----- Original Message ----- From: "Damon Agretto" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, September 18, 2004 1:28 PM Subject: Re: Br!n: some thoughts and quotes.
> > > Why? Why wouldn't whatever stores sold stuff > > instead of WalMart hire > > workers? Even if Target and K-mart had not been as > > good as WalMart at > > cutting costs; that would not have meant that they > > would not have hired > > almost as many workers if they filled that niche. > > I think Gautam hit it on the head -- economics. Look > at workers as a commodity to be "bought" (via wages). > When the "price" for workers is high (i.e. high wages) > the natural tendency (all other things being equal) is > for the demand to go down. But when the "price" for > labor is low (low wages), demand goes up. I have no arguement with that. What I am saying is that the inherent demand for labor in this area is generally pretty weak. The number you are talking about $6.00-$6.50 for retail sound about right. That's lower than the minimum wage was, after accounting for inflation, between 1956 and 1981. Indeed, in 1968, the height of the inflation adjusted minimum wage, it was $8.60 in 2004 dollars. If one were to scale the minimum wage by the per capita GDP...saying the minimum pay for hour of work should be the same share of per capita GDP as that increases, the 1968 equivalant wage would be close to $13.00/hour. All this assumes is that ecconomic prosperity means that a rising tide lifts all boats roughly equally. Unions have been a technique to artifically raise raises, by allowing effective collective bargaining. Open shop unions, where joining the union is optional, have no power worth mentioning. Unions have weakened over the last 30 or so years. (BTW, it was the signal Reagan sent that industries that broke unions, like the breaking of the Greyhound driver's union, would be looked upon favorably that put a chill in unions.) Insuring that blue collar workers would have lower real wages is not, IMHO, the ideal way to break inflation. Dan M. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
