Shot in the Dark

Oh, We’re In The Very Best Of Hands

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

In 2012, St. Paul teen unemployment was 32%.   One-third of our young people could not find work, even at the state minimum wage of $5.25 per hour.

On Friday, St. Paul Mayor demanded the minimum wage be nearly doubled, to $9.50.

No employer could afford to hire you because you weren’t worth $5.25 per hour, but surely he’ll jump at the chance to hire you at $9.50, maybe several of you.  What could go wrong?

Joe Doakes

They can be interns for the Democrats.

Unpaid, naturally.

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Mitch Berg

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22 responses to “Oh, We’re In The Very Best Of Hands”

  1. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Unemployment in MN is near the lowest in the nation. The MN economy is near the top and for most voters is doing well. The DFL economy by most measures is beating the GOP controlled economy of our neighbors in Wisconsin. Aside from the warehouse business tax Dayton and the DFL controlled legislature say they will repeal. What message will the GOP convey to voters in order to win the Governor’s office and control of the legislature?

  2. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    Emery, you obviously haven’t been paying attention. As many people have previously pointed out, the Dems are currently benefitting from the mostly sane fiscal policies of the previous GOP administration. Funny, this is what happened with Slick Willy Clinton, too. As any left wing party appartchik will tell you, he left office with a surplus, but that’s because a GOP controlled house and senate kept him away from the country’s checkbook. If they push through this minimum wage deal, that will be just one more fiscally insane DFL move.

  3. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Jessie Checks?

  4. TheFedSucks Avatar
    TheFedSucks

    Minimum wage is funded out of someone else’s demand or business investment.

    Given that, paying more to someone more than what their output is worth is helpful why?

  5. TheFedSucks Avatar
    TheFedSucks

    I had a discussion about this last night. @NARNfan

  6. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    The DFL economy by most measures is beating the GOP controlled economy of our neighbors in Wisconsin.

    Let me fix that: “The DFL economy by most measures a set of meaures cherry-picked by the Alliance for a Better Minnesota, is beating the GOP controlled economy of our neighbors in Wisconsin.”

    The states’ circumstances are very different. Wisconsin’s economy was heavily based on manufacturing, which was has hard hit by the last several recessions (and had the same sort of pro-union inflexibility that plagues all “progressive” states. Minnesota’s is much more heavily into healthcare, insurance and financial services -all industries that have done well for the past decade and will continue to for a while (with considerable government subsidy, in the former two cases).

    But Wisconsin is improving fast; Minnesota is not. Minnesota is doing well (thanks, 10 years of GOP sanity in office!) but has nowhere to go but down.

    The warehouse tax is FAR from the only tax hike that is causing problems. The DFL took two billion out of the state’s economy.

    My favorite story about DFL economic myopia is this one. It is literally cheaper and easier to build an iron smelting plant in North Dakota and ship taconite tailings to it, than it is to build the plant in Virginia and Coleraine, where the tailings are.

  7. Mr. D Avatar
    Mr. D

    Unemployment in MN is near the lowest in the nation. The MN economy is near the top and for most voters is doing well. The DFL economy by most measures is beating the GOP controlled economy of our neighbors in Wisconsin.

    1) Correlation does not equal causation.
    2) Things change.
    3) The election takes place in November, not February.
    4) Mark Dayton does not control the economy in Minnesota, any more than Scott Walker controls the economy in Wisconsin. Both can take measures that either make things better or worse. Raise the minimum wage and watch what happens.

  8. TheFedSucks Avatar
    TheFedSucks

    Financial services are likely subsidized by Fed activity, too Mitch. We have an unnaturally high level of finance activity in this country. Good thing MN is so involved, I guess.

  9. TheFedSucks Avatar
    TheFedSucks

    I’m not an economist, but I’ve always had a funny feeling when stark claims are made about the differences between states. There is a lot of crap you have to control for.

    Income and capital is moving to the states where it’s treated the best, that is for sure.

  10. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    Yes, unemployment in MN is blessedly low, but that apparently is not helping teens in our major cities. Why is that? The simple economic answer is that the risk/reward ratio is too high. Now, raising taxes on the “rich” (productive entrepreneurs and others who hire people) and raising the minimum wage will help this exactly….how?

    One possible justification for the steel plant in ND is that they’ve got both limestone and coal there, so they could be saving on that transport. But still……

  11. TheFedSucks Avatar
    TheFedSucks

    Education, the family, and entry level employment is the key to developing human capital. If you think about it, you are only moving forward or backward on this. If you go too far backward, it’s curtains.

  12. Chuck Avatar
    Chuck

    Some times an economy is good (or bad) not because of political leadership, but in spite of it. People like to live in the big city. Private developers have spent incredibly huge sums of money in Minneapolis to build stuff. Does anyone think that a whackjob like Phylis Kahn has anything to do with high end houing developments in downtown Mpls or Uptown?

  13. Loren Avatar
    Loren

    Quit being so greedy! If 9.50 an hour is good, then $20 is more than twice as good. Everyone becomes middle class. Go for $250 and hour. Then we all be millionaires!

    What could be wrong with that?

  14. TheFedSucks Avatar
    TheFedSucks

    Look at this and think about MN http://bit.ly/1dCkL8b

  15. TheFedSucks Avatar
    TheFedSucks

    “Some times an economy is good (or bad) not because of political leadership, but in spite of it.”

    That is what happened to California. Taxpayers kept moving there because it was a nice place. Now it’s going the other way.

    JMO, that is what is going on with Minnesota.

  16. Chuck Avatar
    Chuck

    I see Keith Ellison said at the end of last week that it is good that fewer people will be working full time, as that will give them more time to cook meals at home instead of eating takeout.

    Ladies and gentlemen, that is the new soul of the Democrat party. Don’t work hard, just get free stuff from the gov’t so you can lounge at home.

  17. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    Hello, Jimmy John’s?

  18. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    It would be interesting to determine how many of Herr Ellison’s constituents were already practicing the “no work” strategy, but still purchasing cigarettes, booze, gambling and junk food with their food stamps.

  19. Powhatan Mingo Avatar
    Powhatan Mingo

    Is Emery playing correlation equals causation again?

  20. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    MBerg: At a recent forum, Former House Leader Steve Sviggum asked a variation of that very question of Minority Leader Kurt Daudt. Although the former Speaker included in his setup: the balanced budget, the absence of shifts and a budget surplus. And yes, the Minority Speakers response was party–line as was yours.

  21. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    No, PM, he’s taunting.

    Since the Minnesota economy is going so swimmingly under Democrats, he’s pointing Republicans have nothing to offer the voters. It’s a variation on the old “are you better off now” routine.

    Offering to raise the minimum wage appeals to the “Gimme Free Stuff” crowd and also to the “You are Noblese Obligated” crowd (translation: you have plenty of money so we’re giving more of your money to the deserving poor). Those groups are part of the Democrat base. The offer is pure vote-buying with other people’s money. And we know it works.

    So Emery asks a good question: what will Republicans offer? Economics? That’s not going to appeal to the “Gimme Free Stuff” crowd. Logic? That makes you seem heartless, which Alpaca-wearing Volvo drivers hate.

    It’s actually a good question. Voters in the People’s Democratic Republic of Minnesota have been conditioned like Pavolv’s dogs to expect to be paid off for their votes. How can Republicans buy votes back?

  22. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    Mr. Doakes gets it
    .
    ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
    Through the Looking Glass
    Lewis Carroll

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