I thought that the article was rather well thought through until reaching this:
What if the way to achieve the strongest possible economy is to give every citizen more money to spend? For example, what if we gave every citizen of the United States $25,000 to spend? $25,000 sounds impossible the first time you hear it, but consider the possibility.
Putting aside the laugability of the idea of a capitalist government giving each person a years worth of middle income wage for a moment - it would be great if
You've just described why it doesn't make sense to continually raise the minimum wage. If a bill were passed tomorrow making the minimum wage $20/hour, the price of everything would go up accordingly. Then the ones earning the minimum wage would bitch at Congress for yet another raise.
Obviously false, I don't know how you get this idea.
The demand/supply would still be the same (unless it were to rise so much as to bancrupt businesses, which I assume you won't let happen), so prices would remain the same.
The obvious proof : a lot of countries have minimum wages (a lot) higher than the us, and their economy didn't collapse.
A minimum wage is only effective when it is higher than the lowest market price for labor, and when it is higher it creates a privileged worker class and a less skilled but completely unemployable class. When someone raises the price of a good, I will buy less of that good if I can (when it's "elastic").
Some jobs may be absolutely necessary to run the business. Others may be optional. I will buy more CDs at $10 than I will at $20. I will tend to hire more workers at a lower price than a higher one.
If the government starts printing lots of money to cover a big cash payment to millions of people inflation would run wild.
There have been countries that printed more currency to cover government expenses. What happened is that the value of their money went down compaired to other countries money.
A country's paper money must be balanced against something. When we were on the gold standard it was gold. I don't know what the US balances it's paper money against now. Maybe GNP? Others ma
Almost insightful.. (Score:4, Insightful)
What if the way to achieve the strongest possible economy is to give every citizen more money to spend? For example, what if we gave every citizen of the United States $25,000 to spend? $25,000 sounds impossible the first time you hear it, but consider the possibility.
Putting aside the laugability of the idea of a capitalist government giving each person a years worth of middle income wage for a moment - it would be great if
Re:Almost insightful.. (Score:0)
Re:Almost insightful.. (Score:4, Informative)
The demand/supply would still be the same (unless it were to rise so much as to bancrupt businesses, which I assume you won't let happen), so prices would remain the same.
The obvious proof : a lot of countries have minimum wages (a lot) higher than the us, and their economy didn't collapse.
Re:Almost insightful.. (Score:1)
blow their wad on plasma tvs? (Score:2)
Re:Almost insightful.. (Score:1)
Some jobs may be absolutely necessary to run the business. Others may be optional. I will buy more CDs at $10 than I will at $20. I will tend to hire more workers at a lower price than a higher one.
When a
Re:Almost insightful.. (Score:2)
If the government starts printing lots of money to cover a big cash payment to millions of people inflation would run wild.
There have been countries that printed more currency to cover government expenses. What happened is that the value of their money went down compaired to other countries money.
A country's paper money must be balanced against something. When we were on the gold standard it was gold. I don't know what the US balances it's paper money against now. Maybe GNP? Others ma
Re:Almost insightful.. (Score:1)
Example: Germany after WWI
Re:Almost insightful.. (Score:1)