© 2013 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. The legislative mandate is government should get between the buyer and seller and tell both how the seller should be compensated. More so, they tell the buyer that the needs of the seller are paramount even if the transaction is not equally beneficial for the buyer.
The government has no place in a financial transaction where the knowledge of the trade is equal. In today’s market the trade is for goods called “productivity” and “compensation.” The trade is someone’s productivity for someone’s money. It is a simple trade since both participants get to decide if they want to trade. Both can go forward with the transaction or both can decide not to trade.
But the government says the problem with the free exercise of trade is that the person with productivity has no leverage. Not so, people with money understand the only way they get more money is by trading money for productivity which fuels commercial enterprises. Productivity is the lifeblood of enterprise. Employers are only as good as their workers.
The sticking point is when people have no productivity. What are they trading? Further, it is nonsense to think any worker is the same as any other worker. This is a “One size fits all” notion from government. If the people in the government were to be in business they would find out quickly that each potential worker has differing levels of productivity to sell to the employer for money.
But the government dictates to the buyers of productivity that all workers have the same baseline of productivity whether they actually have any productivity. We employers are told that a fresh-face novice in business with no productive skills must be compensated for productive skills they do not have. Our only other option is to not hire that person. Most of us do not hired people who do not have any productive skills.
Why would I trade money with someone who does not have something to trade? Worse, I am forced into charity work with the lifeblood of my business, my workforce. As those who know me can attest, I am quite charitable, but I cannot afford to be with my workforce. My workforce is all that is between me and being out of business. The government stops me from making a fair trade for the actual productivity of potential employees.
Now, let us look at this issue from the standpoint of the seller of productivity. When we try to get our first job it is the Catch 22 moment. Potential employees must have productive skills to get a job and can only get productive skills by having a job. If I want to work for an employer to get that first set of productive skills the most sensible trade cannot be made. I cannot discount my trade of productivity to reflect my lack of skills.
The government says that regardless of my lack of ability to trade fairly, there is a higher issue, that of how much money I need to live in this world. This is rubbish because I will not get hired by need alone, I must trade productivity for money so that me and my employer both win in a sustainable market.
Instead the government sets the terms of the trade, therefore the trade is not made for the least productive members of our society. How is it helping the least productive members of our society to be kept out of the job market by their lack of trade goods? They have nothing to trade so most are not hired. They need the job more than the money because without the job skills they cannot be hired. Why not let them make any trade they want that benefits them. The politicians say, “We are looking out for you,” while keeping them unemployed.
New bills in the legislatures of states and in Congress wish to push the Minimum Wage even higher. Why are they not pushing the productivity of potential workers instead? Then there would be something to trade. Without productivity to trade the job applicants are left out of the market.
Why do the rule makers not understand productivity problems and work to find sustainable solutions?
Dr. Michael Swickard is co-host of radio talk show News New Mexico 6 to 9 a.m. Monday - Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. Email: michael@swickard.com
