13 thoughts on “Income Inequality”

  1. “There is no greater income inequality than some versus none.”

    Well, a greater inequality would be income vs negative income — paying for the opportunity to work.

    Truthfully, I just wanted to be a smart ass, but in a good faith effort to keep this comment on-topic, I googled “paying for the opportunity to work”, and found this article about McDonalds:

    http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/216869/mcdonalds-sued-for-stealing-wages-from-workers-getting-paid-basically-nothing-to-begin-with/

    1. No, your comment is off topic.If you had read the post you would have learned:

      Over half of the 3 percent of American workers who earn the minimum wage are between 16 and 24 years old. Two-thirds work only part-time.

      It is a stepping stone job for the vast majority of people.

      The site you linked is your typical, “they make a lot of money and it isn’t fair! Stomp my feet, stomp my feet.!” Rather than demand another revolution to install failed socialist policies, maybe you should, just once, look deeper into the problem and analyze the cause, rather than the symptom. Why is minimum wage not enough? Why is it too expensive to live?

      Could it be that health care, rent and education are far too expensive? And why is that? Could it be that there is an attempt by the Fed to reinflate an overpriced housing market to appease the bondholders of the major banks? And that reinflation hurts the poor and middle class? The cost of tuition and health care have direct correlations with the amount of government subsidies. The more money and credit pumped into a sector, the more costs rise.

      Yes, there is income inequality right now, but it isn’t caused by wage issues. It’s caused by giving first access to credit to a limited number of people, such as banks and large corporations. That money (essentially free), is used to buy commodities, assets and for CEOs and other execs, to buy back their own stock (thus inflating the stock market). And guess who is promoting that? Your buddy Barack and good ole Janet Yellen. Their desire to reinflate the economy and get us out of deflation is not only causing inflation, but is making the dollar worth even less, which is detrimental to saving.

      I could go on, but that’s enough for you to research the true causes of our current economic malaise.

      And, by the way, when I worked at McDonalds I had to clean my uniform. (Or rather, my mom did.) Nobody found this egregious and akin to slave labor. Maybe it’s just that dumb hick red-state mentality that kept me from thinking that I was getting screwed by washing my own uniform.

    2. “In New York, workers are forced to pay for the cleaning of their uniforms on their own dime, which also drives their wages under the legal minimum wage.”

      Uh yeah. I held two food-service jobs while in my teens, and had to buy and maintain (Even, gasp, washing my shirts and pants!) my uniforms for both (And let me tell you, washing dishes is murder on khakis and boots, even good ones. I think they lasted six months at max), and they wanted the shirts and aprons back when I quit the second job. ‘Course, I also worked hard and got raises annually, so there’s that.

      1. It is insulting for people to do their own laundry. This is something that the government needs to do. Some people think that government is paternalistic but really its just like Mom. Also, only a racist would think Mom should do laundry. Do your own laundry.

  2. Since they used a picture of a Wal-Mart employee, might as well also throw in evidence that Wal-Mart’s minimum pay increase is having unintended consequences such as employee dissatisfaction for all of those who were already on the higher rungs of the ladders. Why bother to work hard for a promotion when you already make as much as your boss?

    Even with this article, such consequences are still a source of cognitive disconnect (or perhaps willful ignorance) for most of the proponents of raising the minimum wage. In Johnson County, Iowa, the county is trying to set its own minimum wage, and people still don’t seem to get it (although some who commented about not being able to hire kids or pay state-ordered employees seem to get it). And Johnson County is a retail mecca for the surrounding area; I’m not sure how anyone thinks they’re going to keep a mall and all of the surrounding restaurants open when they have to let go all of their high school and university students.

    FWIW, Johnson County houses the University of Iowa, one of the two ‘Berkeleys of the Midwest’ (UW-Madison being the other).

  3. Now that Sidetrack Bob has checked in, can Godzilla be far behind? With his usual astute grasp of economics, he’ll probably tell us that we should raise the minimum wage to a hundred dollars an hour so everyone can be prosperous? (Why not, if there’s no such thing as a market price for labor, or that if there is, we can ignore it without negative consequences.)

    But what interests me is why we’re supposed to be incensed at income inequality? I’m of very modest means myself, and yet it doesn’t bother me a whit if some other guy is rich–provided he did so without resorting to force or fraud. (That lets you out, crony capitalists.) How is some guy getting wealthy through honest, non-coercive means harming me, or keeping me poor?

  4. I notice that the same people who complain about minimum wage also complain about increased automation. I guess they don’t see the connection between increasing replacement of workers with automation and making workers more expensive for employers.

    1. They’re just annoyed because the EVIL EMPLOYERS aren’t doing what they’re told.

      ‘We told you to raise wages!’
      ‘Yes, so I installed machines and laid off the employees’
      ‘But we told you to raise wages!’
      ‘But machines are cheaper.’
      ‘It’s just NOT FAIR!’

      The left and reality just don’t get along.

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