The Link Between Menial Jobs, Poor Education, & The Minimum Wage

graph from Steve Sailer – click on graph to enlarge

 

A little over a week ago I watched the men from a lawn service company rake (actually blow) the leaves off my neighbor's lawn.  These men who cut the grass all summer & now rake leaves are all in their prime earning years & the still active owner of the company is well past retirement age.  They, & many more like them, are doing jobs I did when I was 12.

 

Now it is true that this endeavor required someone to make the riding tractor, blower, truck, & trailer to transport the equipment but it still seems to me like an inefficient use of resources – both human & mechanical.  What a shame for mankind.

 

I wondered about the real opportunity cost of raking leaves this way – why was there no 12 year old boy in this scene, what else could these men have been doing that would advance the standard of living of our country, & why were these men @ this point in their lives doing such a job (& had been for years)?

 

At least part of the answer lies in the above graph that was released last week.  The graph displays the mean of the Math, Science, and Reading test scores from OECD's 2012 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).  This triennial test measured how well 510,000 fifteen year old students from 65 countries & locales representing 80% of the world economy compare with each other.

 

In general the U.S. slipped further in the rankings from 2009 & is below the OECD average (black line on the graph) - but you will get a better insight by focusing on the red lines that show Asian-Americans in the same league with others @ the top of the graph & Hispanic-Americans & African-Americans near the bottom of the entire graph.  Of course it was these last two groups that threw BO over the top in his winning the 2012 election.

 

Also released last week was information showing that the movement to raise the minimum wage continues to intensify as more & more people realize that minimum wage jobs are all they qualify for in this global economy.  This impetus to increase the minimum wage is rooted in America's poor government school system typified by the inferior education results from PISA & is caused by grown men having to make a living doing the work previously done by 12 year olders.

 

You can debate whether or not minimum wage laws deter the hiring of America's youth but the minimum-wage impetus today is not to help entry level youths get good paying jobs (for them) but rather to provide somewhat of a living wage for people who could never compete in the global economy.  Union contracts are also tied to minimum wage rates so increases in the minimum wage also raises the wages of union workers by a similar percentage.

 

NJ, MD, CA, Washington state & DC are just some of the places where minimum wages have recently been raised & many of these places have written into their laws automatic indexing of their levels to inflation.  BO also jumped on raising the minimum wage as a reliable Democrat vote getter that he hopes will change the subject from the ObamaCare website.

 

All of this was vividly brought home to me when I had occasion, also last week, to hire a plumber to repair my hot water heater.  This is the second time this young man in his twenties has helped me out by providing a service that takes knowledge, skill, honesty, & a business manner that he definitely has – he is the owner's son.  After he finished the job he explained that the company has had an opening for a skilled plumber for several months but they just can't find one who has the previously mentioned qualifications (especially honesty) that would make his father feel comfortable putting this person in someone's home. 

 

Now all of this deterioration of America didn't start in the last five years but it sure has accelerated since BO purposely brought his government-dependent debilitating onslaught to our unsuspecting country.  And he will continue to do so – if we let him.