Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!harvard!godot!ima!inmet!nrh From: nrh@inmet.UUCP Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Re: White greed Message-ID: <1976@inmet.UUCP> Date: Wed, 20-Feb-85 01:36:53 EST Article-I.D.: inmet.1976 Posted: Wed Feb 20 01:36:53 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 24-Feb-85 04:28:47 EST Lines: 34 Nf-ID: #R:nybcb:-17000:inmet:7800304:000:1869 Nf-From: inmet!nrh Feb 18 21:01:00 1985 >***** inmet:net.politics / rochester!gary / 6:34 pm Feb 17, 1985 >Come on, man! Use your head. Such anecdotal information ("well, my brother >Ferd hasn't benefited...") doesn't prove anything. What michael is talking >about can be proven *statistically*: Black people are still feeling the >effects of 300 years of discrimination. Try looking at the unemployment rates >for Black teenagers sometime. This is a *societal* problem, that needs broad- >based solutions before it can be corrected. Perhaps this can be shown statistically, but not the way you seem to think. It's worth noting again: before the imposition of minimum wage laws, black and white teenage unemployment were essentially the same (I think the difference was less than half a percentage point). Unions have historically been for minimum-wage laws, in some cases (in South Africa) blatantly saying that it was to "protect the white man's job" (the quote is from memory and is approximate). For details see "The State Against Blacks" by Walter Williams. As for why unions are for minimum wage laws, the general idea is that a unionized worker can often be replaced by some number of un-unionized workers. The classic example is the union backhoe operator who can be replaced by 10 ditchdiggers. If the initial scenario is that backhoe operators (with their equipment) charge $25/hr, and 10 un-unionized men charge $2.49/hr each, the 10 men will be hired and the union worker will be unemployed. On the other hand, if minimum wage forces the 10 men to charge $3.50/hr each, then the backhoe operator can charge $34.99/hr and still compete successfully with the 10 men. Because of the counter-intuitive way in which minimum wage works, ("No Virginia, it doesn't mean you get $3.50/hr for selling matches -- it means you're fired") it tends to be a very hard thing to attack politically.