12 Reasons Why Hiking the Minimum Wage is Not Necessarily Bad

I have read many articles (both pro and con) on the issue of raising the minimum wage, and here is my own conclusion.   Feel free to disagree.

There are many reasons why a minimum wage that is too low can actually be bad for the U.S:

1.  It forces the government (and taxpayers) to subsidize low-value labor:  Any minimum wage that results in the wage earner being eligible for food stamps and other government assistance means one thing and one thing only:  This person's labor is being subsidized by the government--by taxpayers.  We all know that when you subsidize something, you get more of it.  Therefore, a low minimum wage encourages companies to behave as if they are dealing in a third-world country.  As a result, they will exploit the cheap labor.  They will hire more low-wage employees. GDP per capita will go down.  That's bad for all of us.

2.  It discourages competitive technological advancements:  When given the option of hiring low wage workers, employers will not work to leverage and maximize their laborers' value via training or education.  They will not utilize modern, computerized, robotic technology and so will ultimately lose out to more advanced countries in the long term.  Overall GDP per capita will go lower and lower until the U.S. resembles a third world country.  Everybody will lose, since our "old and flabby" industry will look more and more like the obsolete technology associated with former communist regimes, while more and more U.S. factories close down because they cannot compete globally.  And once we reach that tipping point, it's almost impossible to reverse the downward spiral.

3.  Attempting to compete globally on the basis of low wages is a losing game:  We cannot possibly compete globally on the basis of "low" wages because there are plenty of developing countries that will always beat us soundly at that game.  Instead, we must compete via technology and know-how, which requires that we treat our employees like valuable assets with many potential skills to be developed, rather than like minimally-trained monkeys.

4.  It encourages illegal immigration of poorly-qualified workers:  Whether or not it is truly a bad thing, many people worry about the millions of illegal immigrants flowing into the U.S.  People immigrate illegally to the U.S. because they believe they can get a job requiring minimal skills.  They believe it because it is true.  They can work in a packing plant, or make beds in hotels, or pick fruit, or flip burgers.  (Many such jobs would otherwise quickly go extinct.)  So let's say you own a large orchard.  You can either invest in a big, expensive fruit picking machine that requires 5 educated, knowledgeable American operators, or you can hire 500 seasonal illegal alien fruit pickers.  For those who want to curb illegal immigration, it only makes sense that a higher minimum wage would encourage the orchard operator to purchase the machine and employ legal American citizens.  Bottom line:  a lower minimum wage attracts illegal immigration.  And if, on the other hand, you're actually wanting to attract immigrants, why not instead attract immigrants who have valuable job skills, who know they will be paid accordingly, and who will truly benefit this country?  Or at the very least, immigrants who are willing and able to work hard, learn English, get an education and learn a skill?  Once again, you get what you encourage.

5.  It perpetuates an unfortunate and dangerous myth:  A low minimum wage gives American children the false impression that they can leave high school and get a job without learning how to read and write.  Unfortunately, that job turns out to be a low-paying job that traps them for the rest of their lives. 
   Tragically, it has been reported that less than half (44%) of 25-to-34 year old high school graduates operate at literacy levels of 3 or higher. That means that more than 4 out of 10 working age adults don’t have the functional literacy skills to perform even the most basic jobs.  Yet we allow these people to graduate based on the erroneous belief that they will find "some sort of job."  What do we get instead?  People who either aren't willing or aren't capable of working at, say, a packing plant for minimum wage.  In other words, unwed mothers, drug dealers, welfare recipients and prison inmates. 
   The sooner we explode this diabolical myth, the better. It will force us to not allow children to leave the educational system until they are truly employable.  Our education system--which should include practical training programs--would still be far less expensive than the cost of welfare, crime and incarceration.  Having a decent minimum wage drives this ugly-but-true reality home to everybody--parents, educators, politicians and the students and job searchers themselves.

