The Minimum Wage
In many states currently, the local legislature has raised the minimum wages to $10, $12, and even $15 per hour. The US minimum wage is (I think) $7.25 or thereabouts. Minimum wage laws are simply legislated unemployment. At a few McDonalds restaurants, automation has already set in. A customer walks up to the counter, and punches in his order, pays by credit card, and picks it up a few minutes later. No more kids taking orders. After all, McDonalds needs to show a profit, and at $12-$15 an hour for counter personnel, a profit is impossible. The obvious has taken place, as has happened with robots in auto factories. A robot can paint, weld, and do other stuff, and have no hourly wage, health benefits, unemployment insurance, Social Security, absenteeism, etc. A robot may take a bit of maintenance, but its benefits in auto manufacturing are undeniable. A sort of robot will soon be in most fast food places, so that the shop may make a profit. Already in restaurants, one can pay their check and order from a little screen on the table. It is ever so more efficient, and I am certain it has cut wages.
The minimum wage was started by FDR in 1938 and it was set at a quarter an hour. Sounds ridiculous? Not at all, considering a gallon of gas was twenty cents and a Hershey bar was a nickel. I went to school in D.C. using 'school tickets,' which were $1.20 for 40, or three cents each. I remember McDonalds hamburgers at twelve cents, and a new tire was about $9.95. Inflation is responsible for all price increases. My Dad bought a new Plymouth in 1940 for a bit over $600, and my first Mercedes in 1962 was $3700. I'm on my 14th now, and my 2014 350 SLK was $48,000. Minimum wages always make merchandise more expensive, because the wages to make and sell the merchandise, consume a huge part of that merchandise's cost. Everything has 'gone up' in price, even though the cigarettes, candy, and gasoline are practically the same.
Inflation, as per dictionary definition is simply, "An increase in the currency supply." In Venezuela today, gold is close to $5,000 per ounce, and it is the same gold which spot price today is about $1240. When I started brokering precious metals in fall of 1977, I sold thousands of Krugerrands for $350 each. That's about all we had then, since the gold Maple Leaf didn't come on till 1980, and the Gold and Silver Eagle not till 1986. Same gold, but governments never balance their budgets, and always keep on printing till the whole shebang collapses, as has happened in America three times already, and around the world, probably over a hundred times. Those who saved in those paper, unbacked currencies were wiped out. If you or I printed money, its counterfeit, but government can do it with impunity, which robs the citizenry.
Getting back to the minimum wage. If an uneducated, low mentality person is incapable of producing labor or skill worth the minimum wage, he or she is unemployed. In the past, a school kid could learn to work at a McDonalds at minimum wage. After all, they lived at home, and that minimum wage gave them spending money as well as an education on how to care for money. I cut grass, fixed neighbors electric trains, and did all sorts of stuff when I was a kid for a few dollars. Should there be a minimum wage? I think not. Will greedy corporations glom onto helpless people who need money, by paying them low wages? They'll try of course, but such efforts always end in failure, because they will be unable to find people who will work for super low wages. Which brings un the case for unions.
UNIONS
I have nothing against groups of people organizing themselves into unions to force companies to pay higher wages or better working conditions. It is violence I object to, if the union's demands are not met because of the economic impossibility of meeting them. I've mentioned Atwater Kent before, but briefly, Atwater Kent was a wealthy Main Line (Philadelphia) fellow, who when radio came about, decided to build the best radio man could build. He called it by his name, and Atwater Kent radios were wonderful, and still command high prices on e-bay. He built a huge factory, which still exists but is used by someone else now. He paid well, and everyone was happy. Someone convinced employees that they should unionize to get even higher wages. Kent told them that they were being paid above the average, had wonderful working conditions, and that if they unionized, he would shut the whole thing down, and everyone would be out of work. They voted for a union, Kent kept his word, shut it down, and all lost their jobs. Kent continued playing tennis I guess, because Atwater Kent Radios ceased to exist. I had one by my bed as a kid and loved it.
