Why We Don't Need a Minimum Wage

There is plenty of talk these days about raising the minimum wage from its current level, $5.75-per-hour for most workers, by a large increment.  President Obama proposes that $10.10-per-hour for federal contract workers is a fair wage, and some would like it to be even higher than that.

I am opposed to any increase of more that a quarter to possibly fifty cents per hour, and I truly don't see a need for it at all right now.  For one reason, I offer that the states have their own minimum wage levels and several are already above the federal minimum.  And for a second, the market always controls wages, and that includes minimum, or as it is truly termed, starting wages. 

Let's face it, nobody who works for an hourly wage stays at minimum wage beyond the first few months of employment.  If they don't get a raise within ninety days, they are most likely to get fired for poor performance instead.  Minimum wage was never intended to be what the politicians term "a living wage."  It is mostly the wage given to teens who are starting a fast-food job or some other part-time or non-skilled job.  And even that is rarely the case, because wages are market-driven, and competitive, so most employers have to offer more than the minimum to get help.

Now, there is one category of help that doesn't get minimum wage; people who work mainly for gratuities.  That includes hotel/motel maids and bellhops, valets at hotels, restaurants and any clubs or associations that offer valet parking, wait staff at restaurants that offer table service and redcaps/skycaps who check bags at the curb.  Those people are paid $2.13-per-hour, and that wage hasn't changed in decades.  I know, because I worked as a skycap for six years after I retired from my airline job.  That was back in the 90s, and I know for a fact that skycaps who worked for my airline while I was employed there between 1966 and 1995 were paid the same $2.13 during that entire period.

If you've never worked at a job where you depend on tips for most of your income, you probably think that $2.13-per-hour is criminal.  After all, a lot of people are too cheap to tip, and some just don't know when and where tipping is appropriate.  Even when you can somewhat count on tips, how much can you make that way?

Let me recount my experience as a skycap.  I worked on weekends only, so my hours were usually around 12-16 in a week.  Even with a ratio of 1-in-3 people giving tips for service and at an average of $1-per-bag, I rarely came home with less than $150. So for two days of work, I was pulling down $18.75-per-hour exclusive of that $2.13 hourly wage.  It was very sufficient to live on.  Had I worked full-time, I could have been making as much as $800-per-week.

I can't tell you that others in restaurants, hotels and such make those kind of tips, but they certainly make "a living wage" without government help.  I, for one, am very generous with my tips, so I like to feel that I contribute to the good service you get as well.

Now, what is the real reason that politicians (or should I reference the Democrats instead) want higher minimum wages?  It is mainly due to the influence of unions, who hold a huge lobby in Washington.  Whenever the minimum wage is raised, it gives the unions the opportunity to use that wage as a basis for raising union wages in contract talks with management.  And I doubt that the unions request their increases in terms of nickels and dimes.  The union bosses demand $$$, and then take back some of that in union dues from each worker.  It is well known that unions contribute heavily to Democrats and the Democrat Party, as well. 

So I say, "minimum-schminimum!"  Pay the workers what they're worth, and market conditions will dictate that much better than some politico sitting on his or her fanny in a plush office looking for campaign money and votes.

New Word/Term

 I have a new word that is perfect for use in conversations between opposing sides in the abortion debate. It is not politically charged like the terms “pro-choice,” “pro-life” and “pro-abortion.”  If you think about it, “pro-choice” really can be taken as either “pro-life” or “pro-abortion” anyway; it doesn’t define your true opinion very well.

Okay, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer.  The word is “prolific.”

pro·lif·ic   /prəˈlifik/  adj.

1. (of a plant, or animal, or person) Producing much fruit or foliage or many offspring.

2. (of an artist, author, or composer) Producing many works.

Synonyms: fertile; fruitful; fecund; productive; rich

The appropriate definition is the first one, since it does refer to a lot of fruit or foliage or, in this case, kids.  The person who claims to be “prolific” is stating that he or she likes many kids, which has to mean they like pregnancy carried to term.

The coolness of the word is that it is sure to confuse the opposition.  The pro-abortion guy or gal won’t really know just what the heck the user really advocates, and therefore will have to listen on to try to determine the mindset and formulate a response.  There will actually be a debate instead of a lot of name-calling.

Now isn’t that an improvement?

Nesting in Iowa

I don't know how many of you followed the Decorah Eagles this year.  I did for a while, but then it got kind of boring to sit and watch nothing happen for minutes and sometimes hours at a time.  I eventually lost interest completely and didn't return.

In case you don't know to what I'm referring, the Decorah Eagles are a pair of bald eagles who have nested for several years in or near the town of Decorah, Iowa, and they had a trio of babies this spring.  There is a webcam set up over the nest to track the eagles 24/7 (not 365, because they do migrate as do all birds.)

