One of the provisions in the new massive “Covid-19 Relief” bill is to increase the minimum wage to $15.00. Recent indications are this may not make the final version but the controllers are bent on pushing this atrocity through one way or another. They will not stop until they’ve reached this latest benchmark. They know it will further cripple, if not destroy small business in this nation. Not only do they not care – this is their ultimate goal.
As a long-time opponent of the minimum wage, I must say up front I am biased. That said, ask yourself this: how will forcing small businesses – shut down in whole and and in part for the past year – to substantially increase their labor costs going to help anyone? While you are considering this, allow me to suggest this exercise:
Instead of raising the minimum wage to $15.00 – why stop there? Isn’t the goal for everybody to live a better life? Why not stop fooling around? If we are going to do this, let’s do it once and for all. What the heck am I talking about?
Instead of raising the minimum wage to $15.00 – let’s REALLY make it worthwhile. Raise the minimum wage to a cool $1,000,000 per year for everyone. Why not? We can ALL be millionaires! Even the government will be flush with new income taxes! Wouldn’t that be just wonderful? What?
What do you mean – how much will a gallon of milk would cost? Who cares! You’d be a millionaire! Now come on! Don’t give me that crap about the price “everything” going up. We would all be rich, rich, RICH! Even those kids at the drive though window would be living the high life! NOW we’re talking!
Uh, yeah, THAT’S what I’m talking about. Once the concept of minimum wages scales up to the sky, my point is easy to see. Minimum wages help no one. Most of you reading this already know this from experience. Inflate wages at the lowest level and you inflate everything. Why? Because all costs and prices are relative. If the labor cost of a burger is 50% of the price of a burger then it if costs $1 in labor to make a burger then the cost of the burger will be $2. If the cost of labor for that burger is $100 then the cost of the burger has to be $200. This is exactly why all minimum wages are insane – the concept is based on flawed logic. What is the alternative?
Kill the minimum wage. Get rid of it entirely. Dump that bitch. Oh my! THEN what?
Of course the first horror stories you will hear will be employers hiring workers for next to nothing. Could that happen? Absolutely it could and it probably would, but then a strange thing will happen. At some point, people willing to work for peanuts will dry up. For employers to get workers, any workers, they will have to pay more. If they want the most qualified workers, they will have to pay even more. The principle involved is simple, well-known and proven. It is called “supply and demand”. As demand increases, the supply costs more. It’s that easy. Prove it?
The fact is, I don’t have to. The fast-food industry already has proven this. In many, many markets, fast food establishments offer above minimum wage, often well above, in order to attract workers. Growing up, fast food was a job for teens and young employees. Years passed finding more and more older workers employed there – why? The reason is simple, the workers were often more readily available then the younger generation.
So my proposal is simple: eliminate the minimum wage. Before long wages will soar as will employment. Everybody benefits – except, of course the controllers who have no business sticking their noses in business matters in the first place. I can’t speak for you, but I care less about them then they care about me. Is this possible or just a pipe dream? Bluntly put, I do not ever expect this to happen because we citizens of this nation are simply too cowed to step up and assume our responsibilities as self-governing individuals. Too bad.