Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

https://www.eater.com/2017/6/16/15819560/root-beer-and-burger-chain-a-w-is-planning-a-big-comeback

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

https://www.eater.com/2017/6/16/15819560/root-beer-and-burger-chain-a-w-is-planning-a-big-comeback

The last time I was there, I found that A&W needed to fix their fries, and change how they cook the meat in their burgers (generic, McD's type stuff). They also didn't have a full lineup of A&W products, just the root beer and diet root beer. Where's the cream soda? Offer something that can't be found in the next shop down the street.

 

[jerphisch]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

I guarantee you that prices will change once Bezos takes over. It's not like the prices will drop in half, but they'll come down from current levels. Bezos prides himself, almost to a fault, on quantity of services and goods provided. He's done it by razor-thin margins on most things he sells. Whole Foods likely won't go to that extreme, based upon brand expectations, but they won't keep the same pricing structure as they have now.

And the workers will be the ones that take it in the shorts to make up for it...

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

And the workers will be the ones that take it in the shorts to make up for it...

Having never had a single interaction with Whole Foods, I'd have to guess that they're following the standards for the rest of the retail industry. Translation: the staff is already taking it in the pants.

Besides, retail is one of the very few industries where the majority of costs are associated with the product and not labor.

 

[MissThundercat]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

Depends on who you ask.

According to this, Whole Foods is a great place to work.

But an opposing view says like many other retail chains, Whole Foods is the devil.

 

[joecct]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

Who would dare protest this pipeline!??!

http://conservativetribune.com/festival-city-pipe-party-liquid

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

This is beautiful. Originally aired in 1988.

 

[St. Clown]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

This is beautiful. Originally aired in 1988.

There are three or four clips aired on that show when they went after Trump. If only the kids realized what they were doing at the time. Those jokes likely went over the heads of a lot of the adults watching with their kids, too.

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

There are three or four clips aired on that show when they went after Trump. If only the kids realized what they were doing at the time. Those jokes likely went over the heads of a lot of the adults watching with their kids, too.

This is even better. "His name is on every piece of trash in town!"

 

[MissThundercat]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

Menards and Home Depot are being sued because a 4 by 4 doesn't exactly measure 4 inches by 4 inches.

http://www.wzzm13.com/news/nation-w...wsuits-over-lumber-size-description/451196391

 

[Kepler]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

Menards and Home Depot are being sued because a 4 by 4 doesn't exactly measure 4 inches by 4 inches.

http://www.wzzm13.com/news/nation-w...wsuits-over-lumber-size-description/451196391

At the Home Depot we bought all our house crap at there were signs that clearly indicated this. (It was, by the way, news* to me.) I would think the presence of signage nullifies the argument.

IINM when it says "4x4" there are no units specified, anyway, so for all one knows 4 Rigelian skulpulshanks equals 3.5 Earth inches, and the name is correct.

* Here is the reason, for everyone not born on a workbench.

Lumber manufacturers typically cut a tree into dimensional lumber very shortly after the tree is felled. Then, the newly-sawn (but soaking wet) lumber is kiln-dried until it reaches the desired moisture level. As lumber dries, it shrinks (as the moisture in the wood is reduced, the wood cells shrink, particularly across the grain). While the 8' length won't change much as the wood dries, the 2" width and 4" height (cross-section of the grain) will shrink considerably.

Because of this shrinkage, a typical 2x4 will usually measure out to around 1-1/2" x 3-1/2".

This should go in Home Improvement. In fact, I'm moving it there.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

Seattle discovers that, if you raise the minimum wage "too much," it leads employers to cut back on hours to compensate....

A study commissioned by the city of Seattle finds recent increases in the metro area’s minimum wage may have backfired, reducing the pay of workers because their hours were cut by employers in response to the requirement their hourly pay rise.

The Seattle Minimum Wage Study, funded in part by the city and conducted by six economists at the University of Washington, looked at Seattle’s two-step increase in the minimum wage—the first step from $9.47 to $11 took place in 2015 and the second increase to $13 in 2016—and found the second step caused employers to cut worker hours.

Using a unique set of data, the economists found the first increase had little effect, but the step to a $13-an-hour minimum wage resulted in a 9% reduction in hours for lower-wage jobs, while only raising hourly wages by about 3%. Combining these two effects, they found that workers in lower-wage jobs saw an average drop of $125 in monthly income.
....
Seattle’s finding suggests that while small increases in the minimum wage do no harm, at some point a minimum wage gets so high that it becomes counterproductive for the very workers the policy is meant to help.

In other words, the true minimum wage is $0.00, unless you can actually get hired and stay hired....

 

[Kepler]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

In other words, the true minimum wage is $0.00, unless you can actually get hired and stay hired....

So to be clear you advocate no minimum wage at all, correct? That's where your argument leads. Any amount would violate your impeccable logic.

Abolish all minimum wage. Yes or no?

 

[jerphisch]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

In other words, the true minimum wage is $0.00, unless you can actually get hired and stay hired....

They did stay hired, what you quoted completely discredits your editorializing.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

So to be clear you advocate no minimum wage at all, correct? That's where your argument leads. Any amount would violate your impeccable logic.

Abolish all minimum wage. Yes or no?

Do you agree that people deserve to get paid based on the value they produce? Shouldn't a person who produces error-free work be paid more highly than a person whose work is riddled with mistakes?


