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Nobody Told Sen. Elizabeth Warren that There Would Be Math in Politics

by
Bryan Preston

Bio

March 18, 2013 - 1:46 pm

The Blaze reports that MA Sen. Elizabeth Warren finds math to be too hard to work out.

Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions last week asked why the current federal minimum wage rate is only $7.25 and not $22 an hour.

“If we started in 1960, and we said that, as productivity goes up — that is, as workers are producing more — then the minimum wage is going to go up the same,” the Massachusetts senator said during the hearing.

“And, if that were the case, the minimum wage today would be about $22 an hour. So, my question … is what happened to the other $14.75?” she asked University of Massachusetts professor of economics Arindrajit Dube:

There’s video of the exchange at the link. It shows a senator more comfortable with some shadowy conspiracy to keep wages down than with working out the numbers. Her guest actually compares the minimum wage to wages earned at the very top of the economic ladder, oblivious to the fact that some skills command more than others, and those with no skills tend to command the least.

Democrats tend to call for an increase on the minimum wage to go along with their calls for higher taxes on the “wealthy,” elastically defined to mean whoever they feel like raising taxes on. They call for minimum wage hikes whenever they have no core policy to chase after and want to put Republicans on the defensive.

Both amount to a forced payment that distorts economic reality. They never account for the fact that minimum wage hikes tend to depress hiring while raising the costs of goods and services. It just doesn’t enter their thinking. It certainly doesn’t enter Sen. Warren’s thinking.

Bryan Preston has been a leading conservative blogger and opinionator since founding his first blog in 2001. Bryan is a military veteran, worked for NASA, was a founding blogger and producer at Hot Air, was producer of the Laura Ingraham Show and, most recently before joining PJM, was Communications Director of the Republican Party of Texas.
All Comments   (13)
All Comments   (13)
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The esteemed senator's argument is predicated on the mythical "family of 4" living on a minimum <a href="http://wage.Given/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">wage.Given</a> who her constituants are, it is not hard for her to cling to this pitiful image. The idea that a reasonably motivated worker would never accept working for the minimum for an extended length of time never entered her mind so she must save the worker from the greedy capitalist class. Minimum wage worker = minimum information voter.
The esteemed senator's argument is predicated on the mythical "family of 4" living on a minimum <a href="http://wage.Given/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">wage.Given</a> who her constituants are, it is not hard for her to cling to this pitiful image. The idea that a reasonably motivated worker would never accept working for the minimum for an extended length of time never entered her mind so she must save the worker from the greedy capitalist class. Minimum wage worker = minimum information voter.
8 weeks ago Tue Mar 26 06:13:25 PDT 2013 1
8 weeks ago Tue Mar 26 06:13:25 PDT 2013 1
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Simple. The productivity increase of the American worker is an AVERAGE. What it means is that the productivity of the most productive workers has gone up a lot, while the productivity of the average minimum wage earner has not increased that much. So they get a smaller raise, as their employer cannot sell the product of their labor for that much more.

Simple. The productivity increase of the American worker is an AVERAGE. What it means is that the productivity of the most productive workers has gone up a lot, while the productivity of the average minimum wage earner has not increased that much. So they get a smaller raise, as their employer cannot sell the product of their labor for that much more.

9 weeks ago Tue Mar 19 14:15:16 PDT 2013 1
9 weeks ago Tue Mar 19 14:15:16 PDT 2013 1
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Massachusetts voters must be proud since they are as stupid as she is.
Massachusetts voters must be proud since they are as stupid as she is.
9 weeks ago Tue Mar 19 07:56:38 PDT 2013 1
9 weeks ago Tue Mar 19 07:56:38 PDT 2013 1
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Um... what?

Yes productivity gains on average have gone up; in part due to automation, machinery, and computers.

But tell me how a guy pushing a broom in 2013 is more efficient than a guy pushing a broom in 1960? Have we improved brook technology twenty-fold?

Nope, same broom, same crappy no-skill manual labor job... same pay scale.

You get paid based on what YOU can do, not based on what the average person can do... who gets confused by this (aside from this idjit)?


Um... what?

Yes productivity gains on average have gone up; in part due to automation, machinery, and computers.

But tell me how a guy pushing a broom in 2013 is more efficient than a guy pushing a broom in 1960? Have we improved brook technology twenty-fold?

