The Cruelty and Carnage of the Minimum Wage: The Case of Tad

Via Foundation For Economic Education

"If your goal is to ruin the lives of young and marginalized population groups, raising the wage floor to $15 an hour is a good plan. Already, much of the current problem with youth unemployment is due to the high minimum wage increases we’ve seen over the last eight years. 

"After all, the original purpose of the minimum wage was to disemploy undesirables. Not having a job means not participating in the fullness of life. It’s a big deal. 

"A wage floor of any sort traps people in the economic basement. The higher the floor, the larger the basement. Today, millions are rattling around down there, unable to find their way out. Millions more will find themselves there once all this legislation goes through."

Article here:  https://fee.org/articles/the-cruelty-and-carnage-of-the-minimum-wage-the-case-of-tad/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fee%20weekly&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWTJGak5XTmtOMkZqTVRJMiIsInQiOiJsWVwvWnIwRitIZ0VKalF0ZjUxY1wvcFFqTVBNTlFPYXhSeWNXRERyQWk2bW9tdnFMc1MyZUF5M1E3SHpBSFNZR3F6Vkk4QytQSTlkaG1sZjZnOFcwSGhWbWlkVlZJZnRTcVB3dVwvV3pQcFwvemc9In0%3D

UC Berkeley Touts $15 Wage Law, Then Fires Hundreds After It Passes

Hundreds of employees at the University of California at Berkeley are getting schooled in basic economics, as the $15 minimum wage just cost them their jobs. Too bad liberal elites “fighting for $15” don’t get it.

A week after California Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state’s $15 minimum wage boost into law, UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks sent a memo to employees announcing that 500 jobs were getting cut.

Coincidence? Not really.

More to come in the private sector?  Absolutely.

Article here:  http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/uc-berkeley-touts-15-minimum-wage-then-fires-hundreds-of-workers-after-it-passes/

The Minimum Wage Makes Teens Unemployable, So Taxpayers Are Paying $5.5 Billion to Find Them Jobs | Foundation For Economic Education |

In February, the Obama administration proposed a "First Job" initiative. The main goal of the aptly titled initiative is to help unemployed young people obtain their first job by spending $5.5 billion on grants, training, and direct wages. Unfortunately – but unsurprisingly – the press release failed to acknowledge the most significant factor impeding employment in this age group: the minimum wage.

Everyone knows that a first job is a vital step in a young person’s development. Research has shown that work experience at a young age teaches positive work habits, time management, perseverance, and improves self-confidence. Increases in teenage employment also reduce the rate of violent crime. Yet despite these well-known benefits, the US maintains a minimum wage policy that makes it very difficult for all but the most productive teenagers to find a job.

When the minimum wage was discussed in the late 19th and early 20th century it was in the context of preventing the least skilled, most “undesirable” workers from finding a job, with the goal of eradicating the unemployable people. For the next 80-plus years it was common knowledge that a minimum wage would reduce employment among the least-skilled workers. The only debate was about whether such a reduction was desirable from society’s perspective, as many of the appalling eugenicists of the time contended.

As late as 1987, the New York Times editorial staff recommended a minimum wage of $0 because of its negative effects on employment. The Times argued that the minimum wage was an ineffective anti-poverty tool whose employment costs outweighed any benefits from higher wages.

Article here:  https://fee.org/articles/taxpayers-pay-through-the-nose-for-the-minimum-wage/

More Of The Same

"Now Ford is moving its engine and transmission plants to Mexico. This was decided before the presidential campaigns, although due to its timing it is more highly politicized.

“Today’s announcement…is a disappointment and very troubling,” UAW President Dennis Williams said in a statement. “For every investment in Mexico it means jobs that could have and should have been available right here in the USA.”

"The bottom line is the bottom line. Ford wants to make more profitable and affordable cars. Who can make that happen? UAW employees averaging about $60/hour in wages and benefits? Or Mexican employees averaging at about $8/hour? UAW President must be struggling with the math a little. It’s not job for job.

"It’s one thing to read about companies leaving the US. It’s another when companies KEEP leaving the US. People can point and scream at those corporations, calling them unpatriotic, but at the end of the day the United States has proven to be inhospitable to businesses. For that matter, given the growing rate of expatriation and citizenship renunciation year over year, it would appear that the United States is likewise proving to be inhospitable to the individual."

Article here:  http://www.globalwealthprotection.com/more-of-the-same/