6.  It's demoralizing and short-changes human potential:  Psychological studies show that people conform to their own and others' expectations.  Implementing a low minimum wage and forcing people to go on welfare, food stamps or "disability" is demoralizing to them, beats them down, and quells the human spirit.  Worst of all, it causes them to be addicted to government assistance, which costs us all.  Why promote a tragic system like this?  Why not have a society in which every human being is treated with a certain minimum dignity and is expected and encouraged to learn and grow?  It costs the same either way.  The human landscape is littered with human failures who became failures because they were led to this expectation and embraced it.
  Pretending that people ought to be able to support themselves on a low minimum wage without government assistance is a deception that's not only unfair to unskilled laborers, it's unfair to everyone else as well.  Our economic system must be based on honesty, not deception; otherwise it soon crumbles...and it must be based on encouragement rather than demoralization.
  Is this a touch-feely reason that has more to do with psychology than economics?  Yes!...and for this very reason it just may be the most important argument of all.

7.  It doesn't solve the problem of unemployment:  The true unemployment rate in the U.S. is much higher than the official rate of 6.7%; it is estimated to be upwards of   37.2%  However, lack of jobs is not the primary reason behind high unemployment in the U.S.  It is lack of job skills.  You can lower the minimum wage down to 10 cents and it's not going to result in those good jobs being filled.
  So what about the "crappy" jobs...i.e., those unfilled minimum wage jobs?  If we have such a high unemployment rate, why aren't those jobs all filled immediately?  It's easy to say the reason is because they pay less than people get on welfare or dealing drugs or whatever.  That is often true...but would YOU be willing to work at one of those dead-end jobs for the rest of your life? Are you sure?  One thing we can say for sure:  It's NOT because the wages are too high.
  Would a lower minimum wage create more job openings?  Possibly...but not jobs that people would want.  Not jobs that would support them.  Not jobs that would actually raise GDP per capita.  Instead, it would create domestic service jobs (most likely filled by illegals) that would add virtually nothing to overall GDP growth, but would instead benefit wealthier people whose employees would be effectively subsidized by the government.  For instance, people might hire a few more servants (read: virtual slaves) who would tend to the geraniums in their back yard, scrub their floors, cook their meals etc.  At least half of this "catering to the privileged" would be funded by our own taxpayer dollars via food stamps, etc.  I don't know about you, but this is not the kind of society or country I would want to live in.  It's state-supported feudalism that further enriches the few at the expense of the many.

8.  Reasons typically used to argue against the minimum wage...are myths:  Here are three common reasons given as arguments against a higher minimum wage:
a)  The minimum wage kills jobs
b)  Increasing the minimum wage hurts small business
c)  Increasing the minimum wage only helps teenagers
These all sound like logical, believable reasons for opposing a minimum wage hike.  Trouble is, they aren't true.

9.  Increasing the minimum wage would help to mitigate wealth inequality:  Wealth inequality is growing at an alarming rate.  Half the world's wealth is now owned by 85 people (out of 7 billion total.)  A country like Mexico--which has the worlds wealthiest individual, Carlos Slim--illustrates rather nicely this grotesque wealth inequality.  Some people would call this a modern form of feudalism & serfdom.  At least with the feudalism of the early middle ages, the lord had some motivation to look after the welfare of his serfs.  

10.  Increasing the minimum wage helps fight deflation:  Increasing the minimum wage tends to result in all wages rising, not just the minimum wage.  This would fight deflation much more effectively than QE, and would would help the U.S. inflate its way out of debt.

11.  A low minimum wage does not make a country wealthy:  Some people question why we ought to have a minimum wage.  Some countries still do not have a minimum wage.  I would not want to live in most of these countries.  Germany is an exception, but I know from personal acquaintance that while they've increased their level of employment, their lowest wages are very low, and do not really qualify as "jobs" in that respect. Also, their government assistance programs are extremely liberal.  The U.S. minimum wage is actually relatively low compared to other developed countries that do have a minimum wage.

