Conventional wisdom would indicate that a minimum wage increase would help those who make very little, those who work jobs that pay minimum wage. Unfortunately, conventional wisdom does not look closely or deeply enough. The implementation of a wage minimum has an artificial effect on the cost of labor. The idea, of course, is to make sure that workers are not being taken advantage of by employers, and finding themselves working long hours but still making too little to live. The problem is, if employers cannot afford labor, they will either replace labor with technology, or do without the functions that labor would have provided in order to stay in business. It is either that, or they go out of business. Either way, the lower skilled jobs are cut out entirely, meaning that the people who depended on those jobs for some type of income find that they have no income at all.

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I have hinted a few times of late that I think people are waking up to the state of our government, indeed to the state of governments accross the globe. Some people are doing more thinking and less feeling, some are doing more feeling and less ignoring. Some are simply realizing that it might be a good idea to pay attention at least a little bit. We are a long way from being the society that changes things. I do not say it will take a long time to get there, only that we still have a lot more people to wake up. I have hope, however, that we are on the path. Some have indicated to me that I am being too optomistic, but I wanted to present some of the evidence I have for my positive attitude.

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The Obama Administration seems to havebacked off on their reactionary attitude slightly. Its not much, but at least its something. The first stimulus was devastating to our dollar value and debt, a second would have been a disaster.

Obama always has been quick to change his mind. I think he may have seen the evidence int eh world summit that continued spending has not fixed Europe. If only he would see the same thing about Cap and Trade. The environmental aspects of the summit were still jsut as ridiculous as always, although they at least made it more talk than reality, agreeing to drop emmissions by 80% over the next 40 years but not lining out any forced methods for doing so.

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