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It's really got nothing to do with Presidents Clinton, HW Bush, or even Reagan or Carter for that matter. Businesses innovate; they try to maximize the efficiency with which they do things, so they can squeeze more profits and return dividends to shareholders. I've often wondered sometimes whether I, as a member of a far more democratized stock market, am actually contributing to the very monster which is going to end up taking away my labor. Hell, I and everyone else probably are indeed feeding that Leviathon. However, I think it's pointless to try and reverse it - what will be, will be.
What I would like to see, though, is for people to openly embrace these innovations and the creations of wealth that they bring on the one hand, while at the same time not losing their sense of humanity and implicit social responsibilities on the other. I'm sorry, but while you 'non-liberals' probably have the economic liberalism part of this discussion right, you're getting the collective responsibility part completely wrong. You can't just imagine that you live behind a walled city. Your lives, our lives, affect and are affected by other individuals, and in some way or another, the energy affects us all in some way or another. I don't want - nor would I want my children - to live in a society in which we have an elite class of people living behind electric fences in a house full of security guards and dobermans in order to seal ourselves off from the wave of anger created by the kind of disparate society we're creating now.
Okay I'm not going to get into the whole NAFTA and the rest thing. That is for a different thread and all I agree. Now what I do see is hey if this whole automation thing happens who will be building the hardware? Will it be a US company. Most likely not and that is the problem. They will be built overseas and the folks screaming for "higher wages" just lost out on some more jobs even if a US company was in the kitty to get that one. Jobs that would have paid more. You don't want your children to live in an "elite" class of fences and the like?? Well we are well down the road for that but that is a different thread too.
It's really got nothing to do with Presidents Clinton, HW Bush, or even Reagan or Carter for that matter. Businesses innovate; they try to maximize the efficiency with which they do things, so they can squeeze more profits and return dividends to shareholders. I've often wondered sometimes whether I, as a member of a far more democratized stock market, am actually contributing to the very monster which is going to end up taking away my labor. Hell, I and everyone else probably are indeed feeding that Leviathon. However, I think it's pointless to try and reverse it - what will be, will be.
What I would like to see, though, is for people to openly embrace these innovations and the creations of wealth that they bring on the one hand, while at the same time not losing their sense of humanity and implicit social responsibilities on the other. I'm sorry, but while you 'non-liberals' probably have the economic liberalism part of this discussion right, you're getting the collective responsibility part completely wrong. You can't just imagine that you live behind a walled city. Your lives, our lives, affect and are affected by other individuals, and in some way or another, the energy affects us all in some way or another. I don't want - nor would I want my children - to live in a society in which we have an elite class of people living behind electric fences in a house full of security guards and dobermans in order to seal ourselves off from the wave of anger created by the kind of disparate society we're creating now.
Excellent post.
I have to say the problem is these folks who are "wanting" this min wage thing don't realize that in the end the companies will produce touch screen systems to replace them.........and they will be produced not in the old USofA....but overseas. Just like everything else is. That is the problem with this entire country. Like you say who cares who is president they are all idiots............IMO...........but our government is forcing folks offshore with taxes. And add in the cheap labor. What do we do is the question? Keep printing money? I mean that seems to be the answer now.
Okay I'm not going to get into the whole NAFTA and the rest thing. That is for a different thread and all I agree. Now what I do see is hey if this whole automation thing happens who will be building the hardware? Will it be a US company. Most likely not and that is the problem. They will be built overseas and the folks screaming for "higher wages" just lost out on some more jobs even if a US company was in the kitty to get that one. Jobs that would have paid more. You don't want your children to live in an "elite" class of fences and the like?? Well we are well down the road for that but that is a different thread too.
Cliff's Notes version.
I don't want to encourage sloth, but I think we do need some sort of social spending. I'm not genius enough to produce the perfect system, but I'd gladly pay to train those who are motivated enough to take advantage of an education wage. If someone wants to take some useful MOOCS or an apprenticeship and get paid an uncomfortable but livable salary for 6-12 months, I think we're better for it. I'd gladly pay an extra 1-2 percent in taxes to put a roof over that guy's head while he does it - I think that money would come back to me at some point (that's why I tip well). I'd gladly pay for a bank teller to retool and set up an e-bay business of their own. Would I like paying for a welfare queen who pumps out 6 babies in 6 years? No, but Christ, I can't punish the child. No easy solutions there, I'm afraid.
Why don't socialist states like CA & NY go ahead and set their MW at $15-20 an hour ?
No need waiting for us here in TX to raise ours. If they raise, they can have a few more million additional illegals headed to the Golden States.
I think we need to stop calling each other names and assuming the worst of our intentions - however much Fox News and MSNBC want us to do so in order to pump up their ratings, we oughtta resist the temptation.
For once, I will stop bashing republicans and commend the long-awaited return of sanity and maturity of John Boehner, who finally grew a pair and told off the tea party. If I'm gonna bash the republicans for taking them in, I ought to encourage them when they do the right thing and finally resist the demagoguery and take the risks of standing up to them. I think this is what the GOP has needed for a long time. They might be asking for trouble in the primaries, but they can take solace in the fact that the select few tea party morons who actually emerge in the primaries haven't a chance in the general election. I hope more GOP go the way of guys like Boehner, Chris Christie, and Scott Brown. I might actually consider voting for them for once.
Deciding what wage to pay someone for doing a job that any 10 year old school kid can do is not ideological, it's one of market economics. If government forces me as an employer to pay an unfair wage to some kid, just to push a broom, or push shopping carts back into the stalls, I'll not hire the kid and more unemployed school kids will never learn basic jobs skills. However, I might have other employees now include sweeping the floor and pushing carts as a part of their assigned duties.
I am talking about people that are not going to school anymore. For schoolchildren there are other rules, else it would be considered child labor and illegal anyway.
And with adult workers it does indeed not matter to me what their jobs look like. Even if they are simple, they deserve to be able to make ends meet, after all they spend the whole day on it.
If you are that kind of employer, it is your problem. Nobody forces you to employ anyone.
A decent minimum wage is not about you, but about the employees.
Just like unions are not there to help employers, but employees, keep them from being exploited etc.
Who do you think are building those registers? It aint Americans. So all those folks who are crying and whining about "greed" just shifted their job offshore. Thank Clinton. Oh and his wife is your folks hero. Guess where that will take us as a country when you start salivating about her being president which all you liberals will...........more down the gutter. Enjoy it as you liberals are destroying this country.
Yep, thanks Clinton for signing a horrible Republican bill into law, that should have been his first veto.
Replacing all the fast food workers with technology is just going to add millions to the welfare roles. At this point they arent making much but at least they are out there working,
I;ll not frequent fast food joints that get rid of all their employees then expect me to deal with a computer instead of a human.
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