12.  The benefits of a decent minimum wage is supported by history:  The chart below shows two things:  
    a) a couple of hikes in the minimum wage in the 1950's--effectively doubling the wage rate!--spurred a long positive growth trend in GDP growth per capita.  (Imagine what people would say if someone proposed doubling the minimum wage rate today!)  
    b) The current minimum wage is not high by historical standards, especially in relation to GDP per capita.
No longer do we have children working 14 hr days in dirty, dangerous environments.  No longer are coal mining accidents commonplace.  Instead, workers are accorded a degree of dignity and respect...all because of laws that were passed as a result of the revulsion the American people felt when they observed the way some workers were being mistreated.  Did huge hikes in the minimum wage cause rampant unemployment and bring the U.S. to its knees?  History says that, on the contrary, it benefited everybody.

Here is an excerpt from a speech by Franklin Roosevelt to Congress in 1937, in regard to establishing minimum wages and maximum hours:

“Today, you and I are pledged to take further steps to reduce the lag in the purchasing power of industrial workers and to strengthen and stabilize the markets for the farmers’ products. The two go hand in hand. Each depends for its effectiveness upon the other. Both working simultaneously will open new outlets for productive capital. Our Nation so richly endowed with natural resources and with a capable and industrious population should be able to devise ways and means of insuring to all our able-bodied working men and women a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. A self-supporting and self-respecting democracy can plead no justification for the existence of child labor, no economic reason for chiseling workers’ wages or stretching workers’ hours. Enlightened business is learning that competition ought not to cause bad social consequences which inevitably react upon the profits of business itself. All but the hopeless reactionary will agree that to conserve our primary resources of man power, government must have some control over maximum hours, minimum wages, the evil of child labor and the exploitation of unorganized labor.”

Surprising Facts

Here are some facts that might surprise you.  I did not research many of these facts, but instead parroted them from other web sites, so I cannot verify the accuracy of every fact.


Facts that directly contradict popular perceptions shaped by the media:

1. The fastest-growing demographic on Twitter is the 55-64 year old age bracket.
2.  Einstein's brain weighed 12% less than a normal male brain.
3.  Napoleon Bonaparte was just shy of 5 feet 7 inches, or nearly 2 inches taller than the average Frenchman of his day--certainly not short by the standards of that time.  He would be about 1 inch shorter than a typical Frenchman today.  So much for the Napolean complex.
4.  Gallop polls done throughout the 1960s showed that young and educated people (meaning college students) were far more likely to support the war than their old and uneducated fellow citizens.  In fact, it was the over-50 crowd that opposed the war more than anyone.
5.  President Obama is the smallest government spender since Eisenhower. Okay, this is one viewpoint.  Another viewpoint which came out immediately afterward: "Obama is biggest spender in world history."  This is a great example of how two people can selectively use facts to come to opposite conclusions.
6.  Saturated fat and cholesterol are not unhealthy and will not make you fat.  A low-fat, high-carb diet (with lots of starches and sugars) is what makes you fat and unhealthy.  This has been shown by all recent health studies.
7.  63% of Arab-Americans are classified as Christians.

Facts that reflect disturbing trends:

8.  There are various ways of tabulating unemployment.  But if you count all the people who theoretically ought to be working based on age, etc.--which admittedly includes some people who never did seek employment--the unemployment number is 37.2% rather than the "official" rate of 6.7%.  (I do not know whether the 37.2% estimate includes the 3.4% of Americans on disability; if not, the true number might be worse yet.)  When the "official" unemployment rate goes down, what it often means is that more people have become discouraged and have stopped looking for employment.  20% of American households are now on food stamps--an all-time record.

9.  Here's one possible explanation for the seemingly intractable unemployment rate:  The U.S. has a (very) basic skills shortage that is getting far worse, relative to job requirements.  More than one-third (37 percent) of the 25-to-54 year old U.S. population does not have the basic ability to write a letter explaining an error on a credit card bill, use a bus schedule, or use a calculator to determine a 10 percent discount (Level 3 literacy).

   Tragically, it has been reported that less than half (44%) of 25-to-34 year old high school graduates operate at literacy levels of 3 or higher. That means that more than 4 out of 10 working age adults don’t have the functional literacy skills to perform even the most basic jobs. Worse, nearly 55 percent of workers 55 to 64 year old have literacy skills at level 1 or 2. For your reference, Level 1 literacy is the ability to locate the expiration date on a driver’s license, total a bank deposit slip, or sign their names; Level 2 is the ability to locate an intersection on a street map, understand an appliance warranty, or total costs from an order.
   These statistics may soon put us in the category of a developing nation.  And it has been shown that a 1% increase in literacy results in a 1.5% increase in GDP.  We're on the wrong side of that curve.

