We have had a minimum wage for a really, really long time. It used to be possible to earn enough to afford to put yourself through college. This is no longer the case, because the minimum wage is in much of the country not enough to live on.
Examine this statement!
Doesn't it fit my thesis that the mini wage is at fault for the situation as it is?
It could be worse, the increases in the mini wage could have happened more frequently.
They could even be made automatic. This would be a nightmare.
What do you know about steam engines?
Ever seen the "governor"?
The governor is a device that gives negative feedback to control the speed of the machine, when it is too fast the governor throttles it back, when it is too slow the governor opens the steam valve to speed it up ;negative feedback.
Imagine a steam engine that was fitted with a positive feedback governor. You might do this because your engine loved to get plenty of steam. This would be a short lived and useless steam engine wouldn't it?
Economic systems of positive feedback are pretty common in history , because they look good at first blush, but most of them do not last long.
Check out the Israeli experience with increasing wages and contract payments to match the rate of inflation, to correct for inflation month to month.
.......and over 400 pen-cent during 1984.’ ....
.................the frequency of payment of the cost of Living Allowance on wages increased from every six months in the mid—i 970s to
even’ month by the end of 1984........
........., the rate of indexation for wages increased
from 70 percent in the mid — 1970s to 80—90 percent in the 1980s at the same time the rate of indexation
of tax brackets increased from 70 to 100%........
......................Price-setters decide how often to change prices
by comparing two kinds of costs associated with such
changes: (a) the cost of changing the price, including
possible reactions of customers, competitor’s and the
general public (or the authorities)’, and (b) the loss
associated with not adjusting the existing price in
view of changing market conditions, The price will be
changed when the latter outweighs the former................
Lots more good stuff in that article
https://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/86/05/Adjusting_May1986.pdf I think the data set produced by Israeli attempts to cure inflation by inflating represents one of the best experiments of its type ever done.
We are trying to do the same thing , but there are enough of us who understand negative feedback to throw a drogue out and slow the spiral.
I hope.