A parable on the minimum wage.
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They say that Louis XIV had the inscription Ultima Ratio Regum cast into all the cannon of the French Army. It means “The Ultimate Argument of Kings,” and that always struck me as one of the most honest and up-front things any ruler or would-be ruler ever said. “We can dress it up prettier than this, but when it comes down to the unvarnished truth this is what it’s about: You’ll do as I say or I’ll send my goons to kill you.”
I thought about that for a long time. If there’s an ultimate argument, it seems only logical that there must be an ultimate answer. For years I thought the ultimate answer must be the bullets in my rifle, but it never seemed quite right. I’ve got bullets – he’s got frigging Cannon Balls. I mean, if there were three hundred million rifles throwing bullets at him, then maybe. But we all know that’s not going to happen. So if there’s an ultimate answer to his ultimate argument, it sure as hell ain’t bullets.
It finally came to me – and that’s when I abandoned the city and most of my stuff, and gave all that was behind me a good stiff Randian Shrug.
The ultimate answer to kings is not a bullet, but a belly laugh.
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None of this is simple. Like your graphic, I could argue on both sides of the minimum wage thing. But it’s not as simple as simple economics because society in general and government specifically steps in to subsidize sub-paid workers in many little ways.
That motor thing is sort of a silly argument because there aren’t very many jobs that can be replaced by technology that easily. It will be a while before we have machines stocking the shelves at Walmart. And when we do, someone will have to build, program, and maintain the machines! One example of a complicated machine doing a minimum wage job is those self-checkouts at Walmart and Home Depot.
Another way of looking at the minimum wage thing is that if you are a business owner and you don’t pay your employees enough to live, then society somehow must pick up that slack. This is done in many ways, but it typically comes down to tax money ripped from other people’s pockets.
Ergo, if you own a business that is not paying the actual living costs of it’s employees, then your business is effectively receiving a government subsidy.
If the motor runs five hours without maintenance, its cost to operate was zero.
If it then require fifty bucks of maintenance, it’s a junk motor and should be replaced.
Fast food joints are already installing automated ordering kiosks and robotic food preparation gear. Walmart is working on robotic inventory control and stocking.
If the government is already stealing taxpayers’ money to fund assorted “welfare” systems, then it’s in a business owner’s own best interest to cut is payroll costs to make up for the taxes he’s paying that will go to “workers.”
First, since the article does not include specifications for the motor, I’m supposing it’s acceptable for a random person to procure a motor of their choosing.
Which means a higher speed motor should produce more than 1 cent per 4.97 seconds, or a little ingenuity with gears, or pulleys and belts, could produce a higher spin rate with that displayed motor. I’d also guess that a small amount of mechanical ability and a cordless drill could beat the crap out of $7.25 an hour in about 15 minutes.
Show me a room full of those gizmos and I’ll earn 20+ years of full retirement pay in a couple hours (I’ll probably need some help hauling all the 5-gallon buckets of pennies, though….).
Another excellent example of using the Government Education Industry to breed brainless lefties. Which really needs to stop, however we accomplish it.
Er…it’s only a parable. I think a couple of you guys are taking the details too literally.
To take the parable further into the woods, there are no specifications for the operation of the crank, either. If it produces a penny every 4.97 seconds regardless of the crank speed, one operator could be getting his pennies for nearly zero effort, whilst the guy who really cranks that mother up would be getting minimal return on his effort.
I think a governmental study is warranted to determine if the whole thing isn’t some scheme cooked up by either a fascist or a greedy capitalist exploiter of the workers . . .
Sadly Aesop has become just SOP to the current political swamp. The fact that both R and D are looking at the tax cut proposals with horror, and pulling stunts to “make up the loss” (of tax revenue to the state), shows they are all corrupt and that the state exists only to grow the state. This is proof positive it is time to start firing the bastiges, all of them and replace them with those who will truly shrink the size of the Fedgov. Also, lowering taxes across the board will in fact goose the economy and create more jobs. It also creates greater job mobility for workers and increased wages in those areas needing skilled workers. Become skilled at something and you will never lack life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As to the death tax, kill it dead now. Allow family farms and business’ to be handed down and grow apace. Either we fix this now or it will never happen and Venezuela will come to America faster than you think.
Terrapod wrote: “The fact that both R and D are looking at the tax cut proposals with horror,… ”
Surely you must have noted that the very same nice folks who were deficit hawks last year when we had a Democrat in the White House, are today wanting to swell the deficit, now that they have a notional Republican in the big office. Please note that a deficit is nothing but a silent tax that rips value from the money in your pockets, your future paychecks and your bank accounts.
Terrapod also wrote: “lowering taxes across the board will in fact goose the economy and create more jobs”.
I would say that statement is unproven because every time it’s been tried what we actually ended up with was mostly a tax cut for the rich. Starting with Reagonomics, and moving on the Bush tax cuts, I don’t recall any great times or deficit shrinkage brought to us by tax cuts. All that happened was we swelled the deficit, (which is really a tax).
The real minimum wage is 0.