Twotiful Inflation
Victor Borge once joked that we see inflation everywhere we look. Prices, wherever we go, we see them rising - going up. With supply and demand, when the demand is higher than the supply, the price goes up. If the supply is higher than the demand, the price goes down. Same happens if more money is in circulation. More money means people are willing to spend more, meaning the demand goes up, as does the price. (Not to mention the worth of a dollar goes down at the same time when more money is introduced into circulation...) So Victor Borge, humorously, suggested we inflate all numbers. Not just the one’s in our price tag, but the one’s in our language. Wonderful (One-derful) becomes twotiful. Before (Be-four) becomes befive. Lieutenant (Lieu-ten-ant) becomes lieuelevenant. Funny, but the underlying topic is quite serious. Inflation is no laughing matter.
Minimum wage may be one thing, but living wage is another. Very few places have these two numbers balanced. Most cities have a living wage that is much higher than the minimum wage. So here is where the good intentions come in. Solution? “Let’s raise the minimum wage to match the living wage! Because no one should live below the living wage!” I can agree with the second statement. No one should live below the living wage. That would be agreeable. The problem is the solution. It’s a nice idea, but fails miserably in application.
Economy 101, what happens when you increase the money in circulation? Inflation. The prices go up. Unfortunately, raising the minimum wage is simply not going to cut it. It’s too simplistic and only compounds the issue. Raise the minimum wage and all it will do is raise the living wages with it. “Then fix the prices!” That’s calling for a dictatorship. Or communism. Historically proven, if we fix the prices, the quality will plummet. Healthy competition is the answer, not government control. A healthy competition means competitive rates. Competitive rates means lower prices for consumers.
So what is the solution? How can we fix the disparagement between minimum wage and living wage? Create more jobs. Create more competition. Increase the supply, and the price will go down.
The market is more of a balancing act than most give it credit for. Wall street is a different beast, which is why most people leave it to professionals. But it is but a steroid-boosted microcosmic mirror of any free market system. It has it’s own ups and downs of it’s stock depending upon it’s determined worth in relation to it’s supply and demand.
I may be oversimplifying things, but the basics shape the foundations of this issue. If you want to equalize minimum wage with living wage, do not raise the minimum wage recklessly. It will only compound the problem. There is a much more elegant solution. Build your businesses up. By building your businesses, you shall be building their employees up. By building their employees up, you shall be building up your communities, and from there, the situation resolves itself.
We the people are resilient. We the people are strong, and we the people are diligent. We can thrive, if we are given the chance.
Jared Williams
Minimum wage may be one thing, but living wage is another. Very few places have these two numbers balanced. Most cities have a living wage that is much higher than the minimum wage. So here is where the good intentions come in. Solution? “Let’s raise the minimum wage to match the living wage! Because no one should live below the living wage!” I can agree with the second statement. No one should live below the living wage. That would be agreeable. The problem is the solution. It’s a nice idea, but fails miserably in application.
Economy 101, what happens when you increase the money in circulation? Inflation. The prices go up. Unfortunately, raising the minimum wage is simply not going to cut it. It’s too simplistic and only compounds the issue. Raise the minimum wage and all it will do is raise the living wages with it. “Then fix the prices!” That’s calling for a dictatorship. Or communism. Historically proven, if we fix the prices, the quality will plummet. Healthy competition is the answer, not government control. A healthy competition means competitive rates. Competitive rates means lower prices for consumers.
So what is the solution? How can we fix the disparagement between minimum wage and living wage? Create more jobs. Create more competition. Increase the supply, and the price will go down.
The market is more of a balancing act than most give it credit for. Wall street is a different beast, which is why most people leave it to professionals. But it is but a steroid-boosted microcosmic mirror of any free market system. It has it’s own ups and downs of it’s stock depending upon it’s determined worth in relation to it’s supply and demand.
I may be oversimplifying things, but the basics shape the foundations of this issue. If you want to equalize minimum wage with living wage, do not raise the minimum wage recklessly. It will only compound the problem. There is a much more elegant solution. Build your businesses up. By building your businesses, you shall be building their employees up. By building their employees up, you shall be building up your communities, and from there, the situation resolves itself.
We the people are resilient. We the people are strong, and we the people are diligent. We can thrive, if we are given the chance.
Jared Williams
