L.A. raises minimum wage to $15/hr

Wow. And you wonder why the government has to force employers to raise wages so folks can afford Ramen noodles instead of going to the food bank.

 

That's the libertarian fantasy, except the government doesn't force employers to raise wages, or to pay any set minimum at all.

 

The headline might need a "will" in it and a "by 2020."

$15 is a lot, though.

 

If you think you can make $250,000 a year selling insurance, go do it.

The barrier to entry to becoming an insurance agent is incredibly low. Go get your license, and start selling.

The reason why you see it staying in the family is because relationships with friends, family, neighbors are built up over years. And, you can inherit/buy the business that your mother or father started.

But, there's nothing stopping you from getting started, and turning a successful business over to your kid(s). (Though, like everything, the internet is changing this field too, and change is going to accelerate in the very near future.)

 

Set A consists of those people who believe substantial increases in the minimum wage won't materially affect the employment prospects of the unskilled.

Set B consists of those people who believe that free trade pacts materially threaten the employment prospects of the unskilled.

Stunningly, the intersection of A and B is not a null set.

 

All right, I'll bite.

Why don't those two things go together? Doesn't a tighter labor pool benefit the worker?

 

Is there some better system to divide our assets?

 

Better than 90 percent of the income gains flowing to 1 percent of the people?

Yes.

 

OK. Tell me how it works. Who determines what percentage should go to people?

 

Raise the minimum wage. Provide subsidies for day care and other child expenses. That's the stuff that happens to one degree or another in virtually every other first-world nation.

Raise taxes on people making more than $250,000 and tax the hell out of people making more than $1 million. (This is happening in California already, to much hue and cry when it started but to absolutely no real negative effect on the economy now that it is in action.)

Make the capital gains tax follow the normal income tax brackets.

Eliminate the "carried interest" and other banker-designed loopholes.

There's a lot more regarding loopholes etc., but that would be a start.

 

My problem with free trade agreements is that they don't do nearly enough to improve labor standards, including wages, in the developing countries involved. I wouldn't be concerned even a bit about jobs going offshore if labor standards were in place in those countries that would prevent what amounts to slave labor and effectively put a floor on the race to the bottom.

Voters through their legislators should decide on the rules and regulations of the labor markets and tax codes.