I agree with some but not all of the points in your article. One that I do not understand is that your comment that minimum wage laws hurt higher earning blue collar workers. To some degree if the lowest paid workers get a pay hike, higher paid workers will want some increase as well. Moreover higher skilled labor's output per dollar of employee costs will be stronger relative to the now more expensive than previously less skilled labor. Lower paid workers have by necessity a high marginal propensity to consume which boosts aggregate demand. I agree that in some cases that excessive minimum wage laws can cost workers jobs if their skills and marginal product do not match the higher wages or if strong lower cost competition exists from abroad.
The republican party has continually taken a strong anti-union position that on net has hurt labor. In addition, the republican party of the last one hundred years has not enforced the antitrust laws that encourage competition for products and the labor that makes them. Labors share of share of GDP output has fallen over the last four decades. In the vast majority of cases, big tax breaks for the wealthy and extreme laissez faire policies do not help the common man. An example is health care. Insulin prices are nearly 10 times higher in the U.S. the Canada thanks to lack of government action to stop this implicit or explicit price collusion by insulin manufacturers.
I agree with some but not all of the points in your article. One that I do not understand is that your comment that minimum wage laws hurt higher earning blue collar workers. To some degree if the lowest paid workers get a pay hike, higher paid workers will want some increase as well. Moreover higher skilled labor's output per dollar of employee costs will be stronger relative to the now more expensive than previously less skilled labor. Lower paid workers have by necessity a high marginal propensity to consume which boosts aggregate demand. I agree that in some cases that excessive minimum wage laws can cost workers jobs if their skills and marginal product do not match the higher wages or if strong lower cost competition exists from abroad.
The republican party has continually taken a strong anti-union position that on net has hurt labor. In addition, the republican party of the last one hundred years has not enforced the antitrust laws that encourage competition for products and the labor that makes them. Labors share of share of GDP output has fallen over the last four decades. In the vast majority of cases, big tax breaks for the wealthy and extreme laissez faire policies do not help the common man. An example is health care. Insulin prices are nearly 10 times higher in the U.S. the Canada thanks to lack of government action to stop this implicit or explicit price collusion by insulin manufacturers.