patrick.net

This guy should get the Paul Ryan award: claiming a belief in Jesus while upholding atheist Ayn Rand as a moral beacon.

This is like being a Jewish Shiite.

thunderlips11 says

I think the question is, what's wrong with Economics Department at American University (which is not exactly a matchbook university) where he got his degree from?

Or maybe he's just saying what baggers want to hear - a true leader.

I have to say, I almost feel sorry for the people of Virginia. They're going to lose a lot of political capital with Cantor leaving the House. In 2012, GOP primary turnout was about 1/4 of the GOP voting electorate in the general election. This year, primary voters surged by 20k voters -- chaos ensues.

clambo says

The minimum wage question was just a typical liberal nonsense question.

Really? Don't you think it speaks to the ability of this gentleman to do his job? He can't even answer a simple question that is squarely in his wheelhouse as a economics professor??

Not your best representation for the united states university degree mills

clambo says

The minimum wage question was just a typical liberal nonsense question.

It's way more relevant than, say, gay marriages.
A valid question a politician should be able to answer in any case.

he's = politicians.
baggers = voters

Heraclitusstudent says

Or maybe he's just saying what baggers want to hear - a true leader

CaptainShuddup says

Second it would mean the closure of nearly every McDonald's, BK ect... anywhere near depressed low income areas. As that demographic would not be able to afford to eat these. Like a Wholefoods in the Ghetto, it just wouldn't work.

This is balderdash.

Your Big Mac goes up a nickel, BFD!

Of course the people working there, probably live nearby. If they had more money, they would spend it, and the trickle-down would swamp that few cents price increase.

Brat quote:

“All the investment banks in the New York and D.C.—those guys should have gone to jail. Instead of going to jail, they went on Eric’s Rolodex, and they are sending him big checks,” he said.

Doesn't sound crazy to me.

The worry is that, like Cantor, who also claimed to represent the Tea Party followers while running against the Washington gridlock he helped create, Brat will simply go to Washington to mindlessly obstruct while sucking up to big financial interests.

HuggyBumbers McLovkins says

The worry

Substitute "worry" for CERTAINTY. Which Teabagger has NOT gone to Washington to mindlessly obstruct while sucking up to big financial interests. Crazy Uncle Ron doesn't count, he predates the modern Tea Party.

Pure comedy.

Vicente says

This is balderdash.

Increasing minimum wages might add a few cents onto your menu items.

$.68 to be conservative. More than just a few cents.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2013/07/price-of-big-mac-could-rise-by-68-cents-if-minimum-wage-doubles/

I think the increase in minimum wage will also be offset by more automation as more and more businesses resort to self-check out machines.

In my line of work (engineering/manufacturing) over 35% of my costs is labor.

socal2 says

I think the increase in minimum wage will also be offset by more automation as more and more businesses resort to self-check out machines.

You have to factor in reduced turnover. Henry Ford didn't give raises because he was some kind of F'ing visionary, he did it because he had 300% turnover and it was wreaking havoc in his production lines.

WOW! The UNtrustworthy are certainly in control of what information is apparent to the people!

Say hey! This was in the Wall Street Journal on March 30, 1999. Note "... how much it will buy."

Holy cow/interesting/compelling ...!

And where is it up to date??? Right here ... see the first chart shown in this thread.
Recent Dow day is Wednesday, June 11, 2014 __ Level is 106.0

WOW! It is hideous that this is hidden! Is there any such "Homes, Inflation Adjusted"? Yes! This was in the New York Times on August 27, 2006:

And up to date (by me) is here:
http://patrick.net/?p=1219038&c=999083#comment-999083

WOW! The UNtrustworthy are certainly in control of what information is apparent to the people!

And "ThePublic Be Suckered"
http://patrick.net/?p=1230886

These productivity charts show productivity of the US doubling from 2004 to now.

As an R&D engineer watching nearly every Science, Manufacturing, and R&D job go offshore, and as the US graduates more humanities majors that emerging countries and our Math and Science scores are so low - how does the productivity index double in such a period.

Such a period of outsourcing, and of higher government pay vs. private sector is the exact opposite of the traits of an economy which is increasing its productivity.

We have stores that many items, most items are made in China and offshore. This is not what would indicated an increasing productivity.

Our economy has been in rough shape during this time of outsourcing and increased finance and liberal arts majors.

Prove the increased productivity, and in not the flatness in the minimum wage the symptom of time wasting malivestments. Could it be that the democrats say that the flatness in the minimum wage is not the symptom of malinvestments in educational attainment, trickled down to every union, every Walmart worker?

Put another way, if any country divested itself of high paying jobs, for whatever reason, would not you expect to see a contraction of average pay, indeed a collapse of pay, jobs, and a period of unemployment?

Do we discount the low tax zones for technology and semiconductors in Asia, the huge surge in Asia Science Degrees (abroad and in US Universities), and then wonder "hey why is the adjusted minimum wage curve flat".

