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A Primer On The Minimum Wage That Even A Liberal (hopefully) Could Understand

Leo Pusateri28 Comments

A little primer regarding the ‘minimum wage.’

Understand exactly what a hike in the ‘minimum wage’ entails.

A compulsory hike in the minimum wage means that the price of productivity will increase.

This means that the level of what one used to purchase per dollar is less; therefore, one will be required to spend more to get the same amount of productivity.

What a set amount of money bought before the hike in the minimum wage, can no longer be bought for the same amount of money. After the hike, more money must be spent, to get the same level of productivity.

Money, is then, by definition, devalued. When money is devalued, the amount of it required to purchase a given good or service increases.

This increase is called INFLATION.

One of two things MUST happen in order to regain equilibrium between resources spent and goods produced or purchased:

1. Pass along the increased price (inflation) of goods or services to the customer; or

2. Make sure the money you spend on the manufacturing/service end results in more productivity.

Option number one results in inflation in the marketplace (rise in prices to purchase goods or services) passed on to all. This means that the money earned after the minimum wage hike has less purchasing power than the money earned prior to the minimum wage hike. This effectively negates the purchasing power experienced via any raise in pay to the worker as a result of hiking the minimum wage.

Option Number Two results in fewer workers doing more work per hour for the increased pay they get. Instead of seven people on a shift, to keep the same productivity without passing increased costs to the consumer, there may be only five people required to do the work that seven people once did. This effectively results in a reduction in the present work force at worst, or in preventing the company from hiring additional workers after attrition, at best.

This, of course, results in higher unemployment and/or lower labor participation rates, as there are now fewer jobs to be had.

In other words, contrary to all the magical thinking going on in the White House and in the war rooms of the DNC, and yes, among the democrat party faithful, there are no sustainable benefits to a *compulsory* increase in the minimum wage.

Obame’s Failures Continue

tiredoflibbs17 Comments

Update: US Has Dropped Out of 10 Most Economically Free Countries

The Obama administration continues to shackle entire sectors of the economy with regulation, including health care, finance and energy. The intervention impedes both personal freedom and national prosperity.

No surprise here… 10s of 1000 of new regulations each year, an out of control EPA, a huge federal government, endless printing of money, high unemployment, increasing energy and healthcare costs, etc. etc.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303848104579308811265028066?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303848104579308811265028066.html

UPDATE: ANOTHER FAILURE – OBAMATEUR LOSES OVER $10 BILLION IN AUTO BAILOUT!
The unions received their full retirements while creditors (non-liberal ones anyway) got screwed….. as well as the taxpayers.  The problem is the need for bailouts will continue in the future.

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-general-motors-bailout-treasury-stock-20131209,0,4629861.story#axzz2qaJSZfhS

Al Qaeda Stronger than Before

This pResident’s War on Terror, …. uh… ahem…. excuse me…. War on Man-Caused Disasters is an utter failure.  From announcing when he was pulling out of Iraq, against anyone’s sane judgement, to tying the hands of our soldiers when it comes to engagements in Afghanistan, (where there are higher incidents of death than during the Bush years) – and it’s not simply because of the “surge”, this pResident has made action in Afghanistan more political than that of Vietnam.  He has handed Libya, Egypt (thankfully the Egyptian military has stopped – no thanks to obame), Syria (fortunately obame did not get his way in removing the present government) and now Iraq to the terrorists.  His record shows that he is not interested in fighting terrorism.  He may perform for the camera but his actions say otherwise.

Update: A Nuclear Iran!