10.  Around 72% of black children are born out of wedlock. It was 25% in the 1960′s and that was considered an epidemic at the time.
11.  58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.  42% of college graduates never read another book.

12.  By the age of 4, the average child in a professional family has heard 20 million more words than a child in a middle-class family, and about 35 million more than a child raised in a family that receives welfare assistance.
13.  In 1955, there were more than eight workers paying into the U.S. Social Security system for every beneficiary. Today, that number is a bit less than three workers paying in, and it's projected to be close to two workers by 2031.  (Now do the math.)

Science & Health Facts

14.  50% of healthcare dollars in the US are spent on the last 6 months of life.
15.  You are nearly 5 times more likely to die falling out of bed then dying in a plane crash, and 15 times more likely to die in a car accident.  The 5 top causes of death in the U.S. are heart attacks, cancer, strokes, a land vehicle accident, and suicide.  Cancer will soon be the leading cause of death.
16.  CPR only works 2% to 16% of the time, depending on the situation.

17.  In the US, there’s an average of 217 millions white blood cells per liter of cow's milk. Those white blood cells come from the pus of the infected teats of the cows.*
18.  There are 10 times more bacteria cells in your gut than there are cells in your body.  (Bacteria cells are smaller.)  Researchers believe what's in your gut may affect your mental state.
19.  The acid in your (empty) stomach is strong enough to dissolve razor blades.  When your stomach is full, the acid level decreases from a pH of 2 to a pH of 6, making you more vulnerable to such things as salmonella.  The acid in a dog's stomach is slightly stronger yet (pH ~ 2).  The acid in a vulture's stomach is much stronger still (pH ~ 0), making them very effective disease-fighting agents that greatly benefit us humans by gobbling up potentially dangerous disease transmitters.
20.  If you could stretch out all of a human's blood vessels, they would circle the world twice.
21.  The surface area of a single human lung is equal to that of a tennis court.
22.  Every year, 98% of the atoms in your body are replaced.
23.  The world's most toxic and deadliest substance is a new type of botulinum toxin.  10 to 12 grams of it would be enough to kill the entire human population of the earth.
24.  In the unlikely event that all the polar ice were to melt, the sea level all over the world would rise 500 to 600 feet. As a result, 85 to 90% of the Earth's surface would be covered with water as compared to the current 71%. The U.S. would be split by the Mississippi Sea, which would connect the Great Lakes with the Gulf of Mexico.
25.  Since the 1950s, around 90% of the large predatory fish in the ocean are gone.

Historical Facts:

26.  The federal government is still paying two Civil War pensions (to children of soldiers).  The last Civil War widow died in 2003.*
27.  The maximum area of the Roman Empire was an impressive 2.51 million square miles.  It was actually only the 19th largest empire in history.*
28.  All British tanks since 1945 have been equipped with Tea-Making Facilities.*
29. In 1598, Queen Elizabeth ordered a banquet featuring a food source from the new world--potatoes. The royal cooks, having never prepared potatoes before, threw the veggie away and cooked the green part or eye instead, sickening the whole royal court.  Elizabeth banned the vegetable for 100 years.*
30.  The current 50 star flag was designed by  then 17 year old Robert G. Heft, as part of a school project.  For his effort, he received a grade of B-.  When his design was chosen and adopted by presidential proclamation, his teacher changed his grade to an A.*
31.  Over 3500 hours of recordings were made by the taping system established in the White House and other executive offices by Richard Nixon during his presidency.  Of these, only about 200 hours contain references to Watergate.  By the time of Nixon's death in 1994, only 63 hours had been made public.*
32.  Seven of the ten deadliest wars were fought in China alone.  More people died in each of the two largest of these wars than in WWI.*
33.  The pony express is part of the lore of the Old West.  Most people don't realize that it lasted barely nineteen months, from April 1860 to October 1861.*
34.  John Tyler became the 10th president of the United States in 1841.  He still has two living grandchildren.*
35.  In 2005, George W. Bush was nearly assassinated in Georgia by a man named Vladimir Arutyunian, who threw a grenade at the president.  It did not explode.*
36.  The citizens found guilty during the Salem witch trials were not actually burned at the stake. They were hanged.*
37.  At its height in 480 BC the first Persian Empire covered 44% of the world's population, the highest of any empire in history (the British had just 20%).  This was just 70 years after Cyrus the Great began his conquests.  Alexander destroyed this empire just 150 years later.*
38.  The pyramids weren't built by Egyptian slaves.  They were built by paid laborers.*

