Glenn Beck doesn't want you to get a raise because it won't increase your productivity
Glenn BeckGlenn Beck is on TV talking to Jim Dorn of the CATO Institute about raising the minimum wage.
DORN: Well, you're exactly right. What Congress is doing, they want to look like they're doing something. They're making false promises.
They're promising a higher wage rate, which is nice of them to do since it's not their property, you know, they're not the employers, but they're not guaranteeing a job. And as you said, you increase the minimum wage, if it's above the prevailing market wage, it will destroy jobs.
Now, Hong Kong doesn't have any minimum wage, and Hong Kong is one of the -- has one of the highest living standards in the world. The workers fare very well there. So the minimum wage is not a way to reduce poverty; in fact, there's evidence that it increases poverty.
BECK: OK. Seven out of 10 Americans right now are watching going, "Uh-uh. That's not the way it is. Minimum wage is a good thing." What do you have to say to people to convince them that this is just a horrible idea?
DORN: Well, let's think of it this way. Your wage rate is the price of labor, and the hours worked times the wage rate is your income. So if the wage rate goes up and you lose your job because of the minimum wage, your income is zero. And that's not very helpful. So people confuse the wage rate and income.
BECK: OK. Who besides the guy who's cooking my McGriddle at McDonald's is making minimum wage?
DORN: Well, that's right. Most people -- the market economy is -- economic freedom is the thing that generates higher wages, and people have to increase their productivity through education. The minimum wage does nothing to increase a worker's productivity,...
They're promising a higher wage rate, which is nice of them to do since it's not their property, you know, they're not the employers, but they're not guaranteeing a job. And as you said, you increase the minimum wage, if it's above the prevailing market wage, it will destroy jobs.
Now, Hong Kong doesn't have any minimum wage, and Hong Kong is one of the -- has one of the highest living standards in the world. The workers fare very well there. So the minimum wage is not a way to reduce poverty; in fact, there's evidence that it increases poverty.
BECK: OK. Seven out of 10 Americans right now are watching going, "Uh-uh. That's not the way it is. Minimum wage is a good thing." What do you have to say to people to convince them that this is just a horrible idea?
DORN: Well, let's think of it this way. Your wage rate is the price of labor, and the hours worked times the wage rate is your income. So if the wage rate goes up and you lose your job because of the minimum wage, your income is zero. And that's not very helpful. So people confuse the wage rate and income.
BECK: OK. Who besides the guy who's cooking my McGriddle at McDonald's is making minimum wage?
DORN: Well, that's right. Most people -- the market economy is -- economic freedom is the thing that generates higher wages, and people have to increase their productivity through education. The minimum wage does nothing to increase a worker's productivity,...
Notice how they never once mention inflation?
BECK: So I think it's a bad signal for the U.S., as the world's freest country, supposedly, to send the signal. Hong Kong actually has a higher economic freedom rate than the United States and has had higher growth rates. So if we want to grow jobs, at least we should abolish the minimum wage at the federal level. If states want to have differential wage rates, let them do that.
If only we could have inexpensive, productive workers like they do in Hong Kong! Then America could have higher growth rates because the wages would be so low!
Labels: Glenn Beck, wotta maroon
2 Comments:
Yes well they live in some magic world where the rivers are made of rainbows, the streets are paved with gold and the dollar still goes as far as it did in the 60's
The magic world of slave labor and serfdom, more like. Glenn Beck aside, the CATO Institute is a paid apologist for big oil lobbies, denying global warming and pushing any and every other pro-big business ideal. They are the Morlochs to us Eolis.
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