Yesterday I watched this Ted Talk on income inequality. There seems to be a correlation between countries (and states) with higher levels of inequality than those with lower levels. Now correlation does not equal cause, but it is interesting that a Norway and a Japan have much lower levels of inequality and have less mental illness, less obesity, and less other similar negative issues than a US. He then points out income per capita does not show that correlation. A rich society with high inequality has these problems, a moderate society with relative equality does not.
I mention Japan and Norway above, because he suggests there are huge differences between the countries. Japan values the nuclear family, women are less likely to work, Japan's social programs aren't nearly as robust. Japan's wages are more equal, Norway has a tremendous wage gap but they use taxation and social programs to narrow the difference.
Then yesterday an IU professor of finance wrote an opinion peace about the minimum wage. He's against the concept, though he does point out that in November four states that voted Republican then went out and also voted to raise their state's minimum wage at the exact same time. That is interesting.
But beyond that, he makes the standard claim that a minimum wage, any minimum wage, costs jobs. He suggests what we need is to eliminate the minimum wage but use the Earned Income Tax Credit even more to offset that. I found that an interesting point. My concern is that we'll never fund the EITC enough to offset people making $3/hour. But I was curious, who here would accept that idea? We eliminate the minimum wage but increase the EITC to make up for it?
There does seem to be some idea to the Ted Talk, income inequality creates some social issues. Would we be better off to have a minimum wage that tries to close that gap, eliminate the minimum and use an EITC to close that gap, or are we better off to be social darwinists and eliminate the minimum wage and let people work for $3/hour and that's just too bad.
I do believe that income inequality is part of a problem we face, I buy into the Ted Talk premise. I'm not sure we have the political will to adequately fund EITC if we were to eliminate the minimum wage. I'm not sure I buy into the idea of no minimum wage, and I'm really not sure I can trust any promises made to increase EITC as part of a plan to eliminate minimum wage, I'm not sure the idea is so bad that we shouldn't discuss it. Would such a plan get people into jobs and moving upward? I don't want a situation where the government just subsidizes all corporate jobs, isn't there a risk that corporations may view it that way?
I mention Japan and Norway above, because he suggests there are huge differences between the countries. Japan values the nuclear family, women are less likely to work, Japan's social programs aren't nearly as robust. Japan's wages are more equal, Norway has a tremendous wage gap but they use taxation and social programs to narrow the difference.
Then yesterday an IU professor of finance wrote an opinion peace about the minimum wage. He's against the concept, though he does point out that in November four states that voted Republican then went out and also voted to raise their state's minimum wage at the exact same time. That is interesting.
But beyond that, he makes the standard claim that a minimum wage, any minimum wage, costs jobs. He suggests what we need is to eliminate the minimum wage but use the Earned Income Tax Credit even more to offset that. I found that an interesting point. My concern is that we'll never fund the EITC enough to offset people making $3/hour. But I was curious, who here would accept that idea? We eliminate the minimum wage but increase the EITC to make up for it?
There does seem to be some idea to the Ted Talk, income inequality creates some social issues. Would we be better off to have a minimum wage that tries to close that gap, eliminate the minimum and use an EITC to close that gap, or are we better off to be social darwinists and eliminate the minimum wage and let people work for $3/hour and that's just too bad.
I do believe that income inequality is part of a problem we face, I buy into the Ted Talk premise. I'm not sure we have the political will to adequately fund EITC if we were to eliminate the minimum wage. I'm not sure I buy into the idea of no minimum wage, and I'm really not sure I can trust any promises made to increase EITC as part of a plan to eliminate minimum wage, I'm not sure the idea is so bad that we shouldn't discuss it. Would such a plan get people into jobs and moving upward? I don't want a situation where the government just subsidizes all corporate jobs, isn't there a risk that corporations may view it that way?