Does Minimum Wage Increase Help Or Hurt The Appraisal Business?

[ucbruin]

Higher wages makes mechanization more practical. Why are cars made with robots now? The Unions negotiated themselves out of a job. I found that out 50 years ago bucking hay bales for 12 cents a bale in a 4 man crew. So my buddy and I bought a hay loader. $300. And went to a 3 man crew. Not only did we save paying the 4th guy, but we were actually faster. Late in the season we even laid off #3 and went to just me and him... Five years later round bales came into being and our job pretty much went kaput.


That doesn't work when there are no jobs. Or, you get into a huge wage/price spiral. Or, you embrace socialism like Venezuela where people are literally starving and we are sending food aid which their leader claims isn't needed. And socialist Bernie is tweeting because Walmart makes money. Venezuela certainly has an equality of outcome. Everyone starves (in what was once the richest nation in SA) except the elite.

I don't really get your hay bales business example....
Back in the day was 0.12/bale a high price?
And the fact that your 2 man business couldn't complete with round bales seems to support my opinion that it wasn't a viable business in the 1st place...

 

[J Grant]

Higher wages makes mechanization more practical. Why are cars made with robots now? The Unions negotiated themselves out of a job. I found that out 50 years ago bucking hay bales for 12 cents a bale in a 4 man crew. So my buddy and I bought a hay loader. $300. And went to a 3 man crew. Not only did we save paying the 4th guy, but we were actually faster. Late in the season we even laid off #3 and went to just me and him... Five years later round bales came into being and our job pretty much went kaput.


That doesn't work when there are no jobs. Or, you get into a huge wage/price spiral. Or, you embrace socialism like Venezuela where people are literally starving and we are sending food aid which their leader claims isn't needed. And socialist Bernie is tweeting because Walmart makes money. Venezuela certainly has an equality of outcome. Everyone starves (in what was once the richest nation in SA) except the elite.

Indeed unions are at fault, but it is also a fact that robotics did not exist before as an alternative and now they do.

Nobody here is lauding Venezuela or pure socialism. What seems to work well are democratic society where capitalism is run with a sense of ethics and voted in benefits for workers, not all benefits acrue to the owners ( Australia, Denmark, Finland).

Our USA is successful on many levels but we have enormous social issues which are attributed to something...what? Your ideas of what or how to solve it might differ than mine but hard to ignore that nearly ever city and now small towns and rural areas have a ravaged area worthy of a war town nation, we have the high addiction and mental illness rate the nighest incarceration rate in the world etc. That did not come about in a vacuum .

 

[The Warrior Monk]

That applies to CALIFORNIA with super high home prices.

That's because of high demand. Give people more money and demand will increase at the price level, thus raises prices. And then we're right back to square one.

Starter, small but nice SFR homes here can still be found for 125k-150k.

What do you think doubling the number of buyers would do to that market segment?

 

[George Hatch]

JGrant

I'm curious if price was a consideration when you bought your car or your computer or the food you eat or the clothes you wear? did you weigh your different options by comparing the alternatives? Or did you make all those choices based on how you feel and how much compassion you have for the labor who produced those goods and services and to the level of personal virtue to which you aspire?

You giving me charity is an act of virtue on your part. You forcing David W or MichCG to give to me is an act of theft on your part. No virtue involved.

 

[Michigan CG]

"In North Dakota McDonald's was paying new hires $17/hour during the oil boom. Minimum wage was around $8/hour. THAT is the market."

Someone mentioned McDonalds earlier and the price of a burger going up with the increase of minimum wage....

So at $17/hour what did a Big Mac cost in North Dakota during the oil boom?

It appears that food prices rose about 40%. The one McDonald's franchisee was paying a minimum of $11/hour.

https://www.cnbc.com/2014/06/19/boom-helps-fast-food-workers-bring-home-the-bakken.html

 

[The Warrior Monk]

We have exactly one McDonalds in the main area I work. They were paying about 50% more than the McDonalds in other areas. And guess what...higher prices than everywhere else.

 

[Michigan CG]

And the fact that your 2 man business couldn't complete with round bales seems to support my opinion that it wasn't a viable business in the 1st place...

The round baler was a new invention 50 years ago. When he started his square bale business he wasn't competing with round bales.

 

[J Grant]

JGrant

I'm curious if price was a consideration when you bought your car or your computer or the food you eat or the clothes you wear? did you weigh your different options by comparing the alternatives? Or did you make all those choices based on how you feel, how much compassion you have for the labor who produced those goods and services?

To be truthful I don;t research what people are paid before I buy. But I try to avoid companies that import and sell overseas crap and I avoid fast food for many reasons the low pay among them, along with crappy food and animals kept in CAIRO to make sthe stupid hamburgers . I try to buy organic food or locally grown for many reasons and would rather buy fewer things clothes etc that are well made and buy made in USA when can, but not always I do not make every decision that way, just a number of them. ( and vote as we all do what we believe is best).

I can not afford top price products most times but spend mid price, I do avoid low price as often it si junk or made in China or bad food etc...but if I avoided everything made in China that would be a full time job since most products have a combination of components from all over

Many people are trying to buy with informed choices, not just on price, but trying not to buy products that are made using animals kept in CAIFO /not eating meat at all , buying local food or organic, trying to avoid products that are killing the environment (made with Palm Oil for example)

 

[ucbruin]

It appears that food prices rose about 40%. The one McDonald's franchisee was paying a minimum of $11/hour.

https://www.cnbc.com/2014/06/19/boom-helps-fast-food-workers-bring-home-the-bakken.html

$17/hour not mentioned but I get your point....

"A lot of McDonald's in the nation have a dollar menu," Kelley said. "Well, our dollar menu is $1.39.""

I'm not pooh-poohing 39%....
But I don't think $1.00 rising to $1.39 to cover the hourly wage doubling is that prohibitive....
Do you agree?

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

So at $17/hour what did a Big Mac cost in North Dakota during the oil boom?

Funny you should ask. One of my oil buddies was there once. McD closed the dining room and had three lanes. Breakfast cost $10+ each for him and his son. That evening the found an Applebys and waited over an hour to be seated...about $30 each.