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30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part IV Teachers In America Are Overpaid – Not Underpaid

George Noga

Teachers claim to be underpaid; all the evidence points in the opposite direction.

30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part IV

Teachers In America Are Overpaid – Not Underpaid

By: George Noga – August 22, 2021

If you missed the prequel (July 25) or any of the prior posts in this series, they are easily viewed here on our website: www.mllg.us. Next week is the must-read series finale: a letter every government school should be required to send to all parents each year.

It is possible that at some time in the distant past (50-60 years ago), teachers truly were underpaid. This belief has persisted to the present, no doubt with much encouragement from teachers. Nonetheless, all the available evidence (which is presented in this post) leads to the opposite conclusion, i.e. teachers in America today are overpaid.

Every child in America should be entitled to a voucher to attend a school chosen by his/her parents. Teachers should be paid based on merit as determined by free markets and not by tenure or public sector unions.

Compelling Evidence Proves Government Teachers Are Overpaid

Objective Surveys: The BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) shows no underpayment. Forbes magazine listed the 25 most underpaid jobs in America; teaching was not among them. The same is true of every other job survey that has been published.

Public Sector Unions: Teacher pay is determined by bargaining between public sector unions and governments which have symbiotic relationships. Teachers are paid via tax dollars, not free markets. No scient person can believe that, after decades of highly coercive union bargaining, teachers (and only teachers) somehow are underpaid.

Private School Pay: If unionized government school teachers truly were underpaid, we should expect to see teachers in private schools earning more. Instead, nonreligious private school teachers earn 15% to 20% less than their public school counterparts.

Logic: No other job in America has been so consistently asserted to be underpaid. Such an imbalance simply cannot persist for many decades in a market economy.

Post-teaching Pay: When teachers leave to accept non-teaching jobs, their pay does not increase; this is a prima facia case they were not underpaid while teaching.

Benefits: Teachers receive guaranteed lifetime employment (they cannot be fired), lifetime health care for their family, uber-generous pensions and lots of vacation and holidays. When factoring in these benefits, their total compensation skyrockets.

Overpaid Government Workers: Study upon study shows public sector workers are compensated about 25% more for the same work compared to the private sector. Since teachers are government workers, it is logical they are overpaid by the same amount.

Apples to Apples: Teachers (who should know better) use false pay comparisons. They disingenuously compare those with STEM degrees who graduated in the upper deciles of their class to teachers with education degrees mostly from the lower deciles.

Not Merit Based: Teacher pay is based on tenure – not on merit or on any objective metric of job performance. In fact, basing pay on results or merit is anathema to teachers. Union rules reward the worst teachers at the expense of the best ones.

Lingering myths about low teacher pay are fueled by elites, liberal media, pubic sector unions and government. Outstanding teachers undoubtedly are underpaid; however, all objective data and logic leads inexorably to the conclusion that teachers in America today (taken in the aggregate) are overpaid by somewhere between 15% and 25%.

Whatever you do – don’t miss the series finale next week!
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30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part III

George Noga

Accountability of Private vs. Government Schools

By: George Noga – August 15, 2021

Accountability is the go-to argument of those opposed to school choice.

30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part III

Accountability of Private vs. Government Schools

By: George Noga – August 15, 2021

Since the founding of the school choice movement 30 years ago, opponents in government, unions and the media have tested many arguments against vouchers. They first claimed private voucher schools could be used as witches covens or Ku Klux Klan klaverns. When that failed, they argued vouchers would drain funds from public schools – even though per pupil funding actually is increased. Next, they asserted religious voucher schools are anti-LGBTQ. When that failed, they screeched private schools are unaccountable and that has been their go-to mantra ever since. In this post we contrast accountability of private schools versus government schools.

Accountability in the Private Sector

Private sector businesses compete to provide accountability to consumers; there is no such thing as an unaccountable free market. Von Mises said it best, “Markets are a daily plebiscite in which every penny confers the right to vote”. The private sector is accountable from the bottom up, with consumers exercising control directly by what they buy. Consumers register their choices about one specific product at a time.

