It looks like it's pessimism week - if only there was a good counter-argument. On voters, this from Thomas Sowell:
"If you want to fulfill your duty as a citizen, then you need to become an informed voter. And if you are not informed, then the most patriotic thing you can do on election day is stay home. Otherwise your vote, based on whims or emotions, is playing Russian roulette with the fate of this nation."
The same man on politicians:
"No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems—of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two."
And more famously: “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”
Absolutely correct - I wrote a report for Michael Forsythe in 1991-2 which helped lead to the ending of the Wages Councils system in 1993, so we did not have minimum wages until Labour was elected in 1998 - Stan Siebert
To refuse to acknowledge trade-offs when the consequences of an action happen so rapidly and substantially, and exactly as predicted, is obtuse indeed.
Keep preaching the gospel! The prophet in the wilderness will eventually be heard.
Viewed from an economics perspective, the Employee Rights legislation is turning a variable cost to employers into a fixed cost, and the minimum wage legislation is increasing the latter.
I suppose the true believer of this pathway doesn't care because in his/her mind it is paralleled by increasing public sector recruitment (and a flourishing money tree); track also the public payroll.
High, fair pay should be the aspiration of Nations such as the UK across the age divide. It was a good move from the just departed government to give better rights to employees. Unfortunately, this is happening when the country isn't growing, so should be tightening its belt, as opposed to making it less likely that companies won't hire.
Under such new rules for minimum wages, young people suffer the most and the fastest. Luckily, with the avent of AI in which the UK is a major player on the global stage and a European leader, young people will be able to find niches to insert themselves in which should be sources of good income, until growth returns and therefore at that point, paying them higher wages isn't too much of a constraint on companies budgets.
An area which recruits intensely or at least did in recent years, has been health and social care. With the ageing of the population, young outgoing talkative people could be given companionship contracts to either talk via video to vulnerable people who can handle this technology or face to face. This would improve the well being of many vulnerable and or frail, old individuals who would in some cases pass on to them many anecdotes of times passed, and who the youth would enlighten about present day societies. This needn't pay a lot, but the extra income and life/work experience could come in handy.
It appears to me that many in this current generation will have to have multiple gigs coming to create a good income. I recently watched a video highlighting how young people should get into farming, it was about France. Governments could also back such schemes helping young people to venture in this field and supporting food security. Many graduates or students in other parts of the World are part time farmers who supplement their income in this manner. So, you could have a young person who is at the same time working on an AI scheme addressing societal issues or making money from AI generated websites etc, while being a farmer who makes an income from produce sale and is fed so doesn't need to buy food and gets a few more quids from remotely or physically supporting an elderly or vulnerable person with companionship, and who knows might find a life calling this way for becoming a nurse, a healthcare assistant which has a high demand for staff.
Meanwhile, at weekends, they could still be preparing for this masters or PHD in finance or any subject of their liking, with a view of temporarily migrating somewhere for high paid jobs or lecturing at Universities. There would always be enough young people to take over in the farms or with the companionship. There is every hope that in the new geopolitical World Order being shaped, the UK will have secured a path back to good growth in a few years, meaning less people especially yound ones needing welfare payments. This would also help ease the burden of the staggering debt we face as a Nation.
It is totally in line with what this blog advocates to denounce the latest employment regulations and hikes in minimum and living wages. This argument helps to either go in the other direction like I am doing, while acknowledging that the timing is/was wrong or for some to go in the opposite direction and ask for total deregulation of the job market. The truth that some who may never have faced zero hours employment and other schemes may not grasp, is that they make Human beings feel insecure, unable to plan a life. They cannot be a good solution, only a very temporary one for employers to study those they recruit before giving them secure, loyalty inducing in principle jobs and careers.
I enjoyed reading this article a lot. Good Monday morning motivation for staying positive as despair and doom won't save the Nation. Facing the difficulties head on is necessary though. The UK at it again, wracking its brains to get itself out of a pickle before it turns into a severe crisis. Had many other places felt the same alarm at the rise of youth unemployment in its infancy, they wouldn't have had entire generations of young people needing to migrate en masse and be uprooted from their local communities. I applaud the government for admitting that this is an issue, even if this platform probably won't agree with their solutions.
Excellent article pointing out the trade offs and reminding us all that the road to hell can be paved with superficially good intentions.
