them as they should be. Or an episode showing the business owner being litigated into bankruptcy and then showing the noble lawyer kicking him onto the street.

indigenous says

Absolutely they should have the regulator action figure as shown on TV he
keeps people safe from the insidious business owners with episodes showing this
agent of the status quo shooting and incarcerating them as they should be. Or an
episode showing the business owner being litigated into bankruptcy and then
showing the noble lawyer kicking him onto the street.

Uhhhhhhh, yeah? No? Whatever.

spydah_hh says

If labor cost were to increase by raising minimum wage, then employers will just fire those who are on minimum wage and replace them with automation.

That's ridiculous. Yes, automation has and will continue to replace jobs currently done by human labor with machines. But the automation decision is complex--based on an economic payback which includes many costs and benefits. To imply that any increases in minimum wage would cause mass automation is simplistic and insincere.

The more important question is how will the country cope with the continued trend of automation in the future. It's likely that inequality trend will continue as owners get more and more of the pie while workers get less and less. As we become more and more productive, it's great that we should have more leisure time but we will have to come up with a redistribution scheme.

tatupu70 says

That's ridiculous. Yes, automation has and will continue to replace jobs currently done by human labor with machines. But the automation decision is complex--based on an economic payback which includes many costs and benefits. To imply that any increases in minimum wage would cause mass automation is simplistic and insincere.

Businesses automate jobs all the time due to labor costs. Rising minimum wage increases labor costs. Just like the article stated if the McDonalds were forced to raise minimum wage to $15 they will most likely automate many of those minimum wage job.

If Minimum wage was the answer to wealth disparity or the betterment of peoples lives forget raising minimum wage to $15 lets just raise it to $100. But of course that won't happen because the government knows it doesn't work. In fact you wont' even see an immediate jump from $7.25 to $15 because they know that wouldn't work either, they'll have to increase it ever so slowly so that the problems that occur from minimum wage is obscured to the common man.

I mean here's more proof the unemployment rate for 16-24 age group is the highest age group in the country hell even in the world (since most of the world have minium wage standards). Why? Because first of all these young kids or young adults come from high school or college with no to little work experience. Most of the jobs they would have otherwise had are now eliminated due to minimum wage. Companies replaced these low wage jobs with automation or just elimination. We don't see gas pumpers anymore, we don't see groceries baggers anymore much less cashiers anymore, some toll bridge jobs are automated, customer service is automated.

These were all jobs that the young working people otherwise would have taken up. Does it pay a livable wage? Well at one point they did but that was before the dollar was debased so greatly. But even if they didn't provide a livable wage, they still would have provided valuable experience that would have made these young workers productive and worth a much higher wage which would provide them a livable wage at a young adult age. Not to mention at this point of time most of these young adults (or teenagers) were still being provided for by their parents and families.

In other words minimum wage kills apprenticeship. Most people are now force to go through the college lie in order to get a decent job but of course most of them come out with a degree of debt and end up worst off than if they hadn't gone through college.

Edit: Also take a look at Singapore's 16-24 unemployment figures, they're unemployment for this age group is well below the world's average and that's because Singapore has no minimum wage and it also has a thriving economy.

bgamall4 says

spydah_hh says

f Minimum wage was the answer to wealth disparity

You have a better answer, Einstein?

Yeah do what Singapore is doing, remove minimum wage. It causes more problems than it creates. It would also help if 9-12 students were trained in some from of work education, or training classes. I mean we do go to school for 13 years and they don't provide any training that prepares you for the work environment.

College does this somewhat, but at a huge expense to the student.

bgamall4 says

spydah_hh says

Businesses automate jobs all the time due to labor costs. Rising minimum wage increases labor costs. Just like the article stated if the McDonalds were forced to raise minimum wage to $15 they will most likely automate many of those minimum wage job.

Half the people who eat at McDonalds are employees. Eliminate them for a small savings and you will eliminate same store sales growth.

Oh really? And where do you get this information from?

Btw, many McDonald employees get discount foods which means they pay less than the customer, which is just another added cost to the business.

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

'Tards. Fuckin' 'tards deserve equal opportunity. Like this one guy I got at the house. He taught himself to pour dish soap all over himself and use his clothes to scrub my cars and hose them off. Takes the bugs and shit off of the window. He does a good job, I give him a buck every few weeks and a piece of baloney. Hey, fang, here's your fucking steak! I tell him and he's happy as a pig in shit.

Spoken like a true oligarch.

Plus 1!

spydah_hh says

Why? Because first of all these young kids or young adults come from high school or college with no to little work experience.

So what?

This is one of the problems with corporate America. Yet you imply it's a good necessary protocol.

They don't give you experience and than complain they can't give you experience because you don't have experience.

A true catch-22.

