Question prevailing economic "solutions" designed to help the working and middle classes.

I will continue to monitor the dialog.

For now I am retiring from this goal.

Best wishes.

This goal is dedicated to Milton Friedman who, quite literally, inspired much of this goal and what I have written here.

He wasn’t my idol, nor am I a “disciple” of his.

(Note that I wrote “Question prevailing economic solutions” not “CHANGE prevailing economic solutions”.)

But he was a Nobel laureate and brilliant economic mind who died today.

EVERYONE should read at least his book “Capitalism and Freedom” before claiming to have an intelligent world view.

Tied to cost of living increases?

Any econ student worth his salt can demonstrate how cost of living adjustments to wages are inflationary.

If anyone claiming to be an economist argues that point … well … I’ll just stick to the topic.

And who does a minimum wage serve? The marginally employed. How exactly does that work? Does it somehow LIFT their wages? Nooooo.

And what about the unemployed that continue to be unemployed because of the jobs ELIMINATED as a result of a minimun wage?

YES PEOPLE, a minimun wage cuts jobs.

“But … those were jobs not worth having,” argue some.

I’d like to see them tell that to a person who is looking for a job. Someone who would be happy just to have ANY job.

Does a minimum wage boost the quality of jobs? I’d like to know how? Do you think an employer figures, “Oh, let’s up the wage on that $4.50 job to meet the minimum wage?”

NOOOooooo, silly. They just cut that job. Done. Job gone. Income NOT generated. Multiplier effect cancelled. Marginal prosperity eliminated.

Explain minimum wage to a homeless person who would LOVE to work for $3.75. Explain to them why they are not allowed to work full-time at that wage.

Hell, explain it to me. I just don’t get it.

Does anyone here believe that a minimum wage supports their income?

That’s just wrong. It doesn’t support ANY wage. It’s not a wage support … it’s a job CUTOFF.

NO ONE’s wages or salary are bouyed by a minimun wage. NO ONE’s.

Who do they help by artificially bouying ambient wage rates?

They’ve never bouyed MY wage rates because products I have worked on were not protected by trade barriers (intellectual products … software, editorial work, etc).

These barriers simply picked my pocket by elevating the price of my shoes and orange juice to the benefit of some person who worked in a shoe factory in South Carolina.

Who on Earth decided the govt should pick my pocket as a struggling student in favor of some fruit farmer in FL or a line worker in Detroit. Each of those characters earned MUCH more than I did at the time as a struggling student / editorial writer.

I almost never made it out of my working grad student situation.

And before any of you start with knee-jerk reactions by assuming I’m a heartless Republican, take a moment to reflect on my motives. (In fact, if you need labels, I’m a Democrat, always have been.)

I think my passion for helping the economically disadvantaged speaks for itself: I’m a Peace Corps volunteer who has give up 2 years of salary and decent lifestyle to live among the poor at their same income level.

I’m SO politically moderate I often argue with myself.

I also have a degree in Economics and have actually worked as an industrial economist.

I am a grand-child of dirt poor immigrants from a mud village in the hills of southern Europe. I once struggled to make ends meet. It was hard. I have risen to a life upper-middle-class leisure and luxury. No, I’m not a “self-made millionaire”. My parents paid for my education and after that I was on my own. I now live a life of leisure and service to the poor.

But in my travels in the past 20 years, I have witnessed varied economic modes of production: East Germany / West Germany, Japan, most of Europe and a significant portion of Latin America. I have witnessed the before and after of a Marxist revolution first-hand—various cases in various stages.

My question for you here today: Do American Liberal economic “solutions” actually offer relief to anyone? Or do they simple entrap people in their existing socio-economic class?