The only explanation is the meddling in jobs, the outsourcing of everything from furniture to Semiconductors and the dismal performance of our children in Science and Math. No our kids are not dumb, we have a strong unionized teaching force which has been dominated by Democrats for years. We need the change every government agency, minimize their control, and pass laws that improve our public education, encourage manufacturing and restore this country to what it once was.

I've got an idea. How about all of those folks here who go on about oh how bad it would be to raise minimum wage go and get one of those jobs. Let us know how it goes. Oh and no whining!!!

Call it Crazy says

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there are about 3.6 million workers at or below the minimum wage (you can be below legally under certain conditions). That is 2.5 percent of all workers and 1.5 percent of the population of potential workers.

How many people are within 10% of the minimum wage?

Plenty of companies have a policy (inc. McDonalds and Wally World) of paying a few cents above minimum so they can plausibly claim "We don't pay the minimum wage."

The minimum wage is a bullshit political ploy.

It trails inflation, even the lowball inflation that's under-reported by the CPI.

Increasing it to a level which is still lower than historically, adjusting for inflation, doesn't really do much other than give you a popularity boost, and putting the lowest of the low skilled people out of work, or driving their work underground into the free economy (aka, the black market).

The average US person is seeing their standard of living decline because of government debt spending and credit creation distorting the markets. When it's more profitable to borrow money at 0% and use it to speculate into real estate or equities, that's what we get. When that profit vehicle doesn't exist, people actually have to work for profit by making things, providing services, and in general, doing productive things that increase wealth.

We have people's real income dropping because so many are out of work because of this stupid speculation replacing productive enterprise. The minimum wage going up a little bit in nominal terms does nothing to help this situation, which will continue to get worse while we have insane criminals leading the Fed and voting for spending in Congress.

Don't forget this famous study:

On April 1, 1992, New Jersey’s minimum wage rose from $4.25 to $5.05 per hour. To evaluate the impact of the law we surveyed 410 fast-food restaurants in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania before and after the rise. Comparisons of employment growth at stores in New Jersey and Pennsylvania (where the minimum wage was constant) provide simple estimates of the effect of the higher minimum wage. We also compare employment changes at stores in New Jersey that were initially paying high wages (above $5) to the changes at lower-wage stores. We find no indication that the rise in the minimum wage reduced employment.

http://eml.berkeley.edu/~card/papers/njmin-aer.pdf

Entitlemented says

The only explanation is the meddling in jobs, the outsourcing of everything from furniture to Semiconductors and the dismal performance of our children in Science and Math. No our kids are not dumb, we have a strong unionized teaching force which has been dominated by Democrats for years. We need the change every government agency, minimize their control, and pass laws that improve our public education, encourage manufacturing and restore this country to what it once was.

Please don't tell me that you buy the BS that companies are moving abroad because they can't find qualified engineers are workers in the US. You can't be that naïve.

myob says

Does their new, slightly higher wage, result in more food, housing, etc, being built? Not really, they've not how a little more to spend on those things, so through supply and demand, prices go up

You need to go back and take Econ 101 over again.

myob says

I disagree with the standard of living having been higher. We have much better cars, electronics, cell phones, airplanes, houses, appliances, medical care, materials, food, clothing, and countless things I can't even think of than we had in those single wage earner times. The single wage earner was living in a poorly insulated house, with a black and white tube tv and a vacuum tube radio and didn't have A/C or a microwave.

A poorly insulated house, affordable universities, healthcare and pensions.

This was MUCH better standard of living than we have now. These were necessities.

What we got extra are a few gadgets while most families can't pay for a house AND retirement, let alone a house + retirement + kids education.

1960:

Charles, we're pleased that you finished Junior College while working full time. A degree in Psychology! What gumption! Just the kind of guy we need in Management! Let me introduce you to Max, who runs our Executive Training division...

2010:

Listen, kid, Chuck, whatever your name is. All you little brats knock on my door with your University MBAs... it's annoying. Get back to your desk and hit the TPS reports like you should be doing, a task at your level. And don't forget the Cover Letter this time, dummy!

"All I know is if you take the long-run graph over 200 years of the wage rate, it cannot differ from your nation's productivity."

His fail is right there. We're international now whether we like it or not. Wages in one nation are impacted to some extent by what's happening around the globe.

It makes figuring out what to do with minimum wages much more difficult. Services are local, so many don't tend to compete directly with overseas competition. Manufacturing does, however, once you account for transportation costs.

Manufacturing jobs were regarded as high wage jobs when the US had a competitive advantage in production (see industrial revolution.) They may well become the low wage jobs since they compete internationally.

My gut is that major increases in minimum wage without protectionist measurers against international competition will have a negative effect. Small increases that force employers to match inflation shouldn't hurt.

myob says

The rich have no incentive to put capital to work because it's much easier and less risky to borrow against said capital at 0% and speculate! It's much riskier and much more work to actually put it to work. I think we agree in a roundabout way .

Financial policy is to blame

ZIRP is supposed to force capitalists to put capital to work.

You can't trade with nations that have millions of slave like workers without an impact on US workers wages.

