I’m not a lawyer but I don’t think that’s quite accurate. You’re paying them in kind (with food and lodging which has a monetary value) and they probably owe taxes on the value of that income. I know that’s how it is with similar situations such a free tuition for my roommate who is a university employee.
And what would they use for money, to pay the taxes with?
shrugs I think that’s why most jobs pay you in money.And what would they use for money, to pay the taxes with?
Presumably your friend has a student loan, or else a part time job, that gives him the money with which he pays his living expenses and his taxes.
In the case of your mother, I am assuming that other than money given or lent to her by her parents, she didn’t have any other source of income.
That’s what I think, too. I think that if it became legal to “pay” people in food and lodging rather than in wages, it would put a real dent in the government’s ability to collect taxes. This is probably at least partly why there is a minimum wage law.
That’s what I love: people who take one data point and extrapolate a whole universe.
Sorry for the confusion; I just know that from my perspective both of the stories you told are not things that I would want to support but you hold them up as success stories of the paradigm you’re encouraging.
So you prefer the current system of unions bribing politicians for favors.
Not quite; I think unions have outlasted the usefulness at least according to everyone I know including many union workers. But I prefer a system where it’s illegal to pay someone a pittance (or not pay them at all–unless you call it an internship and they get academic credit but that’s a whole different thing).
I hope that’s not what it takes, to get employers to pay people a minimum survival wage for unskilled or semi-skilled labour.
Oh, I know internships for students pursuing a degree are very important. I just didn’t want someone to say ‘oh you’re, against free labor so obviously you’re opposed to internships.’ That said, internships and working for someone for free aren’t the same thing at all.
This is unjust and a perfect example of what Sowell was talking about in his quote above. I see nothing wrong with this arrangement as long as both are willing. There is valuable experience to be gained as an intern.
I linked to a general economic education website and to the United State Congress, which are hardly partisan rags.
The price floor is not a discussion of the minimum wage and its impact on unemployment. You may see it implies this but I don’t think it’s quite that clear cut.
The minimum wage is a perfect example of a price floor. All the market dislocation associated with price floors also apply to minimum wage laws because THE MINIMUM WAGE IS A PRICE FLOOR.
I speak about things in which I do not have academic training. I am, however, hesitant to make grand proclamations about the state of a field in which I do not have training. For example, while I am comfortable talking about evolution, cosmology, myth theory or the historicity of Jesus there comes a point where I simply to not have a sufficient grasp on the details or issues at hand to speak intelligently on a given level.
As I recall from that same site (which I read through about half of) the small change in unemployment seems mostly to affect the very young (which I read as high school students but this may not be true).
So finding five of them to say the MW should be raised would not be any great feat. *
And that’s what Sowell says about liberals. All they care about is “feeling”. One thing that non-technical people have trouble grasping is the concept of diminishing returns. A good example of this is the educational system: the more money you shovel at it, the worse it gets.
I have worked for minimum wage. Your system works as long as all conservatives are willing to work for less than what the minimum wage is now (e.g. $5 an hour let’s say).