Brother you who do not have a dime, or a job, can you spare me a dime or a job, so that we can grow together?
Sir, I am not taking a position for or against a minimum wage but, when Edward Luce writes that increasing “it would inject a much-needed stimulus into the anemic recovery without involving a dollar of taxpayer money”, something definitely does not sound right, “Avoiding poverty pay is the tonic America needs”, December 2.
If the company ends up paying for it, then we might have less employment and that of course nobody wants. And so, if the taxpayer is not paying for it…who is going to pay for it? Could it perhaps be mostly those who are not taxpayers because they earn too little? And so, if a stimulus, is it not in fact a quite regressive one?
And then Luce mentions that these minimum wage increases will affect “sectors where the bulk of new jobs are being created” and which in fact would point to the plan as being somewhat suicidal.
Honestly I do not think America needs a recovery stimulated by an increase in the minimum wage and Luce would do himself a favor looking at how economies where there is no minimum wage are doing.
Do I have an alternative plan? No, but I would of course start by eliminating immediately the odious regulatory discrimination which makes it so much more difficult for those perceived as “risky” to access bank credit in competitive terms. The growth in America and in Europe has, as in their past, to be based upon risk-taking and not risk-avoidance.
PS. Sincerely it is also a bit surrealistic reading that Luce feels that the unions “have reasons to hate” Walmart, the largest employer in the USA, and all this operating on a 3 percent margin, in the poorer sectors of the real economy. Don't we wish we had such banks!
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