What fucking experience does a shitty job like retail or flipping burgers give you?

Unless you are mentally incompetent... nothing!

How fucking hard is it to say "Hi, What Can I Do For You?"

"Your Total is $20."

"Here is Your Receipt."

It is not fucking rocket science to work a fucking cash register, put money inside it, give the change that the computer calculates for you, give the receipt, do refunds and greet customers.

It is not rocket science to put items on a aisle, rack up clothes, vacuum, mop floors and take out the trash.

What experience does one really learn from these jobs?

I'll tell you what... NOTHING except first training you to compliance, being treated like shit, being made to look stupid, useless, worthless and treated like property.

They want you to take these jobs unless you an oligarch's son, so they can first mentally program you to kiss ass, accept being pissed on and belittled.

Only than can you work a corporate office job making $100K but that's also if you have college too.

But the 100K a year salary... Most people end up blowing this salary on a fancy car, a house, eating out, consumer spending and so-forth.

Hell even $200K-$300K yuppies are living paycheck to paycheck.

Way back in the old days in the 1950's... All you needed was a HS diploma or GED.

You went directly to the manager in a suit and tie with a briefcase.

Applied for an apprenticeship and than were hired if you were serious, didn't do drugs, wasn't involved in crime and knew how to give a proper handshake along with having basic manners.

These days you submit a resume to a computer that filters you out to some bullshit criteria that doesn't mean much set by a cunt with a vagina in Human Resources.

And what about the name "Human Resources"... ?

They very indirectly implying that you are all a bunch of human property to the company. You salary is merely is them paying rent to use you just like they use and abuse the shit out of a car rental.

If they really cared about you as a human. They would like it "Human Support" instead of "Human Resources"

And why are mostly all women employed at that particular department especially? It's because women are usually easier to enslave than men. They need to hire women in higher numbers than more qualified men due to government quotas in all departments.

The Human Resources department.... the worst department in all of departments in mostly all companies.

They engage in hypocrisy, stupid hiring rules and criteria along with a host of all kinds of other stupid shit by the department. Most of the people who work there are also the most cowardly, mean-spirited and arrogant people I've come across.

spydah_hh says

Just like the article stated if the McDonalds were forced to raise minimum wage to $15 they will most likely automate many of those minimum wage job.

It was basically a letter to the editor. Not the article. One man's opinion.

spydah_hh says

If Minimum wage was the answer to wealth disparity or the betterment of peoples lives forget raising minimum wage to $15 lets just raise it to $100

Again with the logical fallacy of appealing to extremes? Please stop.

spydah_hh says

Most of the jobs they would have otherwise had are now eliminated due to minimum wage. Companies replaced these low wage jobs with automation or just elimination

Bullshit. These jobs would have been eliminated with or without minimum wage.

spydah_hh says

In other words minimum wage kills apprenticeship. Most people are now force to go through the college lie in order to get a decent job

So let's look at what you're saying. Automation killed jobs because of the minimum wage. You appear to be saying that some jobs would still be around without minimum wage, right? Therefore they would be paying (much?) less than current minimum wage? And you'd consider those "decent" jobs?? Really? Do I have that correct?

spydah_hh says

If labor cost were to increase by raising minimum wage, then employers will just fire those who are on minimum wage and replace them with automation.

This is almost a legitimate point. The correct way to put it would be as follows.

Minimum wage jobs that can be replaced by automation for slightly above the cost of those minimum wage jobs are at risk of being replaced by automation, if the minimum wage is raised to above the cost of automating the jobs.

But 2 things to consider here:

1) What current minimum wage jobs are in this category ? Certainly most retail jobs are not. Even automated cashiers have met with very mixed results (and those are usually not minimum wage jobs - not in grocery stores anyway. ).

2) In cases where the savings from automation would be fairly small, employers may choose to stick with humans, for a number of reasons, some of which are self interest, such as preserving the human interaction factor in dealing with customers or dealings within the corporation.

Still, the automation of jobs is going to change things a lot, and at some point we are going to have to figure out ways of dealing with the fact that many jobs can be done better by machines than by people.

We don't hear many people trying to make the argument anymore that there is not net loss of jobs with automation because of all the jobs that are created building machines or software systems that perform the automated tasks. I think it's pretty much accepted now that in the not to distant future there will not be enough middle income jobs to support the economy.

(funny, it was only a few years ago, when Obama made some off the cuff comment about loss of jobs due to automation,=, using ATMs as an example, and a lot of people were up in arms about how stupid he was for not understanding that with automation you don't actually lose jobs. Now I think it's pretty much accepted that this is obviously true. )

That fact combined with a coming leveling off of population put us only a small step away from rejecting a lot of the laissez-faire free market dogma that has dominated economic policy decisions for the past 50 years.

tatupu70 says

So let's look at what you're saying. Automation killed jobs because of the minimum wage. You appear to be saying that some jobs would still be around without minimum wage, right? Therefore they would be paying (much?) less than current minimum wage? And you'd consider those "decent" jobs?? Really? Do I have that correct?

