Minimum Wage in the Era of Automation
written by theeconreview Published on April 22, 2019
https://theeconreview.com/2019/04/22/minimum-wage-in-the-era-of-automation/
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The X Factor will be automation. Certainly that will take time, but "The Great Reset" in place will naturally give advantages to big corporations over small businesses.
The other issue is that landlords in general, the smaller level ones, are getting the major squeeze during the pandemic. They can't evict anyone and who knows how long that will last but there is no real relief in place for them. As big corporations and the wealthy elite eventually start to buy them out at pennies on the dollar, you'll see the price of rent going up. You also will have successive generations under the FI/RE movement, who will embrace minimalism and won't seek having children/owning property and that has a destabilizing impact on the economy when done in mass.
Fewer people getting married and a drop in the birth rate plus an aging society that lives longer than ever before is not a good receipe consider a future tax base with the reality of a massive deficit in place.
There will be an entire wave of new homeless spinning out from the pandemic and once you are out on the street, it's an uphill fight to get your bearings back. I was homeless out of high school many many many years ago and I can tell you it's a complete nightmare.
So it's not just minimum wage but a range of economic issues spinning out from the pandemic. Seeing minimum wage increases in a vacuum makes it look more digestable than when you look at it against multiple other current financial realities.
One my neighbors has three sons. One just finished high school, one is a few years way, the last is a good bit younger. Their father and I have talked to all of them, they are all joining the military. One is signing up now, the next is all but a lock at this point. When you look at the state pension crisis in many places plus deep questions about previous stalwarts like working for the state, utilities, what's left of unionized work, etc, etc, the military is looking like the only real choice left for many.
The real struggle with the Biden administration is the idea of buying votes via public policy. Raising the minimum wage and teasing college loan forgiveness was just that. So was Trump's money pushed to the HBCUs and the Platinum Plan. Every major voting block's vote is not for free, but how many tax dollars are going to be spent to make sure each group gets their political pork?