US Wage Stagnation

[phk]

http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/beckerposner/

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[opebo]

This part is utter rot:

The problem is that the social safety net has become too expensive to be expanded further without jeopardizing the nation’s solvency, given our huge and growing public debt

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

No surprise; the powers that be don't care about the American worker.

[Derek]

My theory has always been that if you get rid of the minimum wage, then it will take care of itself because no one would work for less than what they make. It would allow ppl to negotiate their own wages and if wages dropped, then prices would too and the value of a dollar would increase. This would all be a natural result. I'm interested in other thoughts.

[Derek]

That's true too!

[Beet]

Shorter Posner translation:

Fellow elites, the villagers are getting restless. It is time to turn to ye olde wisdom of Bismarck to help us keep them at bay.

[Torie]

International competition will keep low value added jobs low pay for a long time in the US; for this work sector wages will remain stagnant if not decline. The only way out, is if workers get skills in more high value added jobs, and the low value added jobs are "shipped" overseas. If enough of that happens, wages will go up even in low value added jobs in the US just due to supply and demand, unless low skilled immigration continues apace.

No political agenda other than better secondary education result will change anything at all in the long term. Economics holds the trump card here, not politics beyond that to which I alluded. Of that I am quite confident.

[Derek]

I agree with the education part but we're at a point now where that's the only option. If it were harder to make it into colleges and universities, then there would be a much higher value in a Bachelor's degree. The notion that the success of one's life is measured on whether or not they get into college at 18 is absurd. I talk to adults everyday who are going back to school or have found success without a college degree. It comes from the notion that it's not fair that everyone can't go to college and results in everyone going to college to get drunk rather than learn.