Minimum Wage Movement

I think that a lot people are sympathetic to increasing the minimum wage but I think that the movement will flame out without accomplishing anything.  It is a lot like the occupy movement or the 99%; a lot of people identify with the goals and are in those respective groups figuratively speaking but the majority politicians and the mainstream media will not take up the cause.  This would create popular sustaining support and that is lacking.  You have billions being spent to convince would be members of these groups to act against their own best interests.  What we should look at is how many of these low wage workers are voting for Republicans.  It has to be a lot because the Republicans keep getting elected and they are not going to raise the minimum wage.  The silver lining might be that some editorial writers and cartoonists have seized on the fact that many of these workers get food stamps, housing assistance, and medical care covered by all taxpayers and that this amounts to a business subsidy.  I think that this tact could be successful because people are tired of give aways to business in exchange for jobs that never seem to materialize in the numbers or wages that the companies said they would.  So her's to hope that something will move because right now the majority in this country is being crushed by low wages, rising costs and a growing income disparity.

Better Paying Jobs

Mitt Romney has been running around the country saying that the solution to the food stamp nation is better paying jobs.  I couldn't agree more.  The problem that Mitt Romney has in making such statements is that he is on record as being opposed to the minimum wage and being for wage and benefit cuts as part of corporate restructuring.  Not to mention the heading of companies that collapsed and had their jobs either eliminated or sent overseas.  I think that the middle class finally is getting that we pay all of the bills and then lose wages and benefits in the interest of corporate profits.  I think before Mitt starts promising higher paying jobs he needs to talk to his buddies in corporate America about giving existing employees a raise and to stop being on record as opposed to the minimum wage.  I also think that they should drop the opposition to Obamacare as more and more companies are dropping healthcare plans because they are too expensive.  Proving once again that the power of the market cannot control the costs of health insurance.  I hope that he is right that he will (not that government creates jobs) create 12 million new high paying jobs which is about half of the 23 million jobs that he says the country need.  The skeptic in me says that we are likely to see less than 12 million minimum wage jobs.

Seasonal Hiring

First Kohl's and then Walmart announced that they are planning to hire huge numbers of people.  This news was treated as being an indicator that the economy is turning around because it is a bigger number than last year.  Nothing could be further from the truth, this was not news.  These companies are taking on seasonal staff.  The number is bigger because they are hoping for better business nothing more but we need to look at the kinds of jobs they are hiring.  They are part-time and minimum wage and many who work them already have other jobs.  In other words they have very little effect on the unemployment number.  What they do is help the 47% and those nearly in the 47% pay bills.  These are jobs that the 1% and the media really don't understand.

Where are the Jobs?

It has been 10 years of the so called Bush tax cuts that were supposed to be an incentive for the "job creators" to create jobs. Where are they? The latest data indicates that the wealthy have gotten richer during the recovery whereas the job seekers are still seeking. We are now being told that if just cut taxes for the wealthy more and provide more tax breaks for business while cutting Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and education programs for the working masses. Does anyone really believe that this plan is going to work? First off as the masses have lost jobs, salary, and benefits their buying power has declined. The reality is that without customers the job creators are not going to hire. What they are doing is cutting operating costs in the United States by off shoring jobs to places like China. US companies are also selling more products in China because there are millions of Chinese customers that now have some money. A better choice than cutting taxes for the wealthy would be to give the job creators the gift that they have dreamed of, the elimination of the minimum wage. That way those low wage jobs could be created here instead of overseas. This won't save the economy unless we have an appropriate reduction in prices, but that hasn't stopped the Republicans from enacting policies that got us to where we are today.

Repeal the Minimum Wage

There is a movement sweeping the nation to repeal the minimum wage as unconstitutional, although it was ruled constitutional.  With the Roberts' court it would be overturned.  Except for the tea party it is just an issue to get votes no one has yet to file a case.  I agree with all of the arguments, its costly, its inflationary, its a job killer.  My question is, if we repeal it what kind of wages can we expect to see in the future and once we get into the race for the bottom will other prices fall proportionately?  My guess is wages will free fall and prices will stagnate much as they are now with no sales.  Welcome to the Brave New World that we are heading for.