Long long ago mothers used to tell their kids stories that would frighten them into behaving. Monsters roamed the forests. Trolls loomed under stone bridges. Mostly it worked.
Then us kids invented the internet and we googled monsters, trolls and mothers.
Turns out it was all a lie. A lie invented to trick us into acting a certain way.
Mothers may have learned that we don’t react in the same way. Liberals haven’t.
Posted in Economics, Politics: International
Tagged Employment, Free Market, Free Trade, Unemployment
Clear case of marginal value. If we were REALLY at the point where people NEEDED jobs, this sign would be down the second it was put up.
The intentions of those that preach the minimum wage are noble. Who isn’t interested in helping those folks who are the poorest among us? What person that we would care to associate with could not help but have feelings of sympathy for people who struggle to make enough money to eat, to cloth themselves or pay rent?
Who?
No one. Not one single person I know would brush those feelings away.
However, with that said, the singing of the platitudes of the minimum wage has to end when the effectiveness of those laws are considered.
And the result? The verdict?
Posted in Economics, Liberty, Politics: International
Tagged Free Market, Liberal, Minimum Wage, Unemployment
More and more I’m convinced that what we see here isn’t a true indicator of unemployment. Rather, what we’re seeing is a text book example of:
In other countries, particularly in Europe, benefits are more generous and last longer. The drawback to this generosity is that it reduces a worker’s incentive to quickly find a new job. Generous unemployment benefits in some European countries are widely believed to be one of the main causes of “Eurosclerosis,” the persistent high unemployment that affects a number of European countries.
And can you guess who said THAT?
The most Liberal Economist Alive: Paul Krugman; that’s who.
Anyway, Exhibit in the Unemployment Fallacy:
Because it’s hard for a person who wants to get elected to tell the people doing the electing that they need to suck it up.
While I’ve only been politically jazzed for 2-3 years now I have always wondered how “other people” vote. You know, do they vote for what’s good for them and them only or do they vote for the better of “the system”.
For example, if a road is going to run through my backyard means I lose my house but it’s good for the community, should I vote for it or against it.
Can you imagine how different a father would discipline his children if they could somehow “vote him out”? The only reason we successfully raise our children is that we create rules that they otherwise would not generally abide.
Same for politics.
Posted in Economics, Politics: International, Politics: National, Welfare
Tagged Denmark, Employment, Leftist, Liberal, Unemployment
Monday I saw that my local McDonald’s was still trying to get someone to fill their manager position. They have had their help wanted sign up for 26+ days. Yesterday I stopped to get lunch for the wifey and saw this:
At some point we have to call this what it really is. Something besides “I can’t find a job”.
The simple fact is that when the government is willing to pay you virtually the same amount of money to stay home rather than work, the reasonable person is going to stay home rather than work.
Just as I uploaded my most recent post to Twitter, I saw that Cato referenced a post by Jeffrey Miron, an Economics Professor at Harvard.
He basically says the same thing I do:
On several occassions over the past few weeks, I have expressed the view on TV/radio that unemployment insurance is one factor that keeps unemployment elevated.
Not that a Sr. Fellow at the Cato Institute needs any backup, he brings it with an article from the NY Times:
Struggling to keep its budget under control after the financial crisis, the government in June cut into its benefits system, the world’s most generous, by limiting unemployment payments to two years instead of four. Having found that recipients either get work right away or take any job as their checks run out, officials are also redoubling longstanding efforts to move Danes more quickly out of the safety net.
It would appear that this long hair isn’t stewing alone in his own juices.
Posted in Economics, Politics: International, Politics: National, Welfare
Tagged Recession, Unemployment
So, grabbin lunch yesterday. Stopped into the local McDonald’s for a quick [and icky] lunch.
They have a really cool series of Happy Meal toys for boys right now; Marvel Super Heros. So, I picked one up for Tyler:
Cool huh? Guess what else I saw?
Someone has to say it. It desperately needs to be said.
Does ANYONE know the meaning of “unexpectedly?”
Wanna know what happens when Congress passes a law that gives away free money to people who don’t have jobs? And haven’t had jobs for better than 99 weeks?
This; THIS is what you get:
They are willing to hire managers. Not line employees, but managers. Experience? They only PREFER it, not require it.
Government is creating this unemployment mess. Stop paying benefits, reduce the tax on jobs and remove the minimum wage.
