Originally Posted by
David88vert
Here's a couple of issues with that articel.
First, it's mainly a link to other articles that the author wanted to promote. Little was written by the author in a contributing way. The other articles should be separate talking points, so we will stick to his main arguement (pretty short). Here's a hint - he labeled it Hint, and stated it at the beginning.
"(Hint: it’s the 1 percent; this is one driver of the terrible income and wealth inequality.) "
This brings us to the second issue - his assumption that income and wealth inequality is terrible. Life is not fair, and people are not given equal portions of wealth when they are born, nor should their income growth be regulated. Specifically, the descendants of Sam Walton are singled out and attacked. Sam Walton took risks, and they paid off. he started off on a farm during the Depression and worked up to being rich. That is what this country is about.
Another issue is that the author puts forth the concept that productivity has increased solely due to workers who are paid minimum wage, and gives no report of workers who have created patents, technology, processes, that improve productivity. I can tell you from experience in the workforce that workers that improve the productivity of a company or industry do not stay at minimum wage. Thus, his promoted principle that minimum wage should be linked to productivity is ill-informed, at best.
His quote - "“If the minimum wage had risen in step with productivity growth [since 1968], it would be over $16.50 an hour today. That is higher than the hourly wages earned by 40 percent of men and half of women.” - does not address any of the productivity improvements gained through reseach and development of technology. The reason that I point this out is because the author, Dave Johnson, spent the majority of his career in IT - and not in economic policy.
"Dave Johnson is a fellow at at the Campaign for America's future, and has more than 20 years of technology industry experience including positions as CEO and VP of marketing. His earlier career included technical positions, including video game design at Atari and Imagic. And he was a pioneer in design and development of productivity and educational applications of personal computers. More recently he helped co-found a company developing desktop systems to validate carbon trading in the U.S."