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posted by martyb on Monday August 06 2018, @09:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the positive-news dept.

Marketwatch brings good news for the USA: American workers are finally reaping the benefits of the lowest unemployment rate and best jobs market in decades: Wages and benefits are rising at the fastest pace in a decade. Firms have sought to fill openings by offering better benefits such as more vacation time or flexible hours. When push comes to shove, they are offering higher pay. While bigger paychecks are great for workers, the US Federal Reserve is watching closely to see if rising compensation is stoking inflation. The Federal Reserve could increase U.S. interest rates if it becomes a big worry, but so far inflation remains relatively mild.


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  • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by realDonaldTrump on Monday August 06 2018, @04:16PM (7 children)

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday August 06 2018, @04:16PM (#717886) Homepage Journal

    Wages too high, we’re not going to be able to compete against the world. I hate to say it, but we have to leave it the way it is. People have to go out, they have to work really hard and have to get into that upper stratum. But we cannot do this if we are going to compete with the rest of the world. We just can’t do it. I want to create jobs so that you don’t have to worry about the minimum wage. They’ll do a great job that they’re making much more than the minimum wage. But I think having a low minimum wage is not a bad thing for this country. I want to keep the minimum wage pretty much where it is right now, because of the fact that we have a country that is now competing more than ever before because of airplanes and transportation and internet. I want to compete with the rest of the world. What I do want to do is bring in jobs so much so that people don’t have to live on minimum wage. But we are going to have to compete with the rest of the world. Listen to this. What’s going to happen is now people are going to start firing people. You know, the old story. It’s happened a hundred times. It’s always happening. But I’m not even saying from that standpoint, Michael. We have got to do something to compete with the rest of the world. Our country is not competitive any more.

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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday August 06 2018, @06:51PM (6 children)

    by bob_super (1357) on Monday August 06 2018, @06:51PM (#717951)

    To offset wage disparity between countries, tariffs can be used. It's not fundamentally wrong as a targeted way to offset wage dumping, though you have to be ready for prices to rise as a result, and for the target countries to retaliate.
    What is fundamentally wrong is to put tariffs on countries with equal or higher wages and standards of living, like Canada, the EU and Japan. That's just the government saving the ass of shitty-productivity companies.

    • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday August 06 2018, @08:56PM

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Monday August 06 2018, @08:56PM (#717980) Homepage Journal

      Many of the world’s great leaders request to come to Mar-a-Lago and Palm Beach. They like it, I like it, we’re comfortable. We have great relationships. It was called the Southern White House. It was given to the United States, and then Jimmy Carter decided it was too expensive for the United States. So they, fortunately for me, gave it back and I bought it. Who would have thought? It was a circuitous route.

      Shinzo Abe, very nice guy, I showed him around Mar-a-Lago. We played a few rounds at Trump National Golf Club and at Trump International Golf Course. One thing about golf, you get to know somebody better on a golf course than you will over lunch.

      And I visited Shinzo in Japan. Very unique country, very special. We played a few holes with Hideki Matsuyama -- another wonderful person -- at the Kasumigaseki Country Club. And I ate the best hamburger I've ever tasted in my entire life. Possibly the best one you've ever tasted. Very nice place, very nice trip, very nice people. pic.twitter.com/vYLULe0o2K [t.co]

      But they're ABSOLUTELY KILLING US. Economically, they're killing us. New York, I'm driving in New York, I see so many funny looking taxi cabs. And I ask my driver, "what kind of car is that, who makes that one?" He says "Toyota." Which comes from Japan. Well, I'm telling Toyota, try building your cars in the United States instead of shipping them over.

      Same with the steel & aluminum. I put tariffs on those so our great steel mills and aluminum mills can open up again. Can start hiring again. And for our National Security. Very important that we have steel & aluminum for our military. For our ships, planes, tanks, rockets and so much more. What if we go to War with Japan? They have all the steel & aluminum, we have ZERO. Not great. And by the way, the situation militarily is very one-sided. The American taxpayer is spending A LOT to protect Japan. They need to pay more. Or start protecting themselves. We can make a deal, I love deals that are VERY FAIR. We have some great companies, great equipment. Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon -- terrific guys with the very best equipment. And Japan, probably they'll want nuclear. We can talk about that, we can help them with that. North Korea has nuclear -- not for long -- China has nuclear. And they're no friends of Japan, believe me. So Japan's going to have nuclear sooner or later.

      Canada, I met Justin from Canada. Great looking guy, looks amazing. He acts so meek & mild. But this is a VERY DISHONEST guy. I'll tell you, what he's doing is terrible. Trudeau came to see me. He said, "no, no, we have no trade deficit with you, we have none. Donald, please." I told him, "wrong, Justin, you do." I didn’t even know. I had no idea. I just said, "you're wrong." We sent one of our guys out, his guy, my guy, they went out. I said, "check, because I can't believe it." "Well, sir, you’re actually right. We have no deficit, but that doesn’t include energy and timber. And when you do, we lose $17 billion a year." It’s incredible.

      And the Dairy, Canada charges the U.S. a 270% tariff on Dairy Products! They didn’t tell you that, did they? Not fair to our farmers! Even Chuck Schumer says it's HORRIBLY UNFAIR. We do 3%, they do 270%, it's very one-sided.