Nope, same broom, same crappy no-skill manual labor job... same pay scale.

You get paid based on what YOU can do, not based on what the average person can do... who gets confused by this (aside from this idjit)?


9 weeks ago Mon Mar 18 23:04:22 PDT 2013 1
9 weeks ago Mon Mar 18 23:04:22 PDT 2013 1
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Why not have it at $100 an hour, we could offshore a whole bunch of jobs and help those other countries get their economy going.

Except I don't want to pay $25 for a Whopper
Why not have it at $100 an hour, we could offshore a whole bunch of jobs and help those other countries get their economy going.

Except I don't want to pay $25 for a Whopper
9 weeks ago Mon Mar 18 16:27:50 PDT 2013 1
9 weeks ago Mon Mar 18 16:27:50 PDT 2013 1
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Indeed why not $220 an hour. Let's just pick a number and go on a demonizing jihad against anyone who disagrees. Don't debate, just (figuratively) cut their heads off.
Indeed why not $220 an hour. Let's just pick a number and go on a demonizing jihad against anyone who disagrees. Don't debate, just (figuratively) cut their heads off.
9 weeks ago Mon Mar 18 16:58:19 PDT 2013 1
9 weeks ago Mon Mar 18 16:58:19 PDT 2013 1
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The minimum wage was $1.25/hr in the mid-to-late 60's. Using official cost-of-living calculations that would make it about ten times that now -- $12.50/hr. Still well short of $22/hr.

Should it be $12.50? No, because that would be economically ruinous. Why was it that "high" in the 1960's? I don't know, except to say that America was still steeped in the Keneysian "blue economic model," and also had no major economic competitors except the EU (Common Market) as an aggregate. In effect, we could still "afford" a "high" minimum wage. Not anymore.
The minimum wage was $1.25/hr in the mid-to-late 60's. Using official cost-of-living calculations that would make it about ten times that now -- $12.50/hr. Still well short of $22/hr.

Should it be $12.50? No, because that would be economically ruinous. Why was it that "high" in the 1960's? I don't know, except to say that America was still steeped in the Keneysian "blue economic model," and also had no major economic competitors except the EU (Common Market) as an aggregate. In effect, we could still "afford" a "high" minimum wage. Not anymore.
9 weeks ago Mon Mar 18 14:56:26 PDT 2013 1
9 weeks ago Mon Mar 18 14:56:26 PDT 2013 1
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The brilliant Elizabeth Warren! I am familiar with her famous Harvard study on consumer bankruptcy that attributed most to medical bills. Bunk. As phony as her Cherokee lineage. Warren is one of those Ivy League doyennes in the social sciences who convert opinion and policy preferences into statistics and statistics into cant.
The brilliant Elizabeth Warren! I am familiar with her famous Harvard study on consumer bankruptcy that attributed most to medical bills. Bunk. As phony as her Cherokee lineage. Warren is one of those Ivy League doyennes in the social sciences who convert opinion and policy preferences into statistics and statistics into cant.
9 weeks ago Mon Mar 18 14:53:22 PDT 2013 1
9 weeks ago Mon Mar 18 14:53:22 PDT 2013 1
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Typo: clearly intended 40 hours a week.
Typo: clearly intended 40 hours a week.
9 weeks ago Mon Mar 18 14:43:12 PDT 2013 1
9 weeks ago Mon Mar 18 14:43:12 PDT 2013 1
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At 49 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, a minimum wage of $22 an hour would equal an annual income of $45,760. Before trying to impose that wage rate nationally, why not try it in Massachusetts first? The other states would welcome the job exodus from MA. The good senator is an economic ignoramus.
At 49 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, a minimum wage of $22 an hour would equal an annual income of $45,760. Before trying to impose that wage rate nationally, why not try it in Massachusetts first? The other states would welcome the job exodus from MA. The good senator is an economic ignoramus.
9 weeks ago Mon Mar 18 14:41:46 PDT 2013 1
9 weeks ago Mon Mar 18 14:41:46 PDT 2013 1
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Looking at her picture I just do not see a very intelligent person there at all as a matter of fact she looks stupid if you ask me!
Looking at her picture I just do not see a very intelligent person there at all as a matter of fact she looks stupid if you ask me!
9 weeks ago Mon Mar 18 14:40:22 PDT 2013 1
9 weeks ago Mon Mar 18 14:40:22 PDT 2013 1
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