Scot Wick Blog

  Minimum Wage Increases Mandated by Government Are Lose-Lose-Lose for Workers First watch this short video: Is Raising the Minimum Wage a Bad Idea? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aCpaON5NyE … Most economists believe the demand for labor is elastic, with a relatively horizontal labor demand curve, as in Figure 1. This means a 1% increase in wages causes a more than 1% number of workers not demanded by employers … Government mandated higher minimum wage lose #1 The minimum wage increase from wage A to wage B, results in a decrease in number of minimum wage workers employed, moving from D to C. At higher minimum wage B they are largely replaced with: · higher value workers including college students, retirees, and housewives who before thought the free-market minimum wage was too low to want to get a job · increased automation, previously more expensive than the minimum wage … Lose #2 There is a decrease in total wages for those who remain employed at new higher minimum wage. With ...

  Essay: What I Believe, Albert Einstein, 1930 Strange is our situation here upon earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: MAN IS HERE FOR THE SAKE OF OTHER MEN – above all for those upon whose smile and well-being our own happiness depends, and also for the countless unknown souls with whose fate we are connected by a bond of sympathy. … Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner LIFE IS BUILT UPON THE LABORS OF MY FELLOW MEN, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received. My peace of mind is often troubled by the depressing sense I have borrowed too heavily from the work of other men. … I do not believe we can have any freedom at all in the philosophical sense, for we act not only under external compulsion but also by inner necessity. Schopenhauer’s saying – “A M...

  “Those philosophers who wish to seek out the causes of miracles and to understand the things of nature, and not to stare at them in astonishment like fools, are soon considered heretical and impious and proclaimed as such by those the mob adore. For these men know once ignorance is put aside wonderment would be taken away which is the only means by which their authority is preserved.” - Baruch Spinoza

  Mostly summarized from Gregory Mankiw’s Principles of Economics, 5th Ed. PART 9 The Real Economy in the Long Run Chapter 27 of 36 Basic Tools of Finance Section 2 of 16 … Almost everyone eventually deals with the economy's financial system, including: · deposit savings in a bank account · take out a mortgage to buy a house · invest in stocks, bonds, and funds for retirement account There are two related elements in almost all financial decisions: time and risk. The financial system coordinates the economy's saving and investment which are main determinants of economic growth. The financial system involves decisions and actions we make and take today that affect our lives in the future. But, we cannot know the future. When a person decides to save money for retirement or a firm decides to borrow money for an investment the decision is based on a guess about the likely future result. The actual end result can be very different from what was expected. … In this chapter some tool...

  “By the late sixth century BC the Athenian city-state had established a genuine democratic form of government. First, the authority of the popular assembly was strengthened. Every Athenian male citizen over the age of twenty had the right to participate. The system was “one man, one vote” regardless of wealth or property holdings. The popular assembly was the supreme institution of the state and it was convened several times throughout the year. Everything was decided by the popular assembly, including declarations of war, the ratification of peace treaties, the forging of foreign alliances, and the selection of government officials. [Leader] Cleisthenes changed the standard used to divide the classes from the levels of agricultural income used in Solon’s time to one that did not discriminate between occupations. By doing this, he substantially strengthened the influence of the merchant and artisan classes over government. Cleisthenes also increased the number of Solon’s one-year...

  “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” – Winston Churchill “With very rare and brief exceptions, pre-capitalist societies had no place for the creative power of man’s mind, neither in the creation of ideas nor in the creation of wealth. Reason and its practical expression —free trade— were forbidden as a sin and a crime, or were tolerated, usually as ignoble activities, under the control of authorities who could revoke the tolerance at whim. Such societies were ruled by faith and its practical expression - force. There were no makers of knowledge and no makers of wealth, there were only witch doctors and tribal chiefs.” - Ayn Rand

  From article The Energy Transition Is a Delusion Indeed. Benjamin Zycher. March 27. 2023. The “energy transition” continues to receive thunderous applause from all the usual Beltway suspects, an exercise in groupthink fantasy amazing to behold. For those with actual lives to live and thus uninterested in silliness: THE “ENERGY TRANSITION” IS A MASSIVE SHIFT, WHOLLY ARTIFICIAL AND POLITICIZED, from conventional energy inexpensive, reliable, and very clean given the proper policy environment, toward such unconventional energy technologies as wind and solar power. … SOLAR AND WIND POWER ARE EXPENSIVE, UNRELIABLE, AND DEEPLY PROBLEMATIC ENVIRONMENTALLY in terms of toxic metal pollution, wildlife destruction, land use massive and unsightly, emissions of conventional pollutants, and in a larger context large and inexorable reductions in aggregate wealth and thus the social willingness to invest in environmental protection. … But the Beltway being what it is, the fantasists are impervio...

  From ChatGPT: The CAIRO DECLARATION was a joint statement issued by the leaders of the United States, Great Britain, and China on November 27, 1943, during World War II. The declaration was issued following the Cairo Conference, a meeting of the Allied leaders held in Cairo, Egypt, from November 22 to 26, 1943. The Cairo Declaration stated the Allies would continue to fight until Japan and Germany surrendered unconditionally. The declaration also called for Japan to give up all territories it had taken by force since 1914, including Manchuria, Taiwan, and the Pescadores, and to return them to China. The declaration also recognized the independence of Korea and called for the removal of all Japanese troops from Korea. Additionally, it declared the Allies would work together to establish a democratic government in Japan after the war and to bring Japanese war criminals to justice. The Cairo Declaration laid out the principles upon which the post-war world would be based. Its provis...

  Mostly summarized from Gregory Mankiw’s Principles of Economics, 5th Ed. PART 9 The Real Economy in the Long Run Chapter 27 of 36 Basic Tools of Finance Section 1 of 16 … Chapter 27 of 36 – Basic Tools of Finance – Topics Present Value: Measuring the Time Value Of Money The Magic of Compounding and the Rule Of 70 Managing Risk Risk Aversion The Markets for Insurance The Peculiarities of Health Insurance Diversification of Firm-Specific Risk The Trade-Off Between Risk and Return Asset Valuation The Efficient Markets Hypothesis Random Walks and Index Funds Neurofinance Market Irrationality … rationality and irrationality gōri-sei to higōri-sei 合理性と非合理性

  “Against the tide of alienation from Chiang’s regime and temptation by the Communists battled one of China’s greatest liberals: Lin Yutang. Lin returned to China in 1943 for only the second time since moving to America in 1937. In a rebuttal in the Nation magazine the following month, called “China and Its Critics,” Lin acknowledged American public opinion was not on his side. China’s Communists had become “America’s sacred cow.” He had been a longtime critic of the Nationalists’ political oppression, but Chiang’s depredations were a garden party compared to the regimented thinking imposed in the Red Zone. Throughout the war leftist newspapers were able to publish in Nationalist territory, books and magazines routinely attacked the Generalissimo, and demonstrations organized by the Communists and other political parties were tolerated off and on.” Lin made an important point about American “China Hands.” Though many of them could speak Chinese, few could read it. They never bothe...