The obame administration did not learn any lessons from what Chamberlain experienced with Hitler.  Meanwhile, Debbie Wasserface Shultz get caught in lies, while trying to please her (Debbie’s) highness’ desire  when questioned by constituents about Iran, sanctions and its continued ability to work on a bomb.

http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-iran-nuclear-side-deal-20140113,0,4116168.story#axzz2qPlHPeIj
http://freebeacon.com/debbies-double-talk/

Labor Participation at levels not seen since the last pRegressive pResident

But listening to the leftist talking heads we are in a recovery.  They love to site the DOW as an indicator. But any sane person knows that is due to artificial pumping of cash from the Fed.  Labor participation keeps dropping regardless of the trillions spent by this pResident.  The mindless drones will continue to utter the dumbed down talking points – “It’s Bush’s fault”, “It is the result of the tsunami, kiosks and ATMs”, “Unemployment is at 7%”, “Baby Boomers are retiring” etc. etc.

The unemployment rate uses labor participation in its calculus.  When job growth is stagnant and people are no longer participating in the labor force, they are no longer counted and the unemployment rate will drop.  The mindless drones and low information voters (they are one in the same) will continue to site the DOW and “low” unemployment, even though both numbers are based on lies.

Note: these are legitimate criticisms and by no way indicate that I hate the president because of his race.

Update: It did not take long for the mindless drones and low information voters to blame the “Baby Boomers are retiring” dumbed down talking point for the decline of the Labor Participation Rate.

The age group which has dropped out of the labor participation rate more-so than any other group is NOT the Baby Boomers.  Age group 30-59, which makes up 50% of the working population, account for labor participation rate plunge since 2007.  The same age group account for 75% of the decline in the past year! So, this pResident is directly to blame for the poor job hunting conditions that we presently experience.  Nice try, but dumbed down talking points are not valid in the sane world.

http://www.economicpopulist.org/content/record-low-labor-participation-rate-not-due-retirement-or-school-5431

Merry Christmas!

Mark Noonan7 Comments

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus
that the whole world should be enrolled.
This was the first enrollment,
when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town.
And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth
to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem,
because he was of the house and family of David,
to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
While they were there,
the time came for her to have her child,
and she gave birth to her firstborn son.
She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields
and keeping the night watch over their flock.
The angel of the Lord appeared to them
and the glory of the Lord shone around them,
and they were struck with great fear.
The angel said to them,
“Do not be afraid;
for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.
For today in the city of David
a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.
And this will be a sign for you:
you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes
and lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel,
praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” – Luke 2:1-14

Burger-Flipper Economics 101

Leo Pusateri106 Comments

Exploitation?
Really???

These people say they “deserve” $15 per hour. They are ENTITLED to it.

Contrary to what the populist Chairman Obamao bloviates, it’s not about what people “deserve.” It’s about what value people bring to the market– what set of skills they bring to the table and how marketable and valuable that skill set is.

People who can flip burgers or keep a menu straight are a dime a dozen. That doesn’t make them bad or inferior as people, it’s just that there are many, many people with that skill set who can fill that position.

If someone is terminated or quits a burger flipper position, the pool of people who possess and/or can be easily trained for that skill set is enormous. That position can be easily filled.

People who can successfully manage and run a restaurant and its finances have a different skill set. Though they are still ubiquitous in number, they are fewer in number than the burger flippers. They get paid a little higher, because people with the more specialized skill set are higher in demand.

People who can do neurosurgery, or for that matter who can play ball at the major league level, are very few in number–they bring an esoteric skill set– they are very few in number, and very, very few people can fill their shoes if they leave.

A higher wage is commanded by such people, because of the value they bring, like rare, fine diamonds– they are higher in price because they aren’t found everywhere. The market screams for such talent, yet such talent is so rare, that the talent must be compensated well in order to keep that talent.

It’s basic market economics, people!

QUESTION: How many of you think fast food workers deserve 15 dollars and hour????
QUESTION: How many of you think fast food workers “deserve” 15 dollars an hour????

An Open Letter To Al Franken

Leo Pusateri7 Comments

I received an email from Senator Franken. Among his accomplishments touted was supposedly keeping college affordable for Minnesotans, accomplishing this by keeping student loan rates low, and trying to expand the issuance of Pell grants and other sources of financial aid. 