39.  In the 18th century it was believed that blowing tobacco smoke up someone's rectum would resuscitate them from drowning.  It was such a widely held belief that equipment was hung up all along the Thames in London.
40.  Jesus' real name was Yeshua (as in Joshua).  The New Testament was first written in Greek, not Hebrew or Aramaic.  Greeks did not use the "sh" sound, so "s" was substituted.  Then, to make it masculine, they added another "s" at the end.  The "J" didn't even come until the late middle ages, making it "Jesus."  This etymology is actually a simplification of the real story that may trace the name's earliest origins from a combination of YHWH and Hoseah.
41.  After Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery made it to the Pacific, they spent the Winter of 1804-05 trading what was left of their personal effects for sexual favors from the Clatsop women, who gave them syphilis.  Because the prevailing treatment was an oral dose of mercury, we can say with certainty where many of the Corps' camp latrines were located, thanks to the mercury that remains in the soil today.*
42.  80% of all Russian males born in the year 1923 didn't live past their 22nd birthday.
43.  Lincoln's Gettysburg address was most likely influenced by his sometime reading of Pericles' Funeral Oration by Thucydides, which praises the uniqueness of Athens' commitment to democracy.
44.  Non-violent resistance was a concept expounded upon by Tolstoy in his writings as a result of studying the Bible.  Gandhi was a friend of Tolstoy, and the older Tolstoy's influence on the young man was profound, despite their religious and cultural differences.  Gandhi influenced other later reformers such as Martin Luther King.
45.  Bill Clinton sent a total of two e-mails during his presidency.

Unfortunate Facts

46.  More American soldiers die from suicide than from fighting in combat.
47.  Since 1989, 303 convicted felons have been exonerated by DNA evidence.  18 were on death row.  25 percent had confessed.  28 of them pled guilty.  Meanwhile, in 2013, 39 inmates were executed in the U.S.  The U.S. is among 20% of the countries in the world still practicing capital punishment in law and in practice...countries such as Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, China, Pakistan, Sudan and South Sudan.

48.  The amount of American dollars spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars could have paid for solar panels on the roof of every house in America and dramatically spurred our economy as well as eliminating a significant portion of U.S. greenhouse gas.

49.  The US spends $660 billion a year on the military, or about 20% of the federal budget. (The total the US has spent on NASA in its 55 year history is $526 billion.)  Yearly expenditures on foreign aid total about $33 billion, or 1% of the federal budget.

50.  The budget to send the Curiosity Rover to Mars is less than the worldwide military expenditure for 13 hours.
51.  In the last 3,500 years, there have been only 230 years of peace throughout the civilized world.
52.  Young black males without a high school diploma were more likely to be in prison or jail (37 percent) on any given day in 2008 than to be working (26 percent).  The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world.
53.  70% of murders in Detroit go unsolved.

*Shamelessly copied from this source

Foods to eat if you're living off a shoestring

A recent article in U.S. News lists 7 foods to eat "if you're broke."  Some of the ideas were good, but the article ends up talking about a couple who ate $2 protein bars every three hours throughout the day, plus some pudding.  Aack.  That adds up to $600 per month just for the protein bars--hardly a good suggestion for someone who's "broke".

