{"id":395769,"date":"2019-02-10T14:41:24","date_gmt":"2019-02-10T13:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/the-15-minimum-wage-delusion\/"},"modified":"2019-02-10T14:41:24","modified_gmt":"2019-02-10T13:41:24","slug":"the-15-minimum-wage-delusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/the-15-minimum-wage-delusion\/","title":{"rendered":"The $15 Minimum Wage Delusion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and I have the same goals: better, higher paying jobs for everyone, especially for the poor, and a radical reduction in their horrendously high unemployment rates.<\/p>\n

We only disagree on\u00a0the best means toward this goal. While he thinks a minimum wage of $15 per\u00a0hour\u00a0would pretty much do the trick, I\u00a0think it\u00a0would\u00a0be a disaster, not only economically, but also ethically.<\/p>\n

Why do I insist upon this seemingly unlikely view? Would\u00a0it\u00a0not be better if the wages of the unskilled were boosted upward toward this rather modest goal? After all, it is very difficult to live on a mere $7.25 per hour, and, if somehow this legislation were eliminated entirely, would wages not plummet toward zero? This\u00a0is the view held by many well-meaning folks.<\/p>\n

Well-meaning as it may be, it\u2019s also entirely erroneous. Wage legislation isn\u2019t like a floor, holding up payments to\u00a0labor. Rather, it is akin to tearing off the bottom rungs of the employment ladder. Let me\u00a0explain.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span>
\nThe Privatization of R…<\/a><\/span><\/span>
\nWalter Block<\/span>
\nBest Price: <\/span>$12.00<\/span><\/span>
\nBuy New <\/span>$15.00<\/span><\/span>
\n(as of 05:25 EST – Details<\/span>)<\/span><\/span>
\n<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Why do employers want to hire workers in the first place? It\u2019s\u00a0for their\u00a0productivity (technically, marginal revenue product). Consider Joe, whose productivity is\u00a0$5 per hour. This means if\u00a0you have Joe on your shop floor, behind a counter, pushing a broom, or washing dishes for you, your receipts increase by that precise amount: five bucks per hour.<\/p>\n

In the absence of any minimum wage at all, what would the firm offer him? Well, like everyone else,\u00a0as little as possible. Even you, gentle reader when you purchase something, don\u2019t you look for bargains? If not, you are unique. Suppose it is 1 cent per hour. If Joe takes him up on this offer,…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and I have the same goals: better, higher paying jobs for everyone, especially for the poor, and a radical reduction in their horrendously high unemployment rates. We only disagree on\u00a0the best means toward this goal. While he thinks a minimum wage of $15 per\u00a0hour\u00a0would pretty much do the trick, I\u00a0think it\u00a0would\u00a0be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-395769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}