"We have institutionalized bureaucracy."
No kidding. Hey, is there a bureaucracy that isn't an institution?
The guy reminds me of Yogi Berra: "We made too many wrong mistakes".
Friday, May 6, 2016
Trump is right that wages are too high: The minimum wage should be reduced to $4.20 per hour, not raised, to put teenagers back to work
Trump was right when he said during the debates that wages are too high. He was referring to our comparative disadvantage as a nation with lower wages abroad.
A key reason wages are "too high" in the US is because the minimum wage sets the floor for wages too high to begin with. That's why Trump said he didn't want to see a minimum wage increase. But we could actually start to reverse this problem by reducing the minimum wage to $4.20 per hour, not raising it.
Currently the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, almost 73% higher than it should be.
The minimum wage set by the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 set the minimum wage at $0.25 per hour. Indexed to the Consumer Price Index since then, the current level should be about $4.20 per hour, through 2014.
One terrible consequence of artificially high wages at the bottom of the scale is that average teenage employment in the United States has plummeted from its high in 1978 and 1979 at 8.1 million to 4.7 million in 2015.
As recently as 2006 teenage employment averaged 6.2 million, but now on average 1.5 million fewer teenagers work compared to 2006 after a fusillade of minimum wage increases were unleashed beginning in 2007 under George W. Bush.
Demographics are not to be faulted. Birth rates have held steady between 1977 and 1999 at 15.525 per 1000, so that people born between those years turned 16 between 1993 and 2015, providing a steady supply and a steady level of young labor.
So compared to peak teenage employment, 3.4 million fewer teenagers work today even as the federal minimum wage was hiked ELEVEN times:
From $2.30 in 1976
to $2.65 in 1978,
to $2.90 in 1979,
to $3.10 in 1980,
to $3.35 in 1981,
to $3.80 in 1990,
to $4.25 in 1991,
to $4.75 in 1996,
to $5.15 in 1997,
to $5.85 in 2007,
to $6.55 in 2008,
to $7.25 in 2009.
That's a 215% increase in the minimum wage since peak teenage employment, accompanied by a 42% decline in that employment. You get the picture. Increase the cost of labor, and you get less of it.
Teenage employment is critical to transmitting our values to the next generation of Americans by giving the young an opportunity to gain the work experience and habits they will need to get that first "real" job, and to learn the relationship between effort and enjoying the fruits of labor.
Unfortunately their teachers and parents have not been communicating this message in word nor in deed. The socialism of Bernie Sanders is all the rage at the schools even as the parents idly answer the siren song of minimum wage increases sung by Republicans and Democrats alike.
The only problem with all that is, eventually the kids will run out of the fruits of other people's labor, including their parents'.
Trump causes widespread confusion telling West Virginians they don't need to vote in Tuesday's primary
I must admit I didn't post on it last night because I found it very confusing, assuming it would blow over.
It didn't.
Story here.
Maybe this is just Trump pulling everybody's chain again, keeping himself in the news cycle
Maybe this is just Trump pulling everybody's chain again, keeping himself in the news cycle
Thursday, May 5, 2016
Libertarians routinely play the spoilers in elections, but Rush Limbaugh is surprised the Koch Bros. may support Hillary
Our Big Fat Idiot strikes again.
Today, here:
I mean, the #NeverTrump movement's still there, and I'll treat you to them as the program unfolds. All kinds of major, big Republican donors are saying, "I can't do it! I just can't give my money to Trump." The Koch brothers are thinking of going with Hillary, for example. Which really surprises me. I mean, they are libertarians, and that just blows me away that the Koch brothers would be all-in for Hillary. But everybody's noses are still out of joint in a lot of ways. We'll see how people are feeling and thinking a week from now, two weeks from now.
Kasich changed his mind Wednesday morning after losing Reince Priebus' blessing Tuesday night
From the story here:
By Wednesday morning, Kasich appeared to have a full change of heart, when he was scheduled to hold a press conference at Dulles Airport near Washington. Dozens of reporters milled around in the lobby of a private aviation terminal, waiting for Kasich to arrive. As the scheduled time came and went, rumors began swirling. The Ohio governor had not left Columbus and was discussing his future with advisers.
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Ted Cruz-Mark Levin-Rush Limbaugh conservatism UTTERLY REPUDIATED IN EVERY INDIANA CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT
Where the true conservatism of American hearth, home and altar screamed "NO"! Indiana was a referendum on what Ross Douthat calls "True Conservatism", where it lost, in contrast to "ideological" Wisconsin, where it won:
In the days before and after the Wisconsin primary, with delegate accumulation going his way and the polling looking plausible once the Northeastern primaries were over, it seemed like Cruz could reasonably hope for a nomination on the second or third ballot. ... But it turned out that Republican voters didn’t want True Conservatism any more than they wanted Bushism 2.0. Maybe they would have wanted it from a candidate with more charisma and charm and less dogged unlikability. But the entire Trump phenomenon suggests otherwise, and Trump as the presumptive nominee is basically a long proof against the True Conservative theory of the Republican Party.