This was my response to the Senator:

Dear Senator Franken 

While I appreciate your wanting to keep the cost of education affordable for all Minnesotans, your solutions appear to be centered on only one side of the equation. 

While I applaud your efforts to keep interest on student loans low, and to expand the availability of Pell grants and other sources of financial aid, I must wonder what is being done on the other side of the equation– to keep college costs down? 

What is happening in colleges seems to be highly analogous with what is happening in health care. In health care, raises in prices are passed on to health insurance companies, who in turn merely charge higher premiums to their users. There is no competition nor pressure brought to bear on medically-related institutions to hold the line on costs, as they simply pass the costs, almost whimsically, back to the consumer. 

In the same manner, as colleges raise their tuition rates with impunity, government responds not by holding educational institutions accountable for their costs, but by increasing the levels of debt on the part of students and/or cost to the taxpayer in terms of financial aid subsidies. This necessarily keeps tax burdens on individuals and businesses elevated, and necessarily increases the already insurmountable mountain of debt incurred by students. 

What is the threshold under which government will put a ceiling on financial aid? 

If government places such a ceiling on the level of financial aid given to students, colleges will necessarily need to adjust tuition and other associated costs or face severely declining enrollment. 

In other words, competition and market-driven forces will bring pressure to keep the costs of college at affordable levels. 

And, incidentally and likewise, competition and market-driven forces will force health care providers to keep their costs at affordable levels (I present the lowering costs and higher quality and availability of laser eye surgery as a shining example of this concept). 

Senator Franken, at the beginning of this screed, I didn’t think about tying these concepts, health care and higher education, together. But now that I am typing this, I have come to the conclusion (and I hope that you can follow me) that what it comes down to is this: what is missing from Higher Education and what is missing in health care–including Obamacare–is the very thing that will alleviate issues in both of these problematic areas– the introduction of market forces to bring costs down to affordable levels. 

Sir, I have little hope that you will take this to heart, as no doubt your partisan blinders will prevent you from seeing the inherent similarities between these two out-of-control aspects of our society, and that these two sectors share a nearly identical solution (market-driven forces); but then again, one can certainly dream. 

Sincerely, 

Leo Pusateri

Regarding “Hate” Crimes

Leo Pusateri113 Comments
I don’t believe in the concept of “hate crimes.”

There are precious few crimes, especially murders, that are “love criimes.” 

In my opinion, the psychological intent or the mind state of the person committing the murder is already summed up in degrees (first degree, second degree, manslaughter, etc). 

The reasons for premeditation are immaterial. If the person intended with forethought to visit bodily harm resulting in the death of an innocent person for reasons not related to self defense, that perpetrator committed murder. Period. It is immaterial whether the perp is a racist or whether the perp is Mother Teresa. 

To assign an instance of the wanton deprivation of another’s life as more or less severe simply because the perp was a racist or did it out of racial spite is superfluous. Premeditated murder is premeditated murder. 

When society assigns the gravity of premeditated murder as dependent on the mind state of the perpetrator, you are now jumping into the realm of THOUGHT CRIMES. 

Do we really want to go there? 

Unfortunately, there are many on the left who do. 

As the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case clearly illustrated, those on the left are more than happy to fall all over themselves in immediately assigning motives of racism and “hate crime” (read: THOUGHT CRIME) status when a fellow-traveller is on the receiving end and a white person (even a ginned-up “White Hispanic” person) is on the giving end. 

When one or more of their own is on the giving end, however, not so much. Rare indeed is the case when black on white violence ends up being prosecuted as a “hate crime.” 

Which leads me to believe that to a critical mass of our population (not at all exclusively black, mind you, but exclusively “progressive” at any rate), the whole concept of “hate crime” is not borne out of a thirst for blind justice; rather, the concept of “hate crime” seems to serve as a tool to exact revenge on those progressives identify as enemies of their ideology at worst, or as tools to advance their sense of ideology and/or personal political agendae at best.

