Disturbing thoughts

My husband's co-worker is a far right conservative/libertarian/free market economy supporter. They were talking/arguing the other day and he said that he'd like to get rid of minimum wage.

I know the man can't make more than $11.00/hr just based on his position and the pay at which it caps out. I am completely and utterly baffled at how he comes up with arguments supporting the 1% ers time and time again. It is so alien that I can only imagine that he is a reincarnated Rockefeller or Morgan or even maybe a Kennedy (although far too right wing and selfish in his beliefs for a Kennedy).

My husband and I were discussing the aftershocks and ripples of abolishing a minimum wage and I am shocked and disturbed at what something like that would mean.

First, a lot of people making minimum wage - which is typically not LIVING wage, mind you - would find themselves making far less. Our guess was around $4.00/hr but that could be off in either direction. I tend to think that once the corporations really got going they would drop it that low - people who are desperate will do anything, and consider what illegal aliens make. Not that I've done the research, but I tend to think it's lower than minimum wage or they would hire legal citizens. That puts it at lower than $5.50some and that's not far from the estimate. Anyway....

While many other positions are not directly related to minimum wage, I think they are arrived upon by way of minimum wage. For instance, the data entry position at my husband's employer starts at $8.00/hr. That says the company believes it requires more skill than minimum wage but only x% more. So, if the minimum wage is lowered and the company isn't doing well, they can lower salaries. No matter what happens, there will be another starving body willing to work for $6.00/hr.

When salaries go down, though, that doesn't mean costs will necessarily follow. Mortgages are still set at the 30 year interest rate and re-payment schedule and the bank doesn't really care that the house is now worth significantly less. That leaves millions homeless. Not long ago, just 150 years ago in the States, we used to build houses from the available materials, such as clay, sand, water, and straw. Sometimes this is carved in a hill hobbit hole-style, and sometimes it is formed into cobs to build a cob home (similar to adobe but not the same). Except for a few select groups, this is a lost art. Unfortunately this means something like Flint, Michigan - people will be kicked out of their homes and forced to live on the street or beg for shelter that isn't available due to the high demand. Or, they may turn squatter.

Without cash flow electricity is also out. Most people don't know how to cope without electricity because so much of what we do is based on it. Some people couldn't even cook because their range is electric - provided of course they can keep the houses.

Most people can't make soap, clothing, tools, or even food because we haven't had to do it in such a long time. Households used to make their own soap, bread, and candles - not so much in modern America. Sure, I can probably use a melter I bought at Hobby Lobby and melt some wax from a 5 pound package and pour it in a form I bought from Hobby Lobby and then insert a wick from Hobby Lobby...but that's not really making candles, is it? That's not harvesting the wax or fat to make tallow. In a pinch, I wouldn't know the first thing about any of that!

The same goes for farming or raising animals to slaughter. I don't know how to sow seeds or plow or planting seasons for various fruits and/or vegetables. I don't know the best soil, or how much water to use, or how to develop a healthy root system for the best yields. I don't have livestock and I don't know how to raise them. If they or I got sick, I don't know enough about herbs to make a medicine or poultice or whatever needs to be done.

The list goes on and on...and it's scary how much we DON'T know how to do. If nuclear winter set in right now and everything as I know it was destroyed I wouldn't know how to survive. I'm sure I'd learn, but what a hard lesson to learn without any training.