Yep, I am saying that. Also not all jobs would of been eliminated.

marcus says

Still the point is ultimately worth considering, and at some point we are going to have to figure out way of dealing with the fact that many jobs can be done better by machines than by people.

That's true. However, not all jobs would be replaced by machines.

No kidding. Especially not minimum wage jobs. What happens with automation is middle income jobs that used to be done by a department of 20 people, can now be done (or one day will be done) by a department of 6 people.

tatupu70 says

It was basically a letter to the editor. Not the article. One man's opinion.

The article was also one man's explanation of minimum wage cost would only be .68 cent in a product, however this explanation was incorrect and was appropriately updated.

tatupu70 says

Again with the logical fallacy of appealing to extremes? Please stop.

Umm, sorry but the only fallacy is the cost of minimum wage. If you're going to $15 why stop there? By your definition increasing minimum wage better people's live so why not go higher than $15? Why not $20? $50? $100? Simple, because it doesn't work.

spydah_hh says

Yep, I am saying that. Also not all jobs would of been eliminated.

So how is a job paying LESS than current minimum wage "a decent job"?

spydah_hh says

By your definition increasing minimum wage better people's live so why not go higher than $15? Why not $20? $50? $100? Simple, because it doesn't work.

What is my definition?

When you have to resort to logical fallacies--you need to rethink your position.

marcus says

No kidding. Especially not minimum wage jobs. What happens with automation is middle income jobs that used to be done by a department of 20 people, can now be done by a department of 6 people.

This is for any job. However, from my personal observation a local company called Meyers automated a lot of the work load done by minimum wage workers or those making just a little over minimum wage. Granted from my knowledge they didn't lay workers off due to the automation but they certainly did not fulfill any of their vacation positions either. Though they also didn't hire any of their temporary contract workers either they were removed.

tatupu70 says

So how is a job paying LESS than current minimum wage "a decent job"?

Refer to post #32, posted at 9:11 am this morning. That should help answer your question.

spydah_hh says

Umm, sorry but the only fallacy is the cost of minimum wage. If you're going to $15 why stop there? By your definition increasing minimum wage better people's live so why not go higher than $15? Why not $20? $50? $100? Simple, because it doesn't work.

Oops, I just accidentally liked your post when trying to quote. SO I offset it with a dislike. I normally don't do either one on very many posts.

Your "reasoning" here is beyond stupid. I understand where you're coming from. That if something other than market determines price then you might as well take it to the extreme.

But this is so stupid.

The fact is that the market is not working. If the market allows a price for labor that is below the cost of living, and if that low pay level is supported by the government with food stamps and other aid, then the market is already being tampered with in favor of the employer.

THe flaw in your reasoning is as simple as this. Raising the minimum wage to $10 or $12 per hour may actually improve the economy, where as we all know that raising the minimum wage to $100 per hour destroys everything.

IF you can not comprehend this, then you aren't worth talking to.

IF arguing that raising the minimum wage to $100 won't work, is the best argument you have for why raising it to $10/hr, won't work, then I would say you don't have any good arguments.

marcus says

The fact is that the market is not working. If the market allows a price for labor that is below the cost of living, and if it is supported by the government with food stamps and other aid, then the market is already being tampered with in favor of the employer.

The low cost of living only occurs because of government debasement. The counter argument to that is to increase people's wages, but that doesn't work either.

It used to be back in the day you could work at a fast food restaurant is still earn a livable wage, however, due to the debasement of our currency this is no longer the case. This is even starting to effect white collar jobs as well.

So the solution to the problem isn't minimum wage standards it's to simply stop debasing the dollar.

spydah_hh says

It used to be back in the day you could work at a fast food restaurant is still earn a livable wage

Tha'ts not really true. Minimum wage was never a livable wage. Which is also the reason why raising it, not even enough to keep up with inflation, should not even be an issue. It's just a minimum that is way below what one can live on.

spydah_hh says

The low cost of living only occurs because of government debasement. The counter argument to that is to increase people's wages, but that doesn't work either.

Actually, when inflation occurs, wages must go up.

IF you want to argue for ways to prevent inflation from occuring, that's a separate discussion. What you seem to be arguing here is in favor of currency debasement. You are saying what ? That by totally fucking over all workers, by not allowing their wages to keep up with inflation, we may finally be able to put an end to inflation ?

Actually the opposite is true as far as I can tell.

It seems you are in favor of the net outcome of inflation being more wealth moving up to the top.