It’s Friday, and time for another evisceration from our
favorite economist, Milton Friedman. The victim this time is the concept of “soaking
the rich.” You never saw such a dumb old lady in your life. Friedman also gives a good argument against minimum wage laws.
Phil...sheesh, I used to like him. Well, to his credit, he stayed relatively politically neutral while doing his show. At least, that's how I remember it. And he *did* have wonderful guests, like Mr. Friedman.
ReplyDeleteWhat a breath of fresh air, hearing facts instead of PC spin. I thought the way he handled that guest was just right. Another good installment, Matt, TY.
Friedman quickly forces people to see the flaws of their own argument; I love that about him! He's brilliant, he's amazing, and he's right.
ReplyDeleteOne of the effects of minimum wage that I've personally seen in the factory setting is that new hires, with little or no skills, make nearly as much as workers who are highly skilled and who have been on the job for years. It's great for the newbies, but creates a seething resentment and sense of hopelessness for the skilled workers. Productivity and quality drop dramatically when the best craftsmen are only making a buck more than overpaid rookies.
Also, no one in their right mind would hire a 16 year old for $7.25 an hour. He/she isn't worth it. Many states don't allow teens to work at all. The end result is that we have a generation of young adults entering the job market with no honed work ethic, no practical skills, and limited abilities to work with/for others.
It's a disaster.
Yes, you're all exactly right. When we had our mom & pop fast food place, as the minimum wage went up, we would hire fewer teens and put in even more hours. Working several weeks without a day off or working a double shift were par for the course.
ReplyDeleteThat said, we did try to give the good employees raises when we could and we always gave them cash Christmas (yes, *gasp* CHRISTMAS) bonuses. Sometimes we had to put them on our credit cards.
Of course, there's always the price of doing business under the city, state and federal governments which got more expensive every year...
Florrie, you bring up a good point. Running a business "legally" is darn near impossible these days. If you buy every permit, fill out every gov't form, pay every tax and fee, take every licensing exam, jump through every hoop, redesign your premises to accommodate the handicapped, etc etc...your profits are sucked dry.
ReplyDeleteOn top of that, in many instances you're competing against people/companies who DON'T operate above-board or even attempt to comply with all the rules and regs! They rake it the green while you're buried in a mountain of gov't paperwork and writing multiple checks to one gov't entity or another. It's a wonder there are any "legit" Moms and Pops left.