If a "minimum wage" is as valuable as you contend, then why is the very first dollar of earned income taxed at 15.3%? How much sense does that make? If you want less of something, you tax it. Does that mean that we as a society have decided we want wages to be less than they could be by taxing them so heavily from dollar one?



A national minimum wage doesn't make sense because of regional variations in the value of the same job in different parts of the country.



A minimum wage was never supposed to be a "living" wage; think of it more as probationary on-the-job training stipend for entry-level positions.


I'd say an enlightened social contract would see employers and employees have routine conversations with each other about how to improve the quality and value of labor and set standards on what kind of productivity improvements would be tied to what level of wage increases.

 

[Kepler]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

{fumbling evasion}

It's a simple question. Zero out all minimum wages: yes or no?

But your evasion has already answered it. Not just a crackpot ideologue, but a cowardly one.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

Do you agree that people deserve to get paid based on the value they produce? Shouldn't a person who produces error-free work be paid more highly than a person whose work is riddled with mistakes?


If a "minimum wage" is as valuable as you contend, then why is the very first dollar of earned income taxed at 15.3%? How much sense does that make? If you want less of something, you tax it. Does that mean that we as a society have decided we want wages to be less than they could be by taxing them so heavily from dollar one?



A national minimum wage doesn't make sense because of regional variations in the value of the same job in different parts of the country.



A minimum wage was never supposed to be a "living" wage; think of it more as probationary on-the-job training stipend for entry-level positions.


I'd say an enlightened social contract would see employers and employees have routine conversations with each other about how to improve the quality and value of labor and set standards on what kind of productivity improvements would be tied to what level of wage increases.

I agree with Kep. Zero it out then. Oh, wait, that doesn't work because of ****letard business owners who abuse that power? BAM. Back to minimum wage again.l

 

[unofan]

Do you agree that people deserve to get paid based on the value they produce?

Subject to certain regulations, sure.

Shouldn't a person who produces error-free work be paid more highly than a person whose work is riddled with mistakes?

Sure, but a minimum wage doesn't prevent that. It's a price floor, not a price ceiling.

If a "minimum wage" is as valuable as you contend, then why is the very first dollar of earned income taxed at 15.3%? How much sense does that make? If you want less of something, you tax it. Does that mean that we as a society have decided we want wages to be less than they could be by taxing them so heavily from dollar one?

Not all taxes are sin taxes. Taxes are necessary because we as a society value the products and services government provides, from roads and fire fighters to national defense, working court systems, and a social safety net. Income taxes are one of the fairest ways to pay for such services. The revenue has to be collected, regardless.

A national minimum wage doesn't make sense because of regional variations in the value of the same job in different parts of the country.

States are always free to go higher, which many have done. But it's also funny how the political party you support states it loves local control until cities try to do things it doesn't like, such as increasing the local minimum wage in response to their local conditions. Oh wait, you just bashed Seattle for doing exactly that.

A minimum wage was never supposed to be a "living" wage; think of it more as probationary on-the-job training stipend for entry-level positions.

This is an oft repeated canard with no basis in reality. The minimum wage was pushed through by unions, who overwhelmingly represented full time, able-bodied workers who were the bread winners for their families. If the minimum wage merely kept up with inflation since the 60s, it'd be at roughly $11/hour today. Given how much productivity has increased our GDP above and beyond inflation, I could easily argue that $15/hour is not an unreasonable floor for wages.

I'd say an enlightened social contract would see employers and employees have routine conversations with each other about how to improve the quality and value of labor and set standards on what kind of productivity improvements would be tied to what level of wage increases.

For the third time, the minimum wage is a price floor. Companies are clearly allowed to provide higher salaries if they want.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

The minimum wage was pushed through by unions [in northern cities in the 1930s] who overwhelmingly represented full time, able-bodied [white] workers who were the bread winners for their families. [It was expressly designed at that time to prevent non-union blacks who were migrating from the south to the cities to undercut union wages. It was an inherently racist measure when it was started].

um, you omitted some really important details, see above. While many people dislike Thomas Sowell's political commentary, his economic research generally is highly-regarded.

Depending upon the level at which the minimum wage is set, it is often a mechanism deliberately designed to restrict the free market by preventing one group of people from offering to work for less than what another group of people wants for themselves. If one ethnic group would work for less than other ethnic groups, then by definition the minimum wage is discriminatory.

That being said, there is a convenience factor for businesses to have a regional minimum wage.



Frankly, this whole conversation is bass-ackwards.

The fundamental economic issue should not be about the minimum wage at all, but how to re-cast work in the 21st century so that every person who wants a decent job can produce enough value from performing in that job to earn substantially more than the minimum wage. There are a lot of skilled positions going unfilled because too many people went to college who didn't really belong there, and not enough people went to trade schools or entered apprenticeship programs.

Even a two-tiered minimum wage structure might make sense, one for entry-level people, then another for people who have served their apprenticeship so to speak and have graduated to journeyman status.


Ideally, the minimum wage should not be more than a trivial issue; the real focus should be on developing more well-paying jobs that people are willing to fill.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: Business, Economics & Tax Policy 5.0: Can a blind nut find a squirrel?

It's a simple question. Zero out all minimum wages: yes or no?

Have you stopped beating your wife? Yes or no? It's a simple question!


and it's a really stupid question. It's the quality of the available jobs that's the real issue. If there were enough quality jobs available then no one would be arguing about the minimum wage at all.

I thought you considered yourself smart enough to see through the superficial distractions put forth to keep us from dealing with the really important issue.