RE: Living wage
June 26, 2015 at 5:21 pm
(This post was last modified: June 26, 2015 at 5:27 pm by Mister Agenda.)
If everything works out nicely in 'halves' sure. No doubt it will be just like that, and the half who get nothing will be philosophical that at least the other half is getting more.
There's something objectionable about turning a profitable business into an unprofitable one that happens to rely on low-skilled labor into an unprofitable business with the stroke of a pen.
Business viablilty is determined by competitive success in the marketplace, any business can be put under if you make enough laws to handicap it. You're like a guy who shoots a horse, then blames it for not finishing the race.
There are millions of people who don't have a high school diploma, don't have work experience, have a criminal record, a problematic work record, or have some other disadvantage that currently makes it difficult to find employment at $8 an hour. Most of those who do will be making more money a year later, either from a raise or because they've found a better job (they now have a little work experience on their resume'). But they will have an even harder time finding employment at $10 an hour. And it's not little businesses like car washes and corner groceries that are going to drive most of the unemployment among these folks; it's the choices made by employers not to create new positions that can be filled by them or replace vacated positions. Most businesses can adapt to higher wages. Most unskilled workers will have more trouble adapting to getting the skills that would justify employing them at those wages without a job.
The community I volunteer in has enough trouble finding employment without being priced out of the labor market.
But it will be temporary. Thanks to inflation brought on by the wage hikes it won't be long before $15 an hour doesn't get you any more than $8 an hour used to, and all those folks will be as desireable for employment at $15 as they were at $8; but they still won't be any closer to being middle class than they were before. The work experience they missed in the meantime might have brought them closer to being middle class though.
Of course it could have been done in a way that didn't reduce their opportunities so much, but fuck them for not having been been born white and middle class and fuck the people who would have hired them, right?
There's something objectionable about turning a profitable business into an unprofitable one that happens to rely on low-skilled labor into an unprofitable business with the stroke of a pen.
Business viablilty is determined by competitive success in the marketplace, any business can be put under if you make enough laws to handicap it. You're like a guy who shoots a horse, then blames it for not finishing the race.
There are millions of people who don't have a high school diploma, don't have work experience, have a criminal record, a problematic work record, or have some other disadvantage that currently makes it difficult to find employment at $8 an hour. Most of those who do will be making more money a year later, either from a raise or because they've found a better job (they now have a little work experience on their resume'). But they will have an even harder time finding employment at $10 an hour. And it's not little businesses like car washes and corner groceries that are going to drive most of the unemployment among these folks; it's the choices made by employers not to create new positions that can be filled by them or replace vacated positions. Most businesses can adapt to higher wages. Most unskilled workers will have more trouble adapting to getting the skills that would justify employing them at those wages without a job.
The community I volunteer in has enough trouble finding employment without being priced out of the labor market.
But it will be temporary. Thanks to inflation brought on by the wage hikes it won't be long before $15 an hour doesn't get you any more than $8 an hour used to, and all those folks will be as desireable for employment at $15 as they were at $8; but they still won't be any closer to being middle class than they were before. The work experience they missed in the meantime might have brought them closer to being middle class though.
Of course it could have been done in a way that didn't reduce their opportunities so much, but fuck them for not having been been born white and middle class and fuck the people who would have hired them, right?
I'm not anti-Christian. I'm anti-stupid.