Granted there are some other articles that are excellent, such these:
What healthy food to eat if you're broke, also this and this and this article
(Un-healthy) food to eat if you're flat broke and only have microwave; also this article
What to eat if you're living on the streets (hopefully you won't need this!)
What to eat if you're broke but picky

It's possible to eat junk food when you're poor--but it's also possible to eat very nutritious foods for the same amount of money.  You still have a choice.  Unfortunately, ignorance is often linked to poverty, which of course means poor people are more likely to eat non-nutritious junk food.

So this inspired me to make my own list.  It's admittedly similar to the articles referenced, but includes a few additional items, all of which are healthy:

Cheap, healthy foods to buy:
1. White rice (or preferably brown rice if you can handle the taste).
2.  Bulk dry beans, lentils (my favorite), split peas, pearled barley, couscous, rolled oats, quinoa, etc.
3.  Potatoes; sweet potatoes/yams (if on sale); celery, onions, carrots etc.
4.  Salad greens of all types (not bagged, and not iceberg)
5.  Eggs
6.  Cabbage
7.  Bagged (or steam-able) frozen vegetables, all types
8.  Canned mackerel (super healthy & cheap; tastes like sardines; good on bread)
9.  Spaghetti & big jar/can spaghetti sauce (when on sale)
10.  Large flour tortillas (for burritos)
11.  Flour (possibly with yeast already included) for baking bread in breadmaker
12.  Lime or lemon juice to add to your water; this reduces any craving you might have for soda pop
13.  Turkey burger (when on sale; substitute for hamburger, or mix with hamburger)
14.  Ham & chicken when on sale
15.  Bananas (a great snack or breakfast entree)
16.  Bulk popcorn (an inexpensive snack)
17.  Other fruit (in season or on sale)
18.  Small quantity of instant mashed potatoes, dehydrated or condensed milk, and egg substitute (to eliminate wasteful "emergency" trips to the store)

Things to own:
1.  Used bread maker (about $5 from a thrift store or garage sale)--if you're into that sort of thing
2.  Big pot or stock pot, and big frying pan (so you can make and freeze many portions)
3.  Used large crock pot (about $5 from a thrift store or garage sale)
4.  A hot air popcorn popper (about $5 from a thrift store or garage sale)
5.  Lots of small plastic containers with lids for frozen storage
6.  Lots of useful utensils: measuring cup, knives, wooden spoon, spatula, cutting board, etc. (thrift store)
7.  A deep freezer or a refrigerator with a decent size freezer
8.  Access to some good, cheap, simple recipe books; or some cheap recipes online

Strategy:
1.  Buy in bulk
2.  Cook a bunch at a time.  Otherwise, you're wasting time.  Time is money.
3.  Freeze lots of "leftovers" (to the extent that you have freezer space).
4.  Shop at discount grocery stores. (Aldi's or Save-a-lot etc. are better choices than Walmart.)
5.  Stock up on stuff that's on sale and advertised on the front page of grocery flyers.
6.  Make full use of crock pot with easy crock pot recipes (or just dump stuff in & see what happens).
7.  Print out these kitchen cheat sheets and keep them handy in the kitchen (spice sheet on top).
8.  Occasionally make a whole bunch of burritos and freeze them--meat, bean, breakfast, whatever).
9.  Become knowledgeable about spices; keep a good selection on hand (see cheat sheet).
10.  Learn how to properly chop an onion.  Also how to saute or caramelize them.  Onions are your friend.  Really.
11.  If you must eat at restaurants occasionally, then keep paper coupons in your glove box or electronic coupons in your smartphone.  Find "2-for-1" or similar deals if there are two of you.

Super cheap 2 lb bread recipe for bread maker (reduce ingredients for a smaller loaf):
(This proves a bread recipe doesn't have to be complicated.  Don't buy expensive bread maker mixes.)
4 cups flour (up to 1/3 of this can be whole wheat flour)
~1.5  tsp salt
~1.5 tsp yeast (if not already included in flour)
1 3/4 cups warm water (or maybe slightly less)
Dump in the bread maker and forget about it!  You can also bag up multiple bags of the mixed dry ingredients to make it even easier.  And you can add anything else you feel like, if you're adventurous.