You could tune in to the webcam whenever you wanted to and watch the goings on.  In fact, according to Wikipedia, it became one of the most-visited live-stream websites in history. but more on that later...

One of my good friends who stayed with the eagle watch informed me recently that, of the three eaglets, one died when it flew into a power line and was electrocuted, another was apparently mauled by some larger predator and suffered a broken wing and loss of tail feathers, and the third is doing well.  The injured one is being cared for at a rescue center and will probably be returned to the wild soon.

Isn't it prophetic that there were three infants and only two survived infancy, while one of those two was injured and might not have a full life after all.  That is Darwinism at its most basic level, and mirrors life for most species.  Man is the only creature on God's Earth that intervenes and/or interferes with natural selection by salvaging the defective ones. But that is a topic for another column.

While I was researching the material for this column, I ran across the original Wikipedia source for the Decorah Eagles, and I learned a lot of interesting, if unverified, facts.  For one, the original webcam was set up by Raptor Resource Project in 2007 and was used by PBS for a documentary on eagles in 2008.  For another, the 2013 season was missed due to the eagles moving their nest to a new location, which wasn't found and re-equipped with the webcam in time.  I've linked the Wikipedia webpage above so that you can read all you want from it at your leisure.

"And now..." as the late and great commentator, Paul Harvey, coined the phrase, "...you know the rest of the story."

Rules for Lazy Investors

I  could have titled this column "How to become a millionaire" and it wouldn't have been overstated, but many of you would have probably tuned out and just deleted it without even reading the message.  Smart people see that come-on as either a false promise or an outright scam.

Let me clear the air right up front... I cannot promise anyone that they will enjoy great wealth if they read this column and follow the instructions. In fact, I can tell you that I never have been, nor do I expect in the future to be, a millionaire.  However, had I known and practiced what I'm going to tell you shortly from the time I turned 18 and started my working life, I probably would have achieved that goal. 

This is no scam and you won't have to pay me anything; the advice is absolutely FREE. If you follow it, I can almost guarantee that you will, like me, never outlive your savings and have the freedom to keep crossing items off your bucket list.

Rule One: Start early

Begin saving something out of each paycheck from day one.  The amount is up to you, but try to make it at least 5%, five cents of every dollar you get.  Where you put that is also up to you, but try to make it grow both by your contributions and with some kind of internal interest or dividend.

Rule Two:  Live within your means

Limit your purchases to what you can afford to pay for in cash and to what you actually need, not what you want.  The only exceptions to this rule are the purchase of a home, furniture, and a car, but even they should be limited to needs instead of wants.  In other words, don't buy a steak when chicken will fill you up just as nicely.

Rule Three: Trust the power of compounding

Although bank accounts and  bank CDs are currently horrible ways to save, there are alternatives that can pay enough to make your savings grow.  Most have risk involved, but there are ways to minimize risk while maximizing gain.  The best I've found are the no-load index funds of some of the largest and well-known investment companies. No- load because none of the original money you put in is taken as a commission, and index fund because it tracks and invests in all the companies in a particular stock or bond index.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index is one you may know of, and it has stocks of 500 companies in it, so the risk of some companies performing poorly is compensated for by the other companies doing well.  The risk is lowered by that measure, and the index almost always tracks upward.

I don't know that Albert Einstein said it, but the quote I use is, "there is no greater power than that of compound interest!"  An 18-year-old can put $300 a month into an IRA and with the power of compound interest at 10-percent can retire a millionaire.  However, if he or she starts at age 40, the amount necessary becomes over $1000 a month to get to that same amount.  And most of that million dollars comes from compound interest, as the 18-year old would only save $96,000, while the 40-year-old would have to put away $300,000.  That brings us back to rule one - start early.

Rule Four:  Take every withholding allowance on your W-4

This rule will show how to "find" that extra money for retirement to put into your savings, and for that reason, it is maybe the best rule of all.

The average tax refund for American taxpayers is about $3,000.  That means that after we either self-prepare or pay a tax consultant to figure our income tax due by April 15th, most of us receive a check or direct deposit of around $3,000.  It further means that most of us have overpaid our taxes by that amount, thereby giving our federal government an interest-free loan every single pay period.  What a horrible way to save!

If you are one of those who gets a tax refund every year - and many spend it immediately on non-essentials - here is where your money for retirement savings can be found.  It is very easy to request a W-4 at work, or you can even download one from the IRS Website. It will take you less than an hour to fill it out, taking every allowance you are entitled to, and turn it in to your payroll department or your boss.

