The Cheerful Science!    
ECONOMICS  is the  “Dismal Science”      
     Lettuce use the old Cabbage,  and examine the
Euphoric—  Poly—Tickle “Science”  (Academic asylum  for  Timothy Leary  disciples).
The first minimum wage  in Knoxville  (Powell Post article  by Mr. Lynn Redmon,  Aug. 15, 2006)  is an excellent example.  Let us follow the sequence of  events  which led to the joyful event of  1938,  and later benefits of  Franklin Roosevelt’s  “ New Deal.” 

Many wonderful ingredients were blended into this sausage:  the 1913 Income Tax ( 2% max. rate),  increased to more than 60%,  to pay for  World War One,  reduced to 20% max rate  by 1925,  which opened the damper and made the 1920’s roar!
     “ Orders  at the mill were strong”  and  “ average wages  in the cotton mill peaked at”  50¢/ hour.  (Brookside Mills, Knoxville).  In April  of  1929,  President Herbert Hoover asked congress to  protect american jobs.  The final committee vote  of  Congress,  on October 28, 1929,  was the crucial event which triggered the 1929 stock market crash  (Jude Wanniski).  Congress sent the Smoot-Hawley tariff bill to be signed by President Hoover  in March, 1930.

     Import Tariff -  cuts the return flow,  and disconnects export workers.  “Cotton mills in the Carolinas closed immediately,  but Brookside kept operating”  in spite of the massive destruction of voluntary  international trade relations.  Many employees could work,  instead of few -  or none.  This  “heartless company”  cut  everyone’s  hours  back—  and  offered  15¢/ hour.

     Federal Income Tax rate increases—  to 63%  (from 25%),  put  the cap  on the (smoke) stack.  President Roosevelt continued this  “good work”:  “He gave people something  to  believe in.”  He increased Federal Income Tax rates  to  79%,  and bestowed  the LSD  of  minimum wage increaseto 25¢/ hour.
     Abolish Market Prices:  balance of  supply/demand.  Employers disbursed higher wages,  as the (few) loaves of  bread and fishes were divided among the improvident sojourners at lake Gallilee.

     “ During World War II  the federal government pumped ”  billions of dollars into the economy.  The elixir of spending Continental Notes and Civil War greenbacks  was re-enacted during Roosevelt’s  “ New Deal” and by President Carter’s stag-flation policies  (Reich Stag - 1921).  This benevolence most always arouses  “ laughing and singing,” “ praising God and all”  “ heading to the same place”  (as they rejoiced in 1607,  in Jamestown Colony).
     The “ Immigration Problem”  will be alleviated when illegal workers avoid  the higher minimum wages—  on principle.     Consider  our  recent  stimulating events,  and  read  Atlas Shrugged  by  Ayn Rand.


President Franklin Roosevelt  and his  “New Dealers”  believed that  low prices  (and wages)  caused  the depression.
Price & Wage  increases  were  legislated  to  correct  “ Market Failure.”   The National Industrial Relations Act  of  1933  (NIRA)  and other legislation,  attempted to create a government-wide system of  industrial and agricultural cartels,  to  limit  the hours worked,  and prohibit  “child labor”  to restrict production.
This was intended to increase profits  for employers,  create more jobs  and provide for  pay increases.  A  bureaucratic monstrosity  of  hundreds  of  industry codes,  and  Minimum Wage legislation  was created,  and enforced  by  thousands of  code-enforcement police.  John T. Flynn  wrote  about:  code-enforcement police  who  “roamed through the  (New York)  garment district  like storm troopers.”  “ Night work was forbidden.  Flying squadrons of  these private coat-and suit  police  went through the district at night,  battering down doors  with axes  looking for men who were committing the crime of  sewing together  a pair of  pants at night.”
The government promoted the  codes-enforcement  by  smearing competition,  competitive price cutting,  and independent business owners  as:  “economic cannibalism”,  “cutthroat price slashing”,  “industrial pirates”,  and  “chiselers”.  Government enforced cartels  were praised as  “cooperative arrangements.” *
* Robert Higgs,  Crisis and Leviathan,  p. 178.)
How Capitalism Saved America,  pp. 185 - 188.)



Juno de Moneta
[Goddess of  WARNING]

Stiglitz - epiPhoney
The  New Deal in One Lesson
Spurious Ideology
Thymology

LandGrab.US
  Isonomia.US

Escape Winter  to  a  Warm
  Topical Asylum?   M.B.'s ISLE