All purpose news and politics thread part VI: This Is Not The Time For Posing

[Tami]

Sorry you have to see this

[numberthirty]

I've voiced this opinion about the minimum wage in one of the other threads.

I'm not an economist so I could be completely wrong here, but it seems to me that raising the minimum wage is like trying to spend your way out of debt.
I absolutely believe that people need to be paid a living wage, but wouldn't it be more economically sustainable to lower the cost of living to increase the value of the wages they're already making?
Keeping the costs of our goods and services lower means the minimum wage doesn't need to be raised keeping the products produced in the U.S. cheaper increasing our competitive power overseas and more overseas trade means more jobs created and kept here.

Please point out where my thinking is flawed. I'd rather be proven wrong and learn in the process than go through life believing the wrong ideas.

Not trying to be a jerk...

On paper? Get what you are saying.

When you actually get into the detail?

Not always as simple as that.

Let's say you are going to actually try to lower the cost of living for a homeowner in Illinois.

How, exactly, are you going to contend with that the largest expense for that homeowner is their property tax bill?

[PwrdOn]

I've voiced this opinion about the minimum wage in one of the other threads.

I'm not an economist so I could be completely wrong here, but it seems to me that raising the minimum wage is like trying to spend your way out of debt.
I absolutely believe that people need to be paid a living wage, but wouldn't it be more economically sustainable to lower the cost of living to increase the value of the wages they're already making?
Keeping the costs of our goods and services lower means the minimum wage doesn't need to be raised keeping the products produced in the U.S. cheaper increasing our competitive power overseas and more overseas trade means more jobs created and kept here.

Please point out where my thinking is flawed. I'd rather be proven wrong and learn in the process than go through life believing the wrong ideas.

Don't confuse price controls domestically with cheaper goods for export markets. Imposing price controls may make goods more competitive internationally, but it will also reduce or possibly eliminate profit margins, forcing producers to cut output which means that they won't be able to meet any of the new international demand. The normal way to make your exports more attractive is to purposely devalue your own currency, and while this has worked for some Asian countries this would be a disastrous approach for the US to take because we are a net importer of goods.

Increasing the minimum wage is not a perfect policy and will lead to some job loss, but all of the alternatives are much more difficult to implement and have even more potential downsides. The real reason that conservatives oppose it is not for some feigned concern for marginal workers, but because they know that once the minimum wage has been raised, people will like the fact that they are being paid more, and it will be absolute political poison for a future Republican administration to propose lowering it back down. But this should be all the more reason the Democrats should be more vigorously pursuing it, because it guarantees that something this administration does won't just be undone by a future Republican president.

[Tami]

I can't contribute, but this is an interesting discussion on economics and wages.

[Tami]

How to Unite a Deeply Divided Kosovo? Name a Lake After Trump

ZUBIN POTOK, Kosovo — Ljiljana Trifonovic, an ethnic Serb living in a waterside hamlet in northern Kosovo, never cared for American politicians — “they are all against us,” she said — but she took a shine to Donald J. Trump when he was in the White House.

“He is a bit crazy like we are and has the same hair color I do,” Ms. Trifonovic, 58, said, patting her orangey-blond mane.

All the same, it came as a rude surprise late last year when a huge banner suddenly appeared next to the reservoir outside her home declaring the water “Trump Lake.” Another big banner went up at the same time on a bridge down the road announcing that it would now be called “Trump Bridge.”

“We already have our own name for the lake. Why Trump?” Ms. Trifonovic asked, mystified and also annoyed by the abrupt renaming of the first thing she sees every morning when she looks out her window.

But things aren’t that simple. The artificial lake, created in the early 1970s by a big hydroelectric project when Kosovo was still part of Yugoslavia, has not one but two names: one used by Serbians — Gazivoda — and another — Ujman — used by the ethnic Albanians who now dominate Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Most things in Kosovo have two names and that is not usually a big deal. The two communities, which rarely mix and harbor deep suspicions of each other, just use whichever they want.