Most businesses have a payroll provision to deduct a set amount or percentage from each paycheck to invest in the company 401(k). If yours doesn't have a 401(k) or some other tax-deferred savings plan, you can set up your own plan with an investment firm or even a bank.  Just make sure you don't get access to it without some effort on your part.  You'll be surprised at how easy it is to save, but don't expect huge returns at first.  This brings us to the next rule.

Rule five: Be patient and don't expect miracles

One of the pitfalls of investing in general and compound interest in particular is that the growth of funds takes time, and the rapid growth and large gains only come in the latter stages after the fund has gotten sizeable.  Too often, people lose their patience and decide that they need to do something different with the money.  That is almost always wrong.

The absolute best way to make it to your goal is to buy and hold.  Using the index funds I mentioned earlier, a manager or a group of managers does the buying for you and you just have to wait for the returns.  Managers are not day-traders and they don't take on a lot of risk, instead spreading out your money over many investments for good returns and leaving it to grow.  Even in downturns in the markets, most index funds suffer least and recover the fastest.

Regarding the power of compounding, if you have $100 in your account and it gains a 10% rate of interest, it will grow by about $10 in a year, and by $11 the following year. Once you get a larger amount, say $100,000, it will now grow by about $10,000 in a year, and $11,000 the following year.  In two years it will have grown by 21% to $121.000, even though the interest rate stayed at only 10%.  If you are adding to the fund at the same time, those amounts are even higher.  And if the interest is paid monthly instead of yearly,  it will be more than $121,000.  That is the power of compounding at work.

Here is a short example of patience and compounding paying off and it is my own experience, so I can vouch for it.  I started withdrawing from my IRA ten years ago to supplement my retirement and Social Security income.  Even so, my IRA fund has not only stayed even, it has actually grown over those ten years.  I now have more in the fund than I did when I started withdrawing a substantial monthly amount from it.  I don't think I will outlive my savings, even if I were to live to age 100.

There you have it.  There are only five simple rules to follow, but each one is as important as every other one.  Like I said, I cannot guarantee that you will become a millionaire (I didn't), but I can assure you that you can have a very comfortable and rewarding retirement and if you don't live all the way to retirement, you can at least leave a pretty good nest egg to your heirs.

Random Thoughts

Why do pill manufacturers still make round pills? 

I take a combination of prescription and non-prescription medicines that adds up to seventeen pills per day.  When I sort out morning, afternoon and evening doses from my pill container, it is inevitable that there will be at least one pill that bounces on the table and then rolls off onto the floor.  And that pill will always be the little round one that is hardest to spot and usually seeks its refuge under a piece of furniture, stove or refrigerator.

Since our federal government is so fond of making rules and regulations, why can't they mandate that all pills be made in some ovoid shape, or like one of my really expensive ones, in a whirligig shape?  Those pills never make it to the floor but bounce once and stay put.

Who ever thought up the expression, "come to"?

When you wake up every morning your brain changes from a state of unconsciousness to  some form of alertness, so what is different about that same transition when someone or something knocks you out and you wake up from it?  If you "wake up" from sleep, why then do you "come to" from induced sleep?  And just what is it that you "come to" to?

What earns the high-calorie/high-fat food we buy the term "fast food"?

There is nothing fast about waiting in a line at Mickey-D's or Wendy's (or substitute your own favorite) for five minutes to order your "fast food."  And even without the line it sometimes takes that long to get your order.  Or try ordering your fast food and getting some sandwich, pizza or burrito that was assembled two hours ago and sat waiting for someone to order it.

If you want really fast food, eat a piece of fruit or a ready-to-eat vegetable, and you'll get way less calories and fat while improving your nutrition.  Let's label our current fast food for what it really is - FAT FOOD - and give the real fast food its due credit.

Where did the 'd' in the word fridge come from?

Fridge is an abbreviation for refrigerator, which has no letter 'd' in it.  So why isn't the abbreviation spelled f-r-i-g-e?

When was that never-changing 86-14 poll taken?

Every time I see something in my email Inbox with reference to "under God" being kept in the Pledge of Allegiance, no matter who sponsors it, a poll is cited that 86-percent of Americans want it kept in, and 14-percent want it taken out.  If we're really in such poor straits with God, why don't those percentages ever change?  86-percent is pretty high, by the way, so there's not much chance that "under god" will ever be taken out.

What is That Word - Addendum

In June I wrote a column about two words, misconception and misperception.  As often happens, I received more responses to that column than to many others that I considered more important and better written.  In fact, the responses inspired me to write a follow-up column to reveal the responses because they were so clever.