 
It looks as though the thugs who murdered Delbert Belton will not be charged with a hate crime. 
 
I’m sure there was nothing but bored love in their hearts as they beat him senseless and took his life.
 
 

The View From Here

Cluster73 Comments

There has been a lot of discussion lately re: the continued admittance of liberal posters at B4V, the cautioned albeit well intended advice to a friendship based on commonalities other than politics, but those thoughts and discussions are also combined with an increasing obsession to personally belittle others from both sides. I must admit that early on in my B4V presence beginning in 2006, I did enjoy attacking liberals, and still do post some sarcastic remarks, but the personal attacks have certainly escalated over the last few years, and that is just not healthy for anyone, particularly the one leveling the attack. Personally, I had to reflect on that – do I really harbor such disdain in my heart for someone I don’t personally know? I will admit that when I read a post from majordomo that begins “We, Ourselves”, I still have to hold back from launching into a sarcastic tirade, but on the occasion I have, I realize that that tirade only affects me, and me alone. It tends to discombobulate my attitude and my day, and quite frankly majordomo isn’t worth it. So I decided a while back that I just wasn’t going to engage in the swamp anymore. That I would simply voice my opinion, which I enjoy doing, and would only respond in kind to those liberal posters that I deemed worthy of a response. Everything else I would just ignore, and I must say, that my blood pressure is down – LOL.

As some of you know, my daughter is a liberal and voted for Obama in the last two elections. In 2008, she and I were at odds, and the dialogue was heated on occasion, but being that she is my daughter, I made a point to converse on a range of topics outside of politics and when the conversation did circle back around to politics, I was tempered as was she. Consequently, we have had some very good conversations. A while back I sent Mitch a personal email at his request, and in the beginning we did battle each other on political issues, which of course we were at odds over, but slowly the conversation turned to other issues and common ground was struck. In my opinion, life is simply too short to personally attack each other on line. This doesn’t mean that I have stopped contributing, campaigning, writing on, and voting for the demise of liberalism, as that is a passion of mine that will not abate anytime soon, but I also realize that at my age, heated rhetoric is something I choose to largely ignore and wish everyone on this blog, conservatives and liberals, would also adhere to. Simply voice your opinion on the issue du jour, or comment on your over arching ideology, be prepared to defend it civilly, and don’t be offended by those who try to drag you down into the swamp. I also ask of Matt and Mark to delete posts that do insult and harangue, and if it doesn’t stop, to ban the commentator, and that includes me. I would like to see a new direction at B4V, one that actually provokes thought, converses on a range of topics, and one that welcomes civil and insightful input from a diverse group. What do you think the chances of that are?

In keeping with the spirit of the blog, my issue du jour is – The Fifth! Hard to believe that Lois Lerner plead the Fifth. I think it does more harm to the regime than good. It just reeks of malicious intent. Furthermore, why is Sarah Hall Ingram not testifying? And why is she being promoted to oversee the ACA enforcement? This whole IRS scandal doesn’t pass the smell test.

Ideology Open Thread

Retired Spook157 Comments

It’s been a while since we’ve had a purely ideological debate. Just for the sake of discussion, and in light of the new welcoming of progressive views here at B4V, let’s say that Conservatism as a political movement just folds up and gives Progressives free rein to do whatever they want. In one generation will America be more free or less free? Will America be more prosperous or less prosperous? Will American students graduating from high school and college be more educated or less educated? Will our air and water be cleaner or dirtier?  Will we make a seamless transition to alternate/renewable energy?  If so, will that mean abundant and economical energy or undependable and expensive energy?

I’m not looking so much for opinions on these dynamics as I am on evidence, either anecdotal or historical as well as new ideas, or, at least new approaches to old ideas that have never worked before, to support how a totally Progressive society might evolve over a generation. So have at it.  Liberals, here’s your chance to strut your stuff.  The only comments that will be deleted are those that resort to vulgar language and name calling.