You can't let capital and technologies flow freely to other countries without impacting how much capital is deployed in the US.

You can't lose $500 billions in trade, every year, for decades, without a massive financial industry to mask that fact.

Finance is a symptom.

Trade policy is to blame.

The Borowitz Report is satire. A url including /blogs/ is not a strong reference point in a debate.

Call it Crazy says

I would expect that in a fast food place... It still takes the same number of people to flip burgers, make fries, work the counter and clean up. Those positions can't be eliminated if the business is to function

Touch pad ordering stations could easily reduce 20 -30% of fast food jobs. This will (or is) happening regardless of whether the minimum wage increases. Automation in the kitchen is still very expensive, but it too will arrive eventually.

Speaking of touch pads... I ate at a Chili's for the first time in a long time. They now have touch screen devices on every table; you can reorder drinks, desserts, etc, pay your bill and everything.
It had games and a jerky 2 frame per second fireplace app. My GF played the movie trivia game, supposedly against others in the restaurant, but I was unconvinced it was anything other than bot "opponents."
The waitress was just attentive enough; we barely saw her.
Went to pay the bill and it included a 99c table entertainment fee. I about wanted to THROW the stupid thing. Scrolled the tip from 20% down to 14% and that was that for me and Chili's.

"Went to pay the bill and it included a 99c table entertainment fee."

It's all about the extra fees. They don't fear the lash back because we have short memories. A bird in the hand is worth it because we'll promptly forget that Chilis billed us for the bird.

did you enjoy the meal?
If so, as long as the reduced tip alleviates the surprise surcharge, why throw away a viable pitstop??

Automan Empire says

Went to pay the bill and it included a 99c table entertainment fee. I about wanted to THROW the stupid thing. Scrolled the tip from 20% down to 14% and that was that for me and Chili's.

Call it Crazy says

The main reason is that touch pads always show up for work unless stolen , don't call in sick unless broken, and work for the complete shift unless the battery dies and don't goof off agreed!...

Yep - plenty of US people getting technology degrees:

http://www.ibtimes.com/five-companies-responsible-third-new-h-1b-guest-worker-visa-approvals-last-year-businesses-1572499

https://engineering.purdue.edu/ECE/People/GraduateStudents

Yep that Ayn Rand has it all wrong!

GDP over the years:

http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/obama-%E2%80%9912-the-echoes-of-incumbents-past/

And everyone knows that if we grow the government prosperity is just around the corner:

http://www.factcheck.org/2010/12/are-federal-workers-overpaid/

Those Randistas are something!

Socialism is not in the US playbook? This is a good economics professor!

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/11/15/seattle-voters-elect-socialist-to-city-council/?intcmp=latestnews

Nobel Prize Winner and his book on causes of Wage Stagnation and related effects: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Stagnation

Seattle's minimum wage rising to $15 per hour over 36 months doesn't reek of wage inflation to you?

You really believe there will still be a 7 buck plus combo meal at Mickie D's at the end of this road?

Let me get this straight, the sixteen year old slinging fries in Seattle will be making 30k a year. Check.
We can assume the assistant manager, who actually gets his hands on total receipts and door keys on occasion, will want 20 percent more than that...so 36k. And then the loftiest of the lofty...the big buck earner...the McDonald's Evening Shift Manager, who does the tallies everynight, does the ordering, does the lock up and security will want to pull down around, I'd say 42K or so minimum. Ok. I get the picture.

So, with 900 square foot rents running an average of 1765 per month (now! but certainly more in 3 years, right?), and 3 bed/1 bath wood shacks going for around 490k...Just how far away from town are these manager's commuting? They can't commute from the East End on those salaries can they? What with the 520 bridge tolls running 12 bucks round trip per day. They must be coming from an hour to 90 minutes from the South.

In fact. the 700 grand SHACKS in the bay area must be fairly close to fast food joints, yeah? How are Bay Area McDonald's Manager's affording to live? Do they take commuter flights from Fresno or something? Maybe sleep in their office on Tuesdays and Thursdays to save bucks?

I have news. This is HEAVY wage inflation pressure. Seattle is doing it to pay for the damn bridge, because the huge property tax increases are starting to really hurt people.

There's no way in hell we get out of this with a quarter pounder meal under 12 bucks. Not a chance.

The Trillions in Fed purchases and Treasury bonds, according to the financial press, is "sloshing around in central bank vaults not being loaned out to main street businesses - as increased liquid leverage against future bumps in the road". But that's been a lie until very recently. It isn't sloshing around. It's gone. Literally blown on bad securities, bad collateralized debt, bad derivatives, and other too-big-to-fail financial structures who bet on bogus fundamentals and lost. The Fed covered their losses and told them to keep on gambling. It propped up stocks and real estate quite well. But now we have wage inflation. Uh oh. better hurry and enjoy those horse meat and saw dust burgers while you can.

Which particular part of that highlighted section do you have an issue with?

Bigsby made a funny!

I'll redirect the question to you.