It looks like it's pessimism week - if only there was a good counter-argument. On voters, this from Thomas Sowell:
"If you want to fulfill your duty as a citizen, then you need to become an informed voter. And if you are not informed, then the most patriotic thing you can do on election day is stay home. Otherwise your vote, based on whims or emotions, is playing Russian roulette with the fate of this nation."
The same man on politicians:
"No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems—of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two."
And more famously: “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”
Absolutely correct - I wrote a report for Michael Forsythe in 1991-2 which helped lead to the ending of the Wages Councils system in 1993, so we did not have minimum wages until Labour was elected in 1998 - Stan Siebert
To refuse to acknowledge trade-offs when the consequences of an action happen so rapidly and substantially, and exactly as predicted, is obtuse indeed.
Keep preaching the gospel! The prophet in the wilderness will eventually be heard.
Very good.
Viewed from an economics perspective, the Employee Rights legislation is turning a variable cost to employers into a fixed cost, and the minimum wage legislation is increasing the latter.
I suppose the true believer of this pathway doesn't care because in his/her mind it is paralleled by increasing public sector recruitment (and a flourishing money tree); track also the public payroll.
High, fair pay should be the aspiration of Nations such as the UK across the age divide. It was a good move from the just departed government to give better rights to employees. Unfortunately, this is happening when the country isn't growing, so should be tightening its belt, as opposed to making it less likely that companies won't hire.
Under such new rules for minimum wages, young people suffer the most and the fastest. Luckily, with the avent of AI in which the UK is a major player on the global stage and a European leader, young people will be able to find niches to insert themselves in which should be sources of good income, until growth returns and therefore at that point, paying them higher wages isn't too much of a constraint on companies budgets.
An area which recruits intensely or at least did in recent years, has been health and social care. With the ageing of the population, young outgoing talkative people could be given companionship contracts to either talk via video to vulnerable people who can handle this technology or face to face. This would improve the well being of many vulnerable and or frail, old individuals who would in some cases pass on to them many anecdotes of times passed, and who the youth would enlighten about present day societies. This needn't pay a lot, but the extra income and life/work experience could come in handy.
It appears to me that many in this current generation will have to have multiple gigs coming to create a good income. I recently watched a video highlighting how young people should get into farming, it was about France. Governments could also back such schemes helping young people to venture in this field and supporting food security. Many graduates or students in other parts of the World are part time farmers who supplement their income in this manner. So, you could have a young person who is at the same time working on an AI scheme addressing societal issues or making money from AI generated websites etc, while being a farmer who makes an income from produce sale and is fed so doesn't need to buy food and gets a few more quids from remotely or physically supporting an elderly or vulnerable person with companionship, and who knows might find a life calling this way for becoming a nurse, a healthcare assistant which has a high demand for staff.
Meanwhile, at weekends, they could still be preparing for this masters or PHD in finance or any subject of their liking, with a view of temporarily migrating somewhere for high paid jobs or lecturing at Universities. There would always be enough young people to take over in the farms or with the companionship. There is every hope that in the new geopolitical World Order being shaped, the UK will have secured a path back to good growth in a few years, meaning less people especially yound ones needing welfare payments. This would also help ease the burden of the staggering debt we face as a Nation.
It is totally in line with what this blog advocates to denounce the latest employment regulations and hikes in minimum and living wages. This argument helps to either go in the other direction like I am doing, while acknowledging that the timing is/was wrong or for some to go in the opposite direction and ask for total deregulation of the job market. The truth that some who may never have faced zero hours employment and other schemes may not grasp, is that they make Human beings feel insecure, unable to plan a life. They cannot be a good solution, only a very temporary one for employers to study those they recruit before giving them secure, loyalty inducing in principle jobs and careers.
I enjoyed reading this article a lot. Good Monday morning motivation for staying positive as despair and doom won't save the Nation. Facing the difficulties head on is necessary though. The UK at it again, wracking its brains to get itself out of a pickle before it turns into a severe crisis. Had many other places felt the same alarm at the rise of youth unemployment in its infancy, they wouldn't have had entire generations of young people needing to migrate en masse and be uprooted from their local communities. I applaud the government for admitting that this is an issue, even if this platform probably won't agree with their solutions.
.