First, I received a short email that only contained four words in response to the column:

"Maybe it's a misinterpretation."  I like that one for its brevity and wit.

Next I got a link to another blog that covered the exact same two words, only this one was written over two years before mine.  I swear on a stack of Bibles that I never saw that other column until that day.  Here is what that email response concluded:

Cogitate on this-----perhaps this link relevant to today's lesson in lexicography will shed some light.

A misconception can be the logical conclusion to a mis-perception (not a word in my mind). Or--a missed way of 'conceiving (mental process) can be the result of and incorrect perception (something originating with the senses).

However, a mis-perception may or may not follow a misconception.  One may be
correct in their assumption, but then again, they may not be correct. 

Now that one was a little deeper, and I think you would like to click on the link to read how similar those two columns were.

Finally, one of my readers sent this response to my column:

A misconception can also result from a birth control device or poor timing or whatever.   Perhaps our AHC debacle is a misconception.   
Misperception....    well, perhaps I simply don't understand AHC.   Or is it like the blind men and the elephant??

This last one got politics into the mix, but the last question is relevant, because it introduced me to that Indian parable, one I had never read or heard before. In case you have also never read it, here it is:

Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today."
They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, "Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway." All of them went where the elephant was. Everyone of them touched the elephant.

"Hey, the elephant is a pillar," said the first man who touched his leg.
"Oh, no! it is like a rope," said the second man who touched the tail.
"Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree," said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant.
"It is like a big hand fan" said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant.
"It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant.
"It is like a solid pipe," Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.
They began to argue about the elephant and everyone of them insisted that he was right. It looked like they were getting agitated. A wise man was passing by and he saw this. He stopped and asked them, "What is the matter?" They said, "We cannot agree to what the elephant is like." Each one of them told what he thought the elephant was like. The wise man calmly explained to them, "All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features what you all said."
"Oh!" everyone said. There was no more fight. They felt happy that they were all right.

The moral of the story is that there may be some truth to what someone says. Sometimes we can see that truth and sometimes not because they may have different perspective which we may not agree to. So, rather than arguing like the blind men, we should say, "Maybe you have your reasons." This way we don’t get into arguments.
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What more can I add?  We all perceive things differently, but just because we cannot agree on everything , it doesn't mean that anyone's perception is more correct than any other person's.  So misconception and misperception are both wrongly used. Both the conception and the perception are relative terms, and neither can truly be "missed."

Cleaning the Crevices

A friend and email buddy wrote recently about her experience and revelation in a local park where she lives.  It was one of those "Aha!" moments, so she sent me an email with the suggestion that maybe I could use it in a poem or a column.

Here is what sparked her mental and spiritual processes, told in her own words, on which I cannot improve:

Yesterday I was at a local park with a pond which attracts ducks/geese.  

While walking around I noticed there w(ere) “duck droppings”  Yikes!  

I don’t want to track any to my car so I tried stepping around it.  

When I went to the gazebo to sit down I saw a plastic knife, like

someone knew I would need it to clean my shoes.  My friend Dianne,

came up and sat down.  We discussed the duck mess.  I told her I

used the knife to clean the crevices of my sole “soul."

That last word just popped into her head as she spoke the homonym, and it occurred to her that there was an analogy in the expression.  That is, sometimes it is necessary to "clean the crevices of your soul" of the nasty detritus that can build up over time in much the same fashion as you would clean the soles of your shoes. 

Cleaning the crevices of your soul isn't quite the same, however.  You cannot use a physical object like a knife to scrape out the filth.  Instead, you must use a metaphysical object, such as meditation, or prayer, or confession.  You must reach inside yourself and cleanse the impurities. 

It is possible for some people to perform the self-cleansing through rituals of concentration, but for most of us there is a need for outside help; that is where prayer comes into play.  Whether or not you believe strongly in a higher power or supreme being, there is always that hope that someone or something is overseeing and guiding us, and that there is forgiveness when we do wrong.

I believe that Catholics have a unique means for "cleaning the crevices of their souls" - the Confessional, where the priest acts as intermediary between the supplicant and God. 

I never studied religion, so I don't know whether or not any other religion has that means of  cleansing, or forgiveness of sins.  We Protestants sometimes joke that Catholics have it easy; they can sin all week and then get absolution on Saturday by going to Confession.

I make no secret of the fact that I am not a devout believer, and I certainly don't practice any form of organized religion. Yet I am convinced that we all have a (hole? crevice?) in our soul where sin resides that begs forgiveness and redemption.  And none of us is so perfect that we cannot use a good cleaning of the crevices from time to time.  A good cleaning might prevent it from becoming a crevasse, too.

Now, as to that poem...