Joshua Ballard

Employment: Minimum Wage, Maximum Stupidity

The principle that Schiff is operating on is sound, however, the labour market is irrational, just as much as the market is. The employee could demand higher wages for his work, but the employee is less likely to do so if making such a demand will place their livelihood at risk.

The low skilled worker earning minimum wage does not necessarily have the time to increase his or her skills to enter a higher paying job, as they are too busy working for such a pitiful amount. Add to this that people who refuse low paid work are subsequently refused unemployment and social security benefits and that competition for entry level positions is extremely high.

An employer can easily starve out an entry level employee in the negotiation process. The negotiation field is not even remotely level.

Basic living expenses make up a significantly higher proportion of income of a minimum wage employee than a non minimum wage employee, with disposable income making up a much smaller percentage.

The other side of this coin is that the minimum wage is also the defacto maximum wage in competitive fields of employment. Employers have little incentive to increase benefits, as the minimum award wage is a "fair wage" for the industry.

Cheap Stocks Aren't Always Bargains - Barron's

I disagree with both commenters as you can cash out, regroup your cash and trade for better returns rather than waiting 10 years for C to return a 10% positive growth per annum once it stabilizes.

I would rather cash out my $15k at a loss of $13,000 and trade on my $2000 for the next 5 years, than wait for my now $2000 investment to hopefully return an average of 10% per annum.

For the $2000 to return to $15,000 (last year's levels) at 10% per annum will take approximately 20 years. Nevermind the next 20 years of new/recovering/emerging market growth that you've missed out on.

Wipe out the last 20 years and you've missed the insane opportunities of the tech bubble, the housing bubble, the financial bubble and the russian bubble.

I couldn't possibly imagine wiping out the next 20 years of opportunities.

Dollar cost averaging helps ease the pain, but you have to load up a considerable amount to offset the losses in percentage terms.