Friday Link Wrap-up
When the minimum wage goes up, low-wage jobs are lost. This isn’t a prediction, it’s an observation. The Wall St. Journal notes it’s happening again, at the worst time for it, and mostly for minorities.
Syria pulled out of the running for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. The problem is that they pulled out rather than being pushed. Given the number of human rights violators on that council, they could have easily been approved.
"I am a scientist who was on the carbon gravy train, understands the evidence, was once an alarmist, but am now a skeptic." Read why here.
The headline says it all: "WikiLeaks Threatens Its Own Leakers With $20 Million Penalty If They Leak Elsewhere". Transparency for thee but not for me.
Green energy losing green: A solar farm in Texas is losing money because the property taxes are so high.
High-speed rail losing speed: "California’s much-vaunted high-speed rail project is, to put it bluntly, a train wreck." Of course, the solution, according to the LA Times, is do it over, throwing good money after bad ($43 billion of bad money).
What a shock! "Autotrader survey shows most motorists go green to ‘save money, not the environment’." Make green energy affordable, and the world will beat a path to your door.
A big reason health care costs are rising so fast is because of central planning (aka Medicare, Medicaid). The Democrats solution? More central planning.
Civility Watch: Wisconsin Attorney General releases 100 pages of threats against lawmakers during the budget battle.
The White House shut out a reporter from the Boston Herald because of a critical editorial that the Herald put on their front page. The issue with Obama is not Fox News; it’s anyone who disagrees with him. But if you didn’t know about this, it’s not your fault. The rest of the media, who you’d think would be all over this treatment of colleagues, were virtually silent on the matter.
The anti-war crowd has seemingly melted away into the woodwork with the election of President Obama. I mean, if George W. Bush had violated federal law by invading a country without, within 60 days, getting congressional approval, how loud would the outcry have been, from the Left and the Media? Instead, a collective yawn.
(Sorry, no cartoon this week.)
Filed under: Culture • Doug • Economics & Taxes • Energy • Environment • Global Warming • Government • Healthcare • Liberal • Links • Media • Science • United Nations • War
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Um, Doug…all sorts of legislation is designed to protect INCUMBENTS of one sort or another.
Your local zoning regs protect existing property owners – newcomers and renters are irrelevant. (Actually, renters might be relevant to zoning in a negative way, as when zoning is designed to exclude or reduce rentals.)
Rent control is intended to protect INCUMBENT renters – any decline in the housing supply is typically relevant only to would-be newcomers who can’t find a place to live. (That is, any loss of housing under rent control is slow and gradual, and not greater than the normal rate of departure.)
Raising the minimum wage is all about INCUMBENT employees: since turnover is typically high in minimum wage jobs, raising the minimum wage generally does not displace INCUMBENT employees. Job loss does mean there are fewer openings for newcomers, but raising the minimum wage is for current workers, not newcomers who would like a job in the future.
The money-losing solar farm is in Michigan, not in Texas. You can thank Michigan Republicans for creating an 18-mill “nonhomestead tax” which makes school property taxes on business four times greater than what homeowners pay.
And indeed one of those incumbents are the unions who’s wages are tied to the minimum wage.
My point is that Democrats, in the middle of a bad economy, talk about creating jobs, but have no concern for the fact that their actual policies hamper job creation, and for people they consider one of their core constituencies.
There are political and economic pressures in more than one direction.
Under the radar, an “affordable housing crisis” (some say it never ends) is building. Rents are soaring in some areas (up 10 percent over the past year in Portland) while foreclosures are booming and home prices are declining.
Because NIMBYs and other homeowners – not to mention greenies today – like to use government to restrict the rental supply through zoning, pressure comes from the other direction for government to prop up wages to keep pace with rent inflation.
A truly free market would successfully house almost every American, but the NIMBYs and their allies won’t tolerate such a thing.
The working poor have a big problem in this country and it’s only going to get worse. Squeezed by soaring rents (forcing many to move far from their jobs), soaring fuel and energy costs (making that long commute unaffordable), rising food costs, and Obamacafre, they are in deep trouble.
The money-losing solar farm is in Michigan, not in Texas.
Doh, you’re correct.