Thursday, August 13, 2015

The Jones Curve in Economics

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." Said Mencken, Barnum, Jones? It doesn't matter, it is true.

How little do Americans understand about economics? There is an outcry now to double the minimum wage to $15  an hour. The same people want  the dollar menu at McDonald's to stay and Wal-Mart to keep selling for less and they think that "dollar" tea is guaranteed in the Constitution. Sorry folks, the real world doesn't work that way. Increase minimum wage to $15 and everyone else's pay will go up as well. If the guy cooking fries gets $15 an hour, what's the plumber charging?? Taxes will go up to cover the higher wages paid to government employees. Other than teachers, of course, who will all be practicing asking, "Do you want fries with that?"

Cost of manufactured goods will go up as well. The Dollar Tree will be the $1.50 Tree. The minimum wage won't affect the slave labor in China but there is all the labor in transporting, stocking and selling the cheap stuff that will cost much more.   In three years 15 bucks will buy what 8 bucks does now. Then they will want $30 to work the counter. You should have listened in school.!!

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Dixie Classic Fair??

Winston-Salem Councilman James Taylor (not the singer) has announced that he wants the city to change the name of the Dixie Classic Fair because "some" of the people that he represents, "find it offensive".
Last week, Winston-Salem hosted the National Black Theater Festival. As Mr.Taylor has not complained about this, let's change the name of the fair to the Caucasian Classic Fair and wait for his reaction. Let's be honest, if National Black Theater Festival is okay, why not Caucasian Classic Fair??

Sunday, August 09, 2015

Sunday Morning coming down?

I am spending a rare Sunday morning at home today. I turned on the television. Huge mistake!!  The "vast wasteland" term does not do justice to Sunday morning television.. How bad is Sunday morning television? I turned it off so I could go clean the kitchen. Yeah, that bad.

I watched almost ten minutes of Meet the Press. The host, Chuck Todd, is obviously the answer to the question, "Who is the most biased jerk on Sunday television?" I can't believe that people actually agree to appear on that show. I just assumed that a jerk of that magnitude would have to use an ambush technique to interview people.

Chuck Todd had a phone interview with Donald Trump. Probably best for both that it was on the phone. All of the pundits want to psychoanalyze Donald Trump. As they continue to criticize Trump and pronounce his campaign dead, Trump's poll numbers continue to rise. The pundits may want to look in the mirror and do a little self-analysis.

The Sunday morning media were consumed by announcing the demise of Trump's campaign, again. This is the sixth or seventh obituary for Trump's campaign in the last couple of months. How out of touch are they??

I briefly turned to Sunday Morning on CBS. Osgood does a good job, but I was being lulled back to sleep by that and just decided to turn it all off.

Off to the kitchen.