But what to call the nearly five-square-mile reservoir, which extends into Serbia but lies mostly in Kosovo, became an issue late last year when officials from the two countries became entangled in an unorthodox diplomatic push by the Trump administration to heal the poisonous rift between the two communities.

The effort, led by Mr. Trump’s ambassador in Berlin, Richard Grenell, sidelined the State Department and also the European Union, both of which had been working for years, with little success, to get Serbia to accept the existence of Kosovo as an independent state. Divided by ethnicity, language and history, Kosovo’s majority Albanian population and its Serb minority disagree on just about everything, particularly the status of the land they share.

[Hellion]

In regards to that photo of the golden Trump idol, is the slogan behind it cropped down or is the slogan literally just "AHEAD AMERICA"? Because the Honorary English Major in me just can't handle that, it looks like something right outta Veep.

[Powerboy]

In regards to that photo of the golden Trump idol, is the slogan behind it cropped down or is the slogan literally just "AHEAD AMERICA"? Because the Honorary English Major in me just can't handle that, it looks like something right outta Veep.

I'm sure it's also a very valid reference to the fact that Trump has become the Golden Calf (a false idol) to many Evangelicals.

[Kirby101]

As far as colleges, in the 1970s, the State paid 70% of the cost. Today it is 17%. With mostly students picking up the cost.
We can blame administrators or Title 9 or any other conservative talking point. But States decided to not fund higher education. And the student loan programs let them put it on the students.

[DrNewGod]

To be clear, I do consider athletics to be one of those nonessential services that raises costs of tuition.

I certainly agree that there should be more room for trade schools.

I'm not convinced that it is the responsibility of every university to provide resources for students who need additional attention. The tradeoff is rising costs and student loans. I don't think universities spend money efficiently enough to merit public support. The Bowen effect suggests public support will raise spending but not lower costs, as universities have a tendency to spend as much as they can.

I wrote about the costs of colleges years ago. The reasons still apply, and the links do include a Washington Monthly article about administrative bloat, and a Washington Post series about rising tuition costs.

https://community.cbr.com/showthread...l=1#post891561

I wrote a long reply. When I went to edit it, I decided to simplify it.

Your argument is based on objectivism, and full of mule droppings.

DM if you'd like the whole reply.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

In regards to that photo of the golden Trump idol, is the slogan behind it cropped down or is the slogan literally just "AHEAD AMERICA"? Because the Honorary English Major in me just can't handle that, it looks like something right outta Veep.

On their best day, Hollywood screenwriters couldn't dream up the craziness surrounding Trump, especially now that he's become the Golden Calf of right wingers and the Qpublican Party.

[Kirby101]

On their best day, Hollywood screenwriters couldn't dream up the craziness surrounding Trump, especially now that he's become the Golden Calf of right wingers and the Qpublican Party.

It says "Look Ahead America".

[Tendrin]

The minimum wage ought to be much higher and, also, I like the idea of tying its actual value to rent.

Multiple studies have shown, over and over again, that the 'classical wisdom' about the increased minimum wage being a 'job killer' doesn't really play out in reality, at least partially because our's is *so frigging low* right now.

But sure, let's pretend that minimum wage kills jobs and ignore the trillions of sucked up, stolen wealth and productivity is not, as per usual.

[Kirby101]

Stock buy backs kill jobs. Vulture Capitalism kills jobs. High rents kill jobs. Tax breaks to off shore production kills jobs.
But a living wage? Oh no!

[shooshoomanjoe]

The minimum wage ought to be much higher and, also, I like the idea of tying its actual value to rent.

Multiple studies have shown, over and over again, that the 'classical wisdom' about the increased minimum wage being a 'job killer' doesn't really play out in reality, at least partially because our's is *so frigging low* right now.

But sure, let's pretend that minimum wage kills jobs and ignore the trillions of sucked up, stolen wealth and productivity is not, as per usual.

Republican leadership have successfully conned their voters into thinking a higher wage for workers is bad and tax breaks for the rich are good.

[Tendrin]

Republican leadership have successfully conned their voters into thinking a higher wage for workers is bad and tax breaks for the rich are good.

A higher wage for 'them' is bad.