Reaping Cannon Fodder

Libertarians have been praising Republicans for their reluctance to increase the minimum wage, yet what has historically been a unilaterally-acting administration has recently begun to accept the idea of raising the minimum wage. Why the sudden change? Increasing the recruitment pool is one possibility.

Quote:

http://www.mises.org/story/2446
Everybody knows that an increase in the federal minimum wage constitutes a "raise" to all those who work now or will work in the near future at the lowest legal rate of pay. Why, 650 prominent economists, including five Nobel Prize winners, recently signed an open letter in support of raising the minimum wage.

Now, the minority, non-Nobel-Prize-winning view that is found, for example, among Austrian economists and 13,000 labor economists, holds, along with the Law of Supply and Demand, that if the price of a good (or service, like labor) is raised, less of it will be bought.

This means that employment among the young, the inexperienced, and unskilled will decline with the institution of a higher minimum wage. And at last count, 1.9 million Americans were working for the minimum wage. Not only these jobs, but all the millions more jobs between the present minimum wage and the new minimum wage, are threatened.

The civilian alternative for fresh high-school drop-outs and graduates will indeed seem superior to the military alternative by an increased margin. And it will be unattainable to that many more of them. Now, the recruiter will be able to choose, not just among those who can't compete for the scarce jobs that pay $5.15 per hour, but among those many more who can't win one of the even-scarcer jobs that pay $7.25 per hour — not only more cannon fodder, but better as well, all thanks to that "raise" the government "gave" them!

It sounds like the most likely reason an administration entrapped in military advernturism would suddenly do a complete 180 in regards to the minimum wage.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

That was quite thought provoking. I was wondering what happened with the minimum wage increase. And it did fall at such a perfect time, didn't it.

The question is: are there people in the Right who really think in terms like this? I mean, they must feel dirty doing it that way, no matter how right they think they are.

Most amazing jew boots

A very interesting theory. I think in past days when I was more cynical, such notions would not be so implausible. The timing of events IS interesting, but would one expect any future rises if a greater troop surge was required? In any case, I'm thinking it would have to be a longer term strategy as there would probably be a decent time lag between wage changes, the resulting job redundancies and prospective military applications/recruitments/training. Still, I'm not too sure any on the Right sharing this mindset would have any qualms raising the minimum wage to achieve the military objective.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

The lag time may only be significant depending on how employers try and see how long they can afford to keep the weakest link. Smarter business owners would have already picked out the least productive employees to fire if a minimum raise is implemented.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

One has to remember that Austrian Economics essentially suggests removing all state interfereance from the economy and letting the free market run riot. The idea is that if people won't accept jobs for crap wages, they won't be able to afford to eat and therefore the overall population will decline, creating greater average wealth for those who survive.

I suppose if everyone joined the army and went to get blown up abroad that would expediate the process.

It's an interesting, if slightly cynical theory though. Is there not an arguement to be made that increasing the minimum wage encourages the employment of illegal immigrant workers, not subject to minimum wage legislation though? Surely a republican government would not want to risk any policies that might encourage greater utilisation of illegal workers?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Shin

Is there not an arguement to be made that increasing the minimum wage encourages the employment of illegal immigrant workers, not subject to minimum wage legislation though?

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: it also reduces the number of jobs the economy can sustain, period. If $5.00/hr is the value an employee provides to a company, and the government mandates their pay to be $6.00/hr, they lose their job plain and simple. This is even before we consider hiring illegal immigrants at a lower pay.

Originally Posted by Shin

Surely a republican government would not want to risk any policies that might encourage greater utilisation of illegal workers?

Why not? They don't really care about illegal workers. It's all about inciting a culture of fear among the populace. And what better way to get more support for walling off our country than causing even more (oh noes!) illegal workers in the country?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?