Minimum Wage and Other "Worker" Incentives

In my last post, I discussed the many problems with government and capitalism. In this post I shall go more into depth with government intervention and employer/employee relationships.

If you remember, I couldn't stress enough that Capitalism works because of competition. Big, centralized government is slowly taking away that competition by bailing out big corporations or forcing employers to increase minimum wage etc. This is bad! Very bad! Here is why.

Employers NEED employees. They need the work that employees can bring. It speeds production, results in a larger yield of product and thus more product being sold at a faster rate. Likewise, employees NEED employers. Employees need the money to buy consumer goods and thus turn to employers to get a job for the money needed. It's a mutual relationship.

The relationship between employer and employee is a necessary relationshop for capitalism to thrive. However, it is slowly being cut-off. With many work forces joining unions and getting the federal government to "back" them up, employees are recieving a lot that supposedly the employer would never give in the first place. We are led to believe that employers are evil, wicked people, who just wish to use your labor to make a quick profit for themselves and could care less about the employee. Well, in truth, that's half correct. Employers are NOT evil, but they do wish to make a profit. Heck don't we all? But they do in fact care about their employees. Remember they have a mutual relationship! However, with more and more government intervention giving workers more privilages, employers are forced to cut back on employees due to the cost of hiring them and giving them the union demanded benefits.

Let us imagine if we had a small centralized government and we actually allowed capitalism to take its natural course. An average worker Joe wishes to get a job. He's fresh out of college with a degree in business and he finds a job at a local firm. So he goes to that firm and its a below "average" job. The only thing he does is run messages from office to office. Now in this setting, minimum wage does not exist, so Joe only makes $5.00 an hour and works a standard 8 hour work day, with a 30 minute lunch break at noon. So he makes $40.00 a day. Taxes not applied.
Well Joe's job sucks, it's enough to pay the bill's in his small apartment, but he desires to better his life.

Rabbit Trail Moment
See America was founded on a dream. Too better one's life. To get up, open your door and make the effort to become great. It's one of the reasons, I'm proud to be an American!

So Joe finds another job. This time its in a city firm and his job this time is important. He actually deals with clients and actual has his own office. If small, it may be. He now earns roughly $11.00 an hour and still works roughly the 8 hour work day with a 20 minute break at 1 PM. As a bonus, the employer realizing his employees needs decides to give his employees a decent healthcare/life insurance benefit. Some of the company's money will be used on the employees behalf if something were to happen to them. Joe has found himself a deal! But he's always looking to improve!

So in fact, Joe quits his job after a year and half of working to find a better one. But this time he has two! Two competing firms are trying to employ more personel and offer Joe many offers. Firm 1 offers him a wage of $16 an hour, plus life insurance and free healthcare. Firm 2 in reply offers Joe $17 an hour, plus life insurance, free healthcare, and dental. Firm 1 then offers Joe $17 an hour, plus life insurance, free healthcare, dental, and a weeks paid vacation. Firm 2 makes it even better for Joe by offering him $18 an hour, plus life insurance, free healthcare, dental, and 2 weeks paid vacation. Joe seals the deal with Firm 2.

You see, Joe's story may seem "too good too be true," but in reality. It's how capitalism works. You think that employers don't realize their employees needs? You don't think employers know what their employees want? Employers will uses these benefits to get more workers, however, when the government FORCES (big word here) private business to give these workers benefits, it causes the strain between employer and employee. Employees take for granted that when they find work, they'll automatically get all these benefits, they don't put forth as much effort, employers are slack in hiring because it's costing more and more money to support for employees and thus are economy goes bad. It stagnates, festers, attracts flies.

The competition goes away because employees can stick with one job and use unions to demand their benefits. They don't have the drive to better themsleves and actively seek better jobs. They rely on the government to "solve" their problems. By giving government more power, they cripple this great country. I'd rather be poor and have the freedom that capitalism and this country bring, then well off and restricted by government regulations.

God Bless America!