Unions have raised wages and working conditions for working class men and women for well over a hundred years, but like the market operates, when union wages got prohibitive and quality or work declined, as in American cars of the 1970's, for an example, factories moved to the South, where there were no unions and workers were more conscientious. The same thing happened in the New England area when union clothing workers struck endlessly, causing the trade to go south. Dozens of huge factories are still there in New England, but used for other purposes of even museums to the old clothing factories. (Foreign cheap labor has caused thousands of factories to close). Unions and the free market, are in constant competition with each other. Unions want higher wages and better conditions, and companies want to make a profit. If wages go too high, merchandise will be priced out of reach of consumers, and sales will plummet, resulting in layoffs. Its the job of corporate CEO's and labor negotiators to create a balance, so that both win.
Unions have the power to picket businesses, which will keep some customers away. Management has the power to publicize its side of the issue also, by advertising or signs in windows. It all comes down to each side being reasonable so that workers and management can live with each other. Mostly, unions have strength in large cities. In New York, as a classic example, it costs an arm and a leg to visit, because every single job is a union job, and this makes every single service, food, entertainment, or transport very expensive. I love to visit New York, but can't afford to do it very often! Everything in New York is unionized, and in most major cities to a lesser extent. Theatres built in the 1920's had large pipe organs, usually Wurlitzer, to accompany silent film. They also had huge stages with fly space so as to be able to put on fancy stage shows, ballets, drama and vaudeville. Those were great days to me, a theatre lover. However, when the need for pipe organs and huge stages diminished, the unions would not give in. I remember it well, in Philly, when union organists and stage hands had to be kept on, or a strike would ensue, and the theatre would go bankrupt. Imagine man on the payroll to play an organ before a show, and another stage hand to open and close the curtain. Theatre owners removed hundreds of organs which were beautiful and operated perfectly, because they didn't want to pay a union organist. If the organ was there, unions insisted it be played. Wanton destruction, to put it mildly. No wonder that modern theatres have no stages, no organs, and no curtains. Modern theatres have no projectionists either, and automation has taken over the theatre business. No more heavy film cans. Movies are now on a large DVD. No more arc lamps or changeovers. How sad. Unions caused the demise of the old style theatres, many of which, fortunately, have been converted into concert halls, and their glory preserved.
Unions caused railroads to dieselize, and elevators to be self serve rather than have operators. Manually operated elevators, hired thousands of workers who were not the brightest, but who could do that job efficiently. Naturally, at the US Capitol, House and Senate, elevators are still manned by operators. Railroads used to have cabooses on the end of freight trains. No more. Railroads used to have five or six men in a freight train crew. No more. The engineer and conductor both sit in the locomotive, and the EOTD (end of train device) tells them what is going on with brakes and conditions on the many times, hundred car trains. Those locomotives you see on the end of fright trains? No engineer in them. All radio controlled by the engineer. Unions lost their jobs by making demands higher than the market could cope. I write thee things, and many times get carried away with my ancient opinions. Sorry. As the Warner Brothers cartoons say, "That's All Folks." Until next week anyway. Chapter 58 in "I Hold These Truths," is titled "The Minimum Wage."
North Korea
Currently, as I write this, U.S. and South Korea are, and have been conducting huge military maneuvers and exercises off the North Korean coast. This has been going on for a couple of weeks now, and continues to this day. North Korea, as a result, has been firing missiles into the sea and threatens to do another atomic test. Trump is absolutely correct when he says that America should withdraw all troops from Japan and South Korea. They can take care of themselves! These maneuvers are nothing more than a threat to North Korea and are totally needless and provocative. Now, If only Trump could think before he speaks. Conservatives say he isn't a true conservative, and maybe not, but he is saying things voters want to hear, such as Washington D.C. is foolish, and wasteful. His views on abortion have nothing to do with the Constitution. Whether a baby is 'alive' at conception or at birth, is an opinion only, and will never be solved. If Republicans would get off the abortion subject and allow that it is up to the woman, not government, they might win more elections. Abortion has NOTHING to do with good government, and if a 'true' conservative means getting involved in legislating opinionated 'morality,' count me out. I have never done drugs, been drunk, and of course had an abortion, but that is my business, not goverments', unless I interfere with another's freedom.