Minimum Wage Increases May Backfire

[Quantum Windbag]

I think the curbing hiring argument might not apply to minimum wage earners. When one thinks about curbing hiring it usually refers to more median range salaries.

I think you forget that it is easier, and less expensive, to hire one man at a decent salary to maintain robots to do the menial tasks than it is to hire 10 minimum wage workers. Even the post office is switching to robots rather than hire people to do the scut work. Keep kicking up the minimum wage and you might even price that maintenance guy out of a job.

Relatively, there are very few jobs that robots can do in lace of human beings. And where they can be used, robots aren't always as economical as one might think. In a sense a microwave oven is a robot which take the place of a human heating food with fire. I just threw out a microwave last month. Bought a new one. $60 (and that was one of the cheaper ones).

I suggest you take a look around the real world.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

When I owned a business, my biggest problem was the large # of people in my sales area whose incomes were too low to enable them to buy my products. My wish was for big raises in the minimum wage.

All you had to do was give them a raise and you would have made millions.

 

[william the wie]

This Was Not The Answer MSNBC Host Anticipated From Bill Gates About Raising The Minimum Wage | Independent Journal Review

I don't look to Bill Gates for economic analysis but I will cede that small increases will not have that much of an effect in the short run.

First, Gates reasoning is incomplete. The substitution effect will be partially mitigated by an income effect as low wage workers will spend more. The economic debate is about how larger increases than we have historically had will work out, and nobody really knows.

There is a further issue. Can we grow an economy by hanging on to low wage, low productivity jobs? Not very well.

More than offset by the intended economic effects of Ocare.

 

[Politico]

$8.20? What a bunch of spineless pricks hiding behind an empty gesture. It's like hey you make your cars cleaner. You have until 2021 to get it done. Then they can say they addressed the problem without actually doing anything.

 

[Kris91]

A classic tool to gain a few votes, not Obama?
If we increase the minimum wage tend to increase the deficit.
Obama, do you remember Detroit?

An increase in the minimum wage would lead to an increase in prices and returns to the starting point.
The starting point should be: no minimum wage, yes employment.

 

[oldfart]

I don't look to Bill Gates for economic analysis but I will cede that small increases will not have that much of an effect in the short run.

First, Gates reasoning is incomplete. The substitution effect will be partially mitigated by an income effect as low wage workers will spend more. The economic debate is about how larger increases than we have historically had will work out, and nobody really knows.

There is a further issue. Can we grow an economy by hanging on to low wage, low productivity jobs? Not very well.

In other words, Gates got it right, but you don't want to admit it.

As I said, he gave half of the story. He was partially right. In general, I do agree with his comment that we have to be aware of the substitution effect, but that is not an argument against raising the minimum wage, it's an argument for increasing productivity through investment in human capital.

 

[william the wie]

The difficulty in increasing human capital is that mostly government programs continuously increase the cost of doing so through the Dept. of Ed.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

First, Gates reasoning is incomplete. The substitution effect will be partially mitigated by an income effect as low wage workers will spend more. The economic debate is about how larger increases than we have historically had will work out, and nobody really knows.

There is a further issue. Can we grow an economy by hanging on to low wage, low productivity jobs? Not very well.

In other words, Gates got it right, but you don't want to admit it.

As I said, he gave half of the story. He was partially right. In general, I do agree with his comment that we have to be aware of the substitution effect, but that is not an argument against raising the minimum wage, it's an argument for increasing productivity through investment in human capital.

Because the government always makes everything better. If you don't believe me, just look at Obamacare.

Did I get your position right?

If you read what he said, which I realize would actually mean paying attention, you will see that he said that it encourages substitution, not that it automatically leads to it, and that even that has limits. I guess that means that the half he got wrong is all in your deluded pinprick of a head.

“Well, jobs are a great thing. So you have to be a bit careful: If you raise the minimum wage, you’re encouraging labor substitution, and you’re going to go buy machines and automate things — or cause jobs to appear outside of that jurisdiction. And so within certain limits, you know, it does cause job destruction. If you really start pushing it, then you’re just making a huge trade-off.”

 

[oldfart]

In other words, Gates got it right, but you don't want to admit it.

As I said, he gave half of the story. He was partially right. In general, I do agree with his comment that we have to be aware of the substitution effect, but that is not an argument against raising the minimum wage, it's an argument for increasing productivity through investment in human capital.

Because the government always makes everything better. If you don't believe me, just look at Obamacare.

Did I get your position right?

No, you are engaging in deflection again. As so many times before, this is because you have difficulty dealing with ideas rather than slogans.

If you read what he said, which I realize would actually mean paying attention, you will see that he said that it encourages substitution, not that it automatically leads to it, and that even that has limits. I guess that means that the half he got wrong is all in your deluded pinprick of a head.

I read what he said on this and other occasions, which you obviously have not. Therefore you are unaware of any context to put this statements in. In regard to calling me a "deluded pinprick of a head", I guess that means you have abandoned the argument and chosen to resort to name calling. I would trade insults with you, but you are neither sufficiently intelligent nor well-read to catch the allusions. I eschew references to body parts. Were you abused as a child? This obsession with body parts and body functions is really telling.

 

[Indeependent]

This Was Not The Answer MSNBC Host Anticipated From Bill Gates About Raising The Minimum Wage | Independent Journal Review

The same Bill Gates who says Americans have no skills and who says we have to look to Africa to emulate their education system?
Any other brilliant references?