Low skilled workers: Go to Hell!

Libertarianz Party leader Dr. Richard McGrath has visited here before … and, judging by the title of yesterday’s press release, I think he must have been reading my series of posts on Hell.

National Party Throws Low Skilled Workers into the Furnace

Monday, 2 April 2012
Press Release: Libertarianz Party
National Party Throws Low Skilled Workers into the Furnace

Libertarianz leader Richard McGrath described the government’s decision to raise the minimum wage as short-sighted command-and-control interference in the economy, and predicted it will cost jobs.

“Raising the minimum wage to $13.50 an hour means anyone whose productivity falls below that level is now even more likely to be laid off,” he said.

“Clearly, Kate Wilkinson would rather have unemployed 16 and 17 year olds sitting at home on their Playstations earning $3.82 an hour on the dole, than earning $10 an hour in training or $13 an hour in a job.”

“This speaks volumes about the priorities and the economic literacy of this government. Like the Labour one before them, they believe it acceptable to consign unskilled kids to the scrap heap by pricing them off the job market, as long as it looks good.”

“If Kate Wilkinson thinks repeated upward adjustments of the minimum wage are just and viable, why doesn’t she lift it to $100 an hour?”

“The Libertarianz Party is the only political party in this country that would help low skilled school leavers and others into work by abolishing the minimum wage, thus allowing a fluctuating jobs market to determine the price of labour.”

“This would create a more transparent relationship between the skill level required for different occupations, the relative overall value of these jobs, and the supply of people willing and able to be employed in them.”

“Without the minimum wage distorting the job market, it is likely that anyone truly willing to work would be able to find a job commensurate with their talents and abilities.”

“Minimum wage laws cause false signals to be generated about the worth of various occupations, which is cruel and misleading for low skilled people who wish to work. My party is saddened to see National going down the Muldoonist road yet again.”

Libertarianz: More Freedom, Less Government

Dr Richard McGrath
Libertarianz Leader
Phone: 027 322 2907
Email: richard.mcgrath@libertarianz.org.nz

Throwing low skilled workers into the “fiery furnace” like weeds (Matthew 13:42) is exactly what National’s decision to increase the minimum wage amounts to. In effect, National is telling low skilled workers: Go to Hell!

I prefer the new-fangled “trash” to the old-fashioned “fire” metaphor. Of course, it is the National Party and their wealth-destroying poverty-trap-perpetuating minimum wage laws that should be consigned to the waste-basket of history, not the State-forsaken low skilled workers.

Thanks, Richard, for one hell of a press release!

7 thoughts on “Low skilled workers: Go to Hell!”

  1. Who gives a fuck about bludgers – whether they’re on the min wage, or on the dole, dumping ’em in the gutter is where they belong

    The problem’s not the min wage, its the Dole, DPB, Super that are the real problems! Get rid of them, and the min wage is no longer anywhere near so important problem.

  2. Tim and Richard:

    Why don’t we just have an open agreement:

    You may syndicate anything your like from The Third Watch (a link will be provided to the original post).

    In exchange, we may syndicate anything we like from here (a link will be provided to the original post).

  3. If you have a “dole,” then you have to provide enough of a difference in scale of income to justify it. Of course, the free market is competent to do this itself, but the reason the “dole” exists in the first place is because people have no faith in the market.

    Thus, we can see the emergence of a vicious cycle:

    Introduce the dole -> create a minimum wage to justify an assymetrical scale -> raises cost of living, as goods and services become more expensive -> raise the dole in adjustment to the higher standard of living -> raise minimum wage accordingly -> etc.

    The end result of this cycle, of course, is inflation, since more and more currency has to be pumped into the economy, while real values remain constant. This, in turn, destroys private savings, which, predictably, makes the citizenry far more dependent on other government programs — especially government retirement programs.


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