Institutions and relative incomes

Important insight by Robert Reich--
"The myth is you get paid what you’re worth. Yet for many occupations it’s just the reverse: Pay is inversely related to the real benefits to society. Social work, teaching, nursing, and caring for the elderly or for children are among the lowest-paid of all professions, but the benefits to society are considerable. We desperately need these people." 
   Couldn't say it any better.

Minimum Wage

President Obama is making a push to raise the minimum wage.  Many economists using simple supply and demand analysis are sure this will hurt low income people by destroying jobs.  Some states and cities have defied economists and passed higher minimum wages laws. Michael Reich and Ken Jacobs of the University of California Berkeley have found that the $13 minimum wage in San Francisco has not had the predicted ill effects.  "Our studies show that the impact of these laws on workers' wages (and access to health care) is strong and positive."  They says supply and demand analysis" is not the whole story though.  A full analysis must include the variety of other ways labor costs might be absorbed, including savings from reduced worker turnover and improved efficiency as well as higher prices and lower profits.  Modern economics therefore regards the employment effect of a minimum-wage increase as a question that is not decided by theory, but by empirical testing."
    Reich and Jacobs say that there is a moral value as well.   I used to tell my students, "You are not paying enough for your burgers. The workers need to eat too."

Union Busting

Recently, a vote to unionize a Volkswagon plant in Tennessee failed by a narrow margin.  Were the workers scared by threats to withdraw state subsidies to the automaker, or have they forgotten our labor history?  They probably forgot the good old days when unions were weak and had no Federal government protection.  In the Great Coalfield War of 1914,the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company owned by John D. Rockefeller, used standard union-busting techniques such as mass firings, and if that was not enough, they obtained the help of Colorado's National Guard who turned a machine gun on the strikers encampment killing twenty of its inhabitants including women and children. 
     Class war continues.

A Dreadful Deceit

A selection from a review of the A Dreadful Deceit--The Myth of Race From the Colonial Era to Obama's America is worth repeating:
"To explain how racial conflict has masked power struggles for control over others' labor, Jones surveys compelled work in its many varieties, from slave labor under the lash on tobacco plantations in Maryland to mandatory overtime in unsafe and sweltering auto plants in Detroit.  Racial ideologies, she argues are like mob violence, disenfranchisement and discriminatory laws--merely tactics used to secure material advantages in social contexts perceived as zero-sum"
         review by Tommie Shelby in the New York Times Book Review, Feb. 16, 2014

War on the Low income worker

Robert Reich makes the following points about the ruling class in Congress:
1. They refuse to extend unemployment benefits.
2. They don't want to raise the paltry minimum wage.
3. They are against extending medicare benefits to millions (Congress of course has its own medical benefits.)
4. They cut food stamps in the latest farm bill.
5. They refuse to invest in education and job training.
6. They do not want to rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure, or any other job creating program.
7. They are out to bust what unions remain.
Why do they do this? 
Big employers like a docile workforce who are thankful for whatever they get.

     I say that this low wage policy is backfiring.  Poorly paid and unemployed can't buy the products of these corporations.  Weak consumer spending is hampering our recovery.
Besides, this war on the poor and working class is greedy and immoral.

Minimum Wage again

The following from Robert Reich, with whom I agree completely"
"The President agrees that the minimum wage should be raised to $10.40 an hour but, unsurprisingly, Republicans oppose any increase. In this as in many other dimensions, the conservative mind is remarkably flexible. The minimum wage must not be increased, they say, lest employers lay off millions of low-wage workers. But record levels of CEO pay must not be tampered with because corporations need to attract top talent. The poor must have less if they are to be adequately motivated, but the rich must have more in order to ensure their maximum effort. Food stamps and unemployment insurance must be curtailed to prevent laziness among the needy, yet special tax loopholes that subsidize the wealthy (such as "carried interest" for private-equity and hedge-fund partners) must be retained. The 22 percent of American children now in poverty don't merit free school lunches or health care, but it is necessary and just that the richest 1 percent of children receive $10 million free of estate taxes."

Minimum Wage

Your hamburgers are too cheap.  Workers in fast-food restaurants are not paid a living wage.  The minimum wage should be increased to at least $10.  Opponents say that a higher minimum wage will result in higher priced burgers, etc.  Well, isn't that the point? 

Detroit Can't Read

Detroit football and baseball teams are doing very well. Probably even those who can't read at the sixth grade level know this. But that is about as far as it goes. An estimated 300,000 Detroit residents 16 and older read below the sixth grade level. Michigan has 1.8 million residents who read below that level. Rochelle Riley writing in the Free Press of Oct. 2, points out that this even makes them ineligible for federal job training programs.
The good news is that the Rotary Club has pledged 3,000 volunteers to tutor adults. Bless them.

French Cry Babies

Some French workers have been demonstrating against the government's plan to increase the retirement age from 60 to 62. (The Greeks were similarly exercised a short time ago.) No country is so rich that it can have its citizens stop working at 60, unless of course they would accept much reduced benefits.
The violence accompanying these protests by youths probably suggest the frustration of high unemployment among hyoung people rather that any deep concern for their retirement age.