On Tue, 4 Aug 2015 13:56:36 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

On Tuesday, August 4, 2015 at 3:59:32 PM UTC-4, F. George McDuffee wrote:




Your [and my] taxes subsidize the labor costs of the below
living wage through SNAP/food stamps, section 8 housing,
Medicaid/social services, and private donations such as
community pantries/food banks, among other entitlements.
There is also the astronomical cost of sustaining the
unemployable. The consequential societal costs such as
wasted productivity, and police/court/penal costs dwarf the
sustenance costs.


--
Unka' George


You are right. Our taxes subsidize those that do not have well paying jobs. So what. The government should help those that need help.

But is it not cheaper to subsidize those that need help. Or is it cheaper to raise the minimum wage and have fewer low wage earners. And then pay all the expenses of those that have lost jobs.

Dan
======================

IMNSHO a most necessary first step is to force the total
labor costs back onto the employer's books so it will be
factored into the "register" prices such that the "free
market" can begin to again operate. [One distortion is that
employer's FICA is not collected on the value of the labor
subsidies.]

As it stands, the actual/total costs of increasing amounts
of goods and services are unknown.

Subsidized labor is only a part, albeit an apparently
important part, of the hidden subsidy system. Other [hidden]
drains on the economy are tax preferences such as capital
gains and "carried interest," non-taxed employer provided
health care benefits, residential mortgage interest
deductibility from taxable individual income, municipal bond
interest income exclusion from federal taxes, massive
commercial tax abatements and tax increment financing
schemes, Ex-Em bank guarantees, etc.

As it stands no one can calculate, or even plausibly
estimate, the actual direct revenue losses, and the
consequential losses because of the economic distortions and
mal allocation of capital, thus alternatives cannot be
rationally evaluated, however I do suggest that subsidy of
labor costs for marginal dead-end employment is most
unlikely to an optimal use of tax payer money.

One suggestion is to require the individuals "stuck" in
these jobs or "unemployable" to attend paid basic
literacy/numeracy and urban survival skill [including money
management] classes, i. e. "a hand up, not a hand out.".


--
Unka' George

"Gold is the money of kings,
silver is the money of gentlemen,
barter is the money of peasants,
but debt is the money of slaves"

-Norm Franz, "Money and Wealth in the New Millenium"