Presidential turnout since 1972: Increased participation favors Democrats, and maybe the anti-Bush former Democrat named Donald Trump
Presidential turnout since 1972:
Average percent of the voting age population: 53%
Average percent of the voting age population when Republicans win: 53% (average)
Average percent of the voting age population when Democrats win: 54% (1 point above average)
Average percent of the registered voters: 74%
Average percent of the registered voters when Republicans win: 73.9% (0.1 point below average)
Average percent of the registered voters when Democrats win: 72.9% (1.1 points below average)
Republican wins in elections most like 2016:
Average percent of the voting age population in 1980, 1988, 2000: 51.1% (1.9 points below average)
Average percent of the registered voters in 1980, 1988, 2000: 72% (2.0 points below average)
Democrat wins in elections most like 2016:
Average percent of the voting age population in 1976, 1992, 2008: 55.7% (2.7 points above average)
Average percent of the registered voters in 1976, 1992, 2008: 76.7% (2.7 points above average)
Small man: Trump congratulated Cruz last night, but Cruz didn't reciprocate
CNN has the Trump video here.
Rush Limbaugh caller "New Jersey George" explains how Ted Cruz picked a fight with midwest common sense in Indiana and lost
From the Rush Limbaugh transcript, here:
CALLER: Okay, Rush. Thank you for taking my call. Been with you for many years. Love you. I just have this feeling -- I don't know why -- but I just have a feeling that you're a Cruz supporter. Not a Trump supporter, I can't find that, but that's how I feel. But the reason I called, I just wanted to defend the guy that you called brain-dead yesterday. I watched that interview from the beginning, and, you know, we'll call him "braid-dead" since we don't know his name. He was a very polite protester. He was standing on the street with a Trump sign, and he wasn't bothering anybody, and, lo and behold, who comes along to cross the street, Ted Cruz.
Now, Cruz confronted him, and in the very beginning of the conversation, the number 1237 came up, and the guy knew what 1237 was, and he told Cruz in his opinion that Trump was gonna hit the 1237 and in his opinion would probably go over that. And then he also asked Cruz a question. He said, "I'd like to ask you a question. Why don't you step out of the race because you've indicated that Kasich should step out, and, since you've indicated that, you think that Kasich can't make it, and neither do we think that you can, why don't you step out?"
Now, the reason I mentioned these couple things to you, that doesn't seem to me as a brain-dead person. That's just my opinion. And a brain-dead person is just gonna stand there and look brain-dead. This guy had some some some substance there. So I didn't think it was fair that you labeled him as brain-dead. Then Cruz started his stump speech. And the guy was polite. He was listening and listening and listening, and Cruz was going over all his stump speech. And I think the guy had had it and finally didn't want to hear anything more, and he started yelling, you know, Lyin' Ted, Lyin' Ted, and he had had it. And that's just my opinion. And I -- I just feel that you labeled him wrong. And I might even think that sometimes maybe I might be part of the brain-dead crowd.
Another thing I just wanted to put in there real quick, I have a cleaning lady that was in my house yesterday, and she's from Thailand. And Trump came on television, and she looked up and she said, I used to work for him. I live 30 miles from Atlantic City. So she said, I used to work for him. And my wife said, what did you think? Again. And she said, he was very nice, he was a very nice person, he treated me with respect, and so did he treat all of us.
Now, they were just cleaning people in Trump's casino. One other quickie. I was in a restaurant a couple weeks ago, and the owner who I know came up to me, and he knows I'm a Trump guy, and he said I just gotta tell you something, he said I just had a guy was in here, and he got caught up in Trump's problems with the casino and he lost a hundred thousand dollars in the bankruptcy. He said, but I'm gonna tell you something. I lost a hundred G's, he says I'm gonna tell you, I'm voting for him. You know why? He's a straight shooter. He said he got caught up in a bad situation, and he did his very best, he says, so he's got my vote. I just wanted to pass these things on, and I want to tell you, I love you, I'll always be with you.
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Indiana rejects Ted Cruz, who suspends a campaign descending into ugliness
A better man who really cared about the party and the country would have gotten out after Pennsylvania. Then again, a better man wouldn't have pulled a dirty trick in Iowa, or in Utah. How anyone can take the guy seriously as a Christian values candidate going forward is beyond me. Better to have bowed out earlier and salvaged a future for himself, but that was not possible for the man in a hurry.
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