Fair Minimum Wage?

by | Aug 23, 2012 | 13 comments

Today Congressman George Miller (D/CA) and Senator Tom Harkin (D/IA) introduced the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012 in both the House and the Senate. The bill proposes three $0.85 raises to the minimum wage which is currently $7.25 to be $9.80 by the end of 2014. I find this to be outrageous.

Do these politicians never learn? The minimum wage is a job killer. Every time the minimum wage is raised, more jobs go away, never to be seen again.

“The Employment Policy Institute, a nonprofit research organization that studies public policy issues surrounding employment growth, released findings from a study that examined both Miller’s and Harkin’s proposed legislation, that concluded the proposals would eliminate as many as 768,000 jobs for less-skilled and less-experienced employees.”*

“The economic consensus on raising the minimum wage is clear, and these latest proposals are no exception,” Michael Saltsman, research fellow at EPI, said in a press release announcing the study findings. “Instead of reducing poverty rates, a higher minimum wage reduces employment for the least-skilled job seekers.”*

In a voluntary society, companies could produce more jobs while paying employees a “fair” wage based both on the companies needs and the experience of the employee. This would leave room for the companies to hire more employees, plus neither the company nor the employee would have to pay out much of their profit and income in taxes. The employee would benefit by being able to bring home all their pay and companies could hire more people with the increased profit margin.

All the minimum wage laws do is eliminate jobs and decrease profitability for companies, which in turn brings down goods and services provided by the employees and companies and increase the prices of goods and services.

 

*http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2012/07/26/federal-minimum-wage-would-reach-980.html?page=all

Philosophical Foundations: First Principles

by | Feb 14, 2012 | 3 comments

Have a few minutes? Pretty sure of your views? Challenge yourself!

Here’s a taste of what you’re in for, compliments of Justin Longo: “To evaluate policies, you must have a framework or lens you use to determine what is good and bad policy. This is entirely foreign to most people.”

I’m a big advocate of thinking critically, of striking-the-root, and of consistency in views. Justin does a superb job making his case while doing all three.

I want to give you the tools to build a foundation that will guide you to a consistent philosophy. I don’t necessarily want you to agree with everything I’m about to say, but rather, to use the guidelines of establishing first principles to form your ideals. I believe it is extremely important to constantly “check your premises.” First principles are those premises.

“First principle” defined: foundational principle. Cannot be deduced from any other proposition – in other words, an irreducible principle. Sometimes called “axioms.” First principles have no assumptions built into them.

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