Somebody help me out here. I'm no econ major, nor a self-believed super genius. I need help understanding this issue. But, don't flood me with speculation and "woulda/coulda", if you can help it.
The way I see it, education for the masses should be part of our long term strategy for eliminating poverty. That way, people move out of being forced to work for minimum wage jobs, unskilled/semi-skilled labor jobs are phased out over time, companies upgrade systems to make labor work more efficiently, and people move towards higher paying jobs that they are more qualified for. Then people working in the service sector move to part time, and to people who are not completed with education.
Then, market forces would push the minimum wage up naturally, over time of course, because the pool of workers for the lower end of the wage scale would decrease. Right?
Granted this all depends on not having an influx of workers who are uneducated artificially driving wage levels down. And, this seems like it would need a big distinction between rich and poor.
Or, would increasing the minimum wage lower the amount of low-end jobs and then after some 'growing pains' force people to increase levels of education because of the lack of work at unskilled levels?
Also, education, i think...is a privilege of being a thinking thing. Why not use a brain if we have one.
What I'm really trying to learn about is economic strategies where the rich continue to get rich (perhaps at the cost of a slower rate of increase) and the poor also start to get richer. I feel like someone would've figured this out, though.
Comments? Guidance? Please?
1 comment:
I always wished that idea would work out, however, it seems our economy has and always will be carried on the backs of our meagerly paid/enslaved labor force. I think we are moving in the right direction in the citities that are rethinking minimum wage to a living wage...where we get into trouble is when we don't even give people the chance to adequately live on their wages.
As a side note, I think the part of the problem is our education system. Besides for its structural flaws that produce artificial education--the profession of teaching, which I herald as the most important, is too often not respected. The fact that people use teaching as a fallback plan, is a bit outrageous to me. That we as a society are not making education a desirable career to to pursue is a travesty--with higher (and not articifical...no "No Child Left Behind" bullshit) standards comes more respect. And respect should equal higher pay. Thus, more attractiveness.
If education were to solve this--which I believe ideally it could. I hope that education is rethought as not a series of hoop jumping, but rather a pursuit of knowledge.
Sorry...I ramble.
Thanks for commenting on my blog. I really miss you and wished I could have caught you in the old mitten state. We will have to grab time on the flipside. Thoughts of you always my brighten my day and make me want to be a better me. So--keep on rocking the world's face off just by being Neil.
peace, love, and stillness--
Melanie
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