      After G7 -- so nasty and a big waste of time -- Justin gave a news conference, he said "US Tariffs were kind of insulting" and he "will not be pushed around." Well, I put Tariffs on the steel & aluminum coming in from Canada. Our Tariffs are in response to his of 270% on dairy! Another thing, they have the universal healthcare. Something I'm working very hard on, we're going to have that too. But until we do, it's unfair. They have it, we don't. Our great American workers are getting sick and can't pay the bill for the doctor. They stay sick, they can't work. Or they do lousy work. While the Canadian workers go to the doctor and, no bill. They get fixed up, they're back to work. Very hard to compete with that.

      And the EU, or European Union. They're a foe. And maybe you don't think of them as a foe. Trust me, they are. But I made a great deal with President Juncker. They're going to buy a lot more of our soybeans. And a lot more of our LNG, the natural gas. So they won't have to buy that from Russia. It's going to mean a lot of new JOBS for our farmers. And in our gas industry.

      The minimum wage, I am looking at it and I haven't decided in terms of numbers. But I think people have to get more. I would like to see an increase of some magnitude. So folks can have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS. But I'd rather leave it to the states. Let the states decide. Because don't forget, the states have to compete with each other!!!!

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday August 07 2018, @01:14AM (4 children)

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 07 2018, @01:14AM (#718057) Journal

      To offset wage disparity between countries, tariffs can be used.

      Or we could not have tariffs, let the low wage countries produce the low value stuff as they currently do, and instead employ our high cost people in the many opportunities that exist for businesses in the developed world? Comparative advantage is a thing.

      I get the feeling you're like some little psychopath with a torturer's kit. Have a tooth ache? Relationship problems? I got thumb screws!

      Before we use tariffs, shouldn't we have some evidence that they work first? Same with high minimum wages and the other economic quackery that's been put forth in this whole discussion.

      • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday August 07 2018, @05:32PM (3 children)

        by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday August 07 2018, @05:32PM (#718328)

        > instead employ our high cost people in the many opportunities that exist for businesses in the developed world?

        Turns out we have plenty of low-skilled American Citizen neighbors, and the rising costs of education in the US is producing more of them every day.
        Either there are jobs they can do, or we pay higher taxes to keep them fed and/or jailed, whichever prevents them from storming our Gated Communities.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday August 07 2018, @11:45PM (2 children)

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 07 2018, @11:45PM (#718514) Journal

          Turns out we have plenty of low-skilled American Citizen neighbors, and the rising costs of education in the US is producing more of them every day.

          Maybe we should stop doing that then. Tariffs won't help here, of course. Education that spends more efficiently on education would help. This is one of the reasons I'm interested in school vouchers, the traditional public schools have become disinterested in their primary purpose and are more interested in raising costs of education.

          Either there are jobs they can do, or we pay higher taxes to keep them fed and/or jailed, whichever prevents them from storming our Gated Communities.

          We could get out of the way of business, for example. As I've already implied, I think any level of minimum wage is too high because the most minimal such laws require businesses to shuffle paper instead of employing more people gainfully (and by gainfully, I mean in a way that would produce goods and services that encourage employment of more people gainfully).

          I too believe we should create jobs that they can do. I just don't buy that tariffs will do that.

          • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday August 08 2018, @12:40AM (1 child)

            by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday August 08 2018, @12:40AM (#718545)

            > the traditional public schools have become disinterested in their primary purpose and are more interested in raising costs of education

            * citation needed *
            While private colleges are raising their rates well above inflation levels because they can, they can because some politicians are defunding their competitors, while other politicians/administrators are agreeing to excessive raises instead of standing for our tax dollars.
            It sucks, but I don't like the "more interested in" loaded formulation.

            > This is one of the reasons I'm interested in school vouchers

            I fail to see how the vouchers address the problem. The Almighty Market Dynamics don't apply here.

            • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday August 08 2018, @01:58AM

              by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 08 2018, @01:58AM (#718585) Journal

              It sucks, but I don't like the "more interested in" loaded formulation.

              I do like that formulation because I think it's more accurate. First, let us note that moving costs of college education from state to student doesn't actually change the cost of education, it just changes who pays. And needless to say, I have no trouble with college students paying the actual cost of their education.

              What does change cost of education is overhead that doesn't contribute to the education, such as much of the administrative costs and building construction. That's a common failing of public schools, particularly K-12 level. I've heard many stories over the years of science teachers who have to buy their own supplies while their school system upgrades the local sports infrastructure (such as football stadiums) without a second thought. And a school system like the LA Unified School District has massive bureaucratic overhead.

              A second indication is the phenomena of "teaching to the test". This is a common complaint of top-down testing standards. But if a school system suddenly shifts to obsessing over test scores on a standard test, it demonstrates that the school system didn't have education as a priority then or in the past. Because education wouldn't be so easily sacrificed to a test otherwise.

              There's the inflated educational costs of classroom materials such as textbooks, lab materials, etc (which is something a school system can easily deal), but too often it's just not a priority to reduce costs of education for their students.

              There are teacher unions which are notorious for opposite performance based measures and removing bad teachers from the classroom.

              This is one of the reasons I'm interested in school vouchers

              I fail to see how the vouchers address the problem. The Almighty Market Dynamics don't apply here.

              Market dynamics work well at the college level actually. You get a fair bit of inefficiency still and we all hear of the students who borrow way too much (usually via a non-market dynamic, of course). But there is an amazing variety out there and a lot of people getting something relatively useful out of their education. Meanwhile how many public schools, particularly in the heavily urbanized parts of the US, would still exist, if they had to compete? I'm all for getting rid of bad public schools outright. And school vouchers provide a tool for making that happen.