Why the Meltdown Should Have Surprised No One

Gerald Celente’s Predictions – 2010 The Greatest Depression

“No One’s Talking about Green Shoots Anymore”

Health Care Laughs… :-)

So I don’t know much about the proposed health care bill and decided it might be good to read it. I went to govtrack, navigated to HR 3200 and found this message (which I found quite funny).  So perhaps I won’t read the whole thing, but I need to read some.

“Cash for Clunkers” Hurts the Poor

Our new house.

So, we are pretty much settled in, but it seems there is always something new to get done. I’m kinda enjoying that though. I hope the grass doesn’t grow too high before I can mow it.

I saw in the news today that the cops shut down some kid’s lemonade stand because he didn’t have a permit. Isn’t it great to live in the land of the free?

Brr I think it’s getting cold out. Soon time to shut the windows.

Inhumanity of the Minimum Wage

Mises Daily by Paul Poirot

[April 1955]

The Republican president of the United States believes that no person should be allowed or required to work for less than 90 cents an hour. The Democratic governor of New York urges raising the minimum wage to $1.25 from its present level of 75 cents.

Except for such differences in detail, fixing a minimum wage by law has come to be a bipartisan project. That may indicate good politics — but it is no assurance that a minimum wage law will accomplish what is claimed for it.

Beginning with the truism that “the laborer is worthy of his hire,” proponents of the minimum wage interpret it to mean that anyone who works thereby establishes a valid claim against his employer, or against society, for a wage sufficient to assure an adequate standard of living. Though it may be difficult to say precisely what constitutes an adequate standard of living, the opinion is widely held that such a standard lies somewhere between the prevailing extremes of wealth and of poverty; underlying this opinion is the assumption the poor are poor because the rich are rich; that is, that employers exploit their employees.

It is supposed that employers withhold as much as they can of what the workers have produced — that the so-called “wages fund” is not fully disbursed as wages — and that this is a crime against workers in particular and society in general. And if crime is being committed, it is the duty of government to intervene; hence, a minimum wage law.

If this theory is correct, how is the injustice of inequality, or exploitation, done away with by a minimum wage as low as 90 cents or $1.25 an hour? If the compulsory equalization of wealth is a proper means to a better society, why shouldn’t the minimum wage be at least $5 an hour?

The answer, of course, is that the minimum wage theory does not square with experience. The reason is that work, as such, is not something scarce and useful to human beings. Sheer effort is not one of the things men will buy in the market place.

The goods and services produced by workmen are the things valued, regardless of how much or how little labor went into their creation. If a horse can pull ten times as many cabbages to market as a man can, who in his right mind would hire a man instead of a horse for that job?

The Republican president of the United States believes that no person should be allowed or required to work for less than 90 cents an hour. The Democratic governor of New York urges raising the minimum wage to $1.25 from its present level of 75 cents.

Except for such differences in detail, fixing a minimum wage by law has come to be a bipartisan project. That may indicate good politics — but it is no assurance that a minimum wage law will accomplish what is claimed for it.

Beginning with the truism that “the laborer is worthy of his hire,” proponents of the minimum wage interpret it to mean that anyone who works thereby establishes a valid claim against his employer, or against society, for a wage sufficient to assure an adequate standard of living. Though it may be difficult to say precisely what constitutes an adequate standard of living, the opinion is widely held that such a standard lies somewhere between the prevailing extremes of wealth and of poverty; underlying this opinion is the assumption the poor are poor because the rich are rich; that is, that employers exploit their employees.

It is supposed that employers withhold as much as they can of what the workers have produced — that the so-called “wages fund” is not fully disbursed as wages — and that this is a crime against workers in particular and society in general. And if crime is being committed, it is the duty of government to intervene; hence, a minimum wage law.

If this theory is correct, how is the injustice of inequality, or exploitation, done away with by a minimum wage as low as 90 cents or $1.25 an hour? If the compulsory equalization of wealth is a proper means to a better society, why shouldn’t the minimum wage be at least $5 an hour?

The answer, of course, is that the minimum wage theory does not square with experience. The reason is that work, as such, is not something scarce and useful to human beings. Sheer effort is not one of the things men will buy in the market place.

The goods and services produced by workmen are the things valued, regardless of how much or how little labor went into their creation. If a horse can pull ten times as many cabbages to market as a man can, who in his right mind would hire a man instead of a horse for that job?

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