If you talk about inequality in America, and if you want to read about it,ĢżThe New York TimesĀ columnist Paul Krugman andĀ are a safe bet for you. The economics Nobel laureate regularly writes about issues such as unemployment, minimum wage and social mobility ā as in one of his most recent columns,ĢżĀ Ā He also published a variety of books, including his most recent one,ĢżA few days ago, Krugman provided his followers with two presentations he gave at Princeton University ā one on, and the other onĀ .
Just recently, it seems, the Republican Party started to revise its strategy on how to help workers. In the Washington Monthlyās blog āPolitical Animal,ā Ed Kilgore posted anĀ , depicting an essential part of the Republican strategy for economic recovery. He wrote about how it took the GOP years to realize that solely focusing their efforts on ājob-creatorsā wasnāt going to pay off ā neither in electoral success, nor in economic recovery. He quoted Republican House majority leader Rep. Eric Cantor, saying that ā90 percent of Americans work for someone else.ā In an early-February briefing, Cantor was reported to have ārallied his troops on how to talk to people who donāt own their own businesses, and [those who] donāt view themselves as second-class citizens for working for somebody else.ā
How tough a job Republican leadership is facing to uniteĀ its party behind a consistent approach to nourishing the economy shows the latest statement of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal after a meeting of state governors at the White House. In its,ĢżNBCNews.comĀ paraphrased Jindalās words as follows: ā āThe Obama economy is now the minimum wage economy,ā Jindal said, accusing the president of āwaving the white flag of surrenderā on job growth.ā The column immediately follows up with a reaction of Democratic Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy, who, according toĀ NBC News, said something as little judgmental as: āThatās the most insane statement Iāve ever heard.ā
The minimum wage debate continues to rage, and will likely set the tone for the upcoming midterm campaign season. As both parties try to shape their profiles, a speedy solution is utterly unexpected. As theĀ Washington Postās Greg Sargent wrote in hisĀ , House Democrats are expected to try to force the Republican majority into a corner, filing a discharge petition to get a House vote on the minimum wage hike. Sargent attributes the information to a āDemocratic leadership aide.ā House Republicans are most likely not going to sign the petition, but could still become pressured, Sargent writes in his story headlined āDems ramp up pressure on minimum wage.ā
Meanwhile Senate Democrats have pushed off a vote on raising the minimum wage to late March or early April,Ģż, citing scheduling conflicts and obstruction from Senate Republicans as reasons. Originally, Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had wanted to hold a vote in early March.
On theĀ Forbes MagazineĀ website, staff writer John Tamny offersĀ Ā on job safety, an issue that is at the center of the minimum wage debate. First, he declares it āsureā that the mandatory pay-raise would render some unemployed as ālabor is a cost like any other.ā But just a couple of lines further into his piece, Tamny opens up: āWhere the right get it comically wrong is in their commentary about how minimum wages will force automation on companies as though this is a bad thing. No, itās something we should embrace. Counterintuitive as it may seem, economic growth is all about theĀ destruction of workĀ ā doing more with less labor inputs ā on the way to higher profits.ā