An Economics Lesson for Joe Biden
If the minimum wage tracked inflation, it would be $4.07 per hour.
Speaking at the White House on June 25, Vice President Joe Biden claimed that a higher federal minimum wage was practical and long overdue. "Just pay me [for] minimum wage what you paid folks in 1968," Mr. Biden said, echoing the argument numerous labor unions, left-wing think tanks and activist groups have made.
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How about picking other arbitrary years to track the minimum wage and inflation? If you used 1948 instead of 1968, the minimum wage's inflation-adjusted value would only be $3.81 an hour. If you chose 1988, the adjusted minimum wage would be $6.50 an hour.
When there is price fixing in a free market, using the previous pricing at any given time and adjusting for inflation is just more BS talk.
The only legitimate discussion point is getting rid of the price fixing so the adults in the market can determine real values and then trade.
But if we are going to pretend we are all children in a classroom and the teacher gets to decide....
she must go through the effort it takes to find the right price. This means that you do analysis to show the optimal price to fix at. There are 3 choices.
1. Increasing the price will always produce better results for everyone, so the best price is infinity.
2. Decreasing the price will always produce favorable results for everyone, so the best price is zero
3. There is an ideal price and it is determined by doing X.
Since the argument is #3 for just about everyone, what is X and how do you calculate it?
Can anyone on either side actually argue that what people were paid in 19xx when technology was perversely different, taxes were perversely different and you legal obligations were perversely different....adjusted for inflation, which is primarily artificial, is the best way to determine the min wage today or any point in the future?
After we accept that we are children....shouldn't you start to add up some basic expenses like food, shelter, taxes and legal obligations to come up with this wage.
And how do you explain to the people with skills worth less than that wage why the solution to society's issues is to deprive them the right to work or gain more skills? That is literally what a min. wage says. Just like if it costs $2 a gallon to produce milk and get it to market for farms in CO and it costs $1 for farms in WY. If CO made a max price for milk of $1.50, that all dairy farmers in CO would loose their right or desire to maintain the cows...or of course they could sell the milk under the table to people that really still want CO milk regardless of the price.
Oh BTW, dont forget to exempt farm workers and waitresses from any adjustment, we have already determined they are on their own on this one.
