Minimum Wage Increase Killed Teenagers Jobs

Over and over, I have railed against the unending game that the Democrats play of being the champion of those with little power and then brutally crushing them.  One of the sacrosanct assertions of the Democrat party is that minimum wage laws raise the standard of living of the poor.  This is nonsense and good economists have long understood this.  What is understood is this:  The minimum wage causes jobs to be taken off the market which would otherwise be held by the very young, the least intelligent adults, and some of the handicapped.  Nonetheless, the Democrats continually fight for increases in the minimum wage while pretending to be the champions of the underdog.  This is disgraceful and disgusting.  All of their many underdog constituents are being played for fools.


A new article in the Wall Street Journal discusses the fate of American teenagers since the last minimum wage increase in July.  The minimum wage was increased by $0.75 to $7.25, this being the last of three increases the Democrats passed into law.  The first increase occurred in July 2007 and there are 691,000 fewer teens working now than prior to that increase. The immediate result of the most recent increase in July was an increase in teenage unemployment from 23.8% to 25.9% in September.  In these two months, 330,000 teenager jobs disappeared.  Black male teen unemployment went up from 39.2% in July to 50.4% in September.  Of course, American blacks especially love the Democrat party.  Go figure.


Ten states have enacted minimum wages higher than those of the federal government.  California, Massachusetts, Michigan, and New York have among the highest state minimum wages.  Studies in each showed that the increased minimum wage decreased jobs for teenagers.  There were one-third fewer teenage workers in Massachusetts in 2008 than in 1995 as a result of that state's minimum wage laws.

In 2008, only 1.1% of Americans working 40 hours a week or more were paid the minimum wage.  Teenagers are 5 times more likely to earn the minimum wage than adults.  Minimum wage jobs are usually part-time or first-time jobs.  About 2 of every 3 minimum wage earners gets a pay increase within the first year in the job.  A Stanford study found that teenagers who had jobs earned more and were more likely to be working 10 years later.  It is important for teenagers to acquire on-the-job skills and to develop an effective work ethic.   The minimum wage laws that prevent this are brutally harsh and should be repealed.  A second best idea would be to create a special lower minimum wage for teenagers.

Global Warmer's Attack on Science

Those who claim that man is responsible for the global warming between about 1970 and 2000 are fond of claiming that this theory has been proven beyond any reasonable scientific doubt. Despite this, there are hundreds of climatologists and other scientists interested in the science of the atmosphere, the seas, the sun, the flora and fauna, and the history of climate both in recorded history and during prehistoric periods who are unconvinced. The world has generally warmed since the last Ice Age, but there have been many back and forth temperature movements. There have been ice ages with carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere many times what it is now. There was the Roman Warming, then the cooling that helped to bring on the end of the Roman Empire, then the Medieval Warming, then the Mini-Ice Age that ended about 1850. While warming has generally dominated since, there was a cooling period from 1940 until about 1970. Indeed, in the late sixties, there was alarm in the media about the coming Ice Age. Indeed, such a cooling as would accompany an on-coming Ice Age would be a human disaster, while the general warming after the last Ice Age, the Roman Warming, the Medieval Warming, and the present post-Mini-Ice Age have all been very kind to man.

Despite these well-known facts, some computer modelers have determined that an increase of carbon dioxide due to the use of organic fuels must lead to great temperature increases. This despite the high carbon dioxide levels of previous Ice Ages. Despite the fact that the models cannot make predictions consistent with the known history back to the pre-Roman historical periods. Despite the fact that the models predict that the temperature should increase with altitude in the lower atmosphere, while in fact it falls. There is a problem in that carbon dioxide increases seem more often to follow than precede global temperature increases. This makes sense, since as the temperature increases, then the seas will evaporate off dissolved carbon dioxide. No matter how little truth is revealed by these models of carbon dioxide induced warming, they have many eager believers.

The fact is that variations in the sun's radiance accounts for most of the variations in the earth's temperature. There are also effects due to cosmic radiation and to cycles in the ocean currents which seem to be of importance. What is missing is evidence that man has significantly changed the world temperature.

These eager believers are largely socialists who have become somewhat weary of directly supporting socialism with its many known failures. They have turned to other arguments for essentially the same ends. They seek power over their fellowman, though always in the name of a paternalistic, or now an increasingly maternalistic, concern. There is always the pretense that the would-be thug-hirers have only the interest of the people at heart even as they threaten constantly to use force to get those many who are full of Original Sin to do their bidding.

Science draws men to pay attention to reality. This is not at all what those who seek power wish. It is much easier to control men who do not understand reality. So, the claim that science supports the idea that man has caused global warming, has two purposes. It may give those who claim this power in the short-run. If, however, there is a failure in time to convince men that man is destroying the world by using organic fuels, then the unconvinced will turn against science. This too suits the purpose of the power seekers.

The anti-man environmentalists seem to be on the road to the power to squeeze the economy and to deny men the advantages of inexpensive and sufficient power. They have shut down the construction of further nuclear power plants and brought on so much uncertainty about the future of coal-burning power plants that many projects to build them have been canceled. They supposedly support wind power, geothermal power, and photovoltaic power plants, except in their backyard or anywhere where some living animal might be inconvenienced or at least they might make a case that it might be. It is impossible to believe that the proposal in the January 2008 issue of Scientific American to cover 46,000 sq. mi. of the American Southwest with solar arrays will ever be allowed to happen. The environmentalists themselves will surely turn against any such project. Only projects to starve Americans of power are ever fully embraced for the long haul.