Markets, including for private schools, deliver safety, quality and value in many ways. The primary method is branding; when you buy an Apple computer, the company’s reputation is on the line. Another method is franchising; when you eat at Olive Garden, you know what to expect. A third method is independent rating services like Consumer Reports, BBB and Underwriter’s Laboratories. Another powerful method is social media and online ratings, where even a few lousy reviews can torpedo any business.

A good example of market accountability is Uber. With Uber, consumers get location, name, photo, driver rating, fare and arrival time. They get a spotless car, prepay via credit card, get an email receipt and rate the driver. Uber drivers are solicitous of the customer’s comfort and safety; many even offer complimentary bottled water.

Government Accountability (Oxymoron Alert)

Government (including public schools) doesn’t compete and is accountable to the consumer (voter) only indirectly and infrequently. Government schools do not have branding, franchising or independent ratings and are oblivious to social media. To the limited extent it may exist, accountability is from the top down. Consumers can exercise limited control only through the political process once every four years. Voters must select among candidates with positions on numerous issues; they cannot register a choice about any one product or service. Further, in many jurisdictions accountability is impossible due to political dominance by interest groups or voting blocks.

Let’s contrast Uber with government-regulated taxis. With taxis you get no information about location, the driver, fare or arrival time. What you do get is an unkempt driver with poor English who drives aggressively. The taxi has a musty odor, blares obscene music and costs triple Uber – and no credit cards accepted. Complaints are futile. Which is more accountable, the private sector (Uber) or government (taxis)?

In one school district (Providence, RI) with 25,000 students, an independent review found peeling lead paint, brown water, leaking sewage, rats, frigid temperatures, classroom chaos, bullying, no discipline and rampant violence. Only 5% of students were at grade level. And they spent $18,000 per student – 50% above the national average. These horrors have been going on for decades with no accountability.

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Private schools are immediately and directly accountable. If parents are unhappy for any reason (educational quality, cost, safety, values), they can switch to another school; if enough parents are unhappy, the school must improve or go out of business. Contrast this with the Providence, RI schools which have failed for decades, will continue to fail and will never close. If Providence parents are unhappy, they cannot change schools. Complaining to elected officials is pointless because one party (Democratic) controls all elections. How much of that kind of accountability do you want?

The next time you hear voucher schools are unaccountable, remember the parents of Providence, Rhode Island. Teachers unions, government and media claim they want to regulate voucher schools to make them accountable to politicians who will promptly turn them into the same veritable hell holes parents are desperately trying to escape.

Next week in Part IV we take on the issue of teacher pay.
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30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part II Pandemic Exposes Appalling Behavior of Teachers Unions

George Noga

Government schools are jobs programs for adults; children are mere afterthoughts.

30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Part II

Pandemic Exposes Appalling Behavior of Teachers Unions

By: George Noga – August 8, 2021

During the pandemic teachers unions and government apparatchiks shut down public schools. They shamelessly held children hostage to shake down and to extort every conceivable benefit possible. Their greed may come back to haunt them as their contemptible behavior revealed their true nature to a great many Americans.

It has been crystal clear for well over a year that there is no basis in science for failing to resume traditional classroom teaching. Children are highly unlikely to get Covid or to pass it on. Per the CDC, “There is scant evidence of significant virus transmission among grade school age children.” Schools in Europe, Japan and other places demonstrated schools could safely reopen with proper protocols. Catholic schools in the USA, with over 1.6 million students, stayed open through the pandemic providing yet further evidence that schools could safely remain open for in-person learning.

Teachers in government schools and their unions didn’t care about the horrors that resulted from their greed and disregard for the children entrusted to them. There was at least a year of lost learning that never will be recovered. There was widespread depression and increased family pathologies. There was lost earnings as many parents could no longer work and were forced to remain home to care for children. Meanwhile, unionized teachers went on vacation in a flagrant display of selfishness and contempt.

Parents Lose Faith in Government Schools

The avarice of teachers unions is coming back to bite them. Government schools have been failing for many decades, but the pandemic brought this into sharp focus for many parents. They have lost faith in the public system and are deserting it in droves. Private schools and home schooling both report skyrocketing increases in enrollments, as do Catholic schools. Many more parents are searching for alternatives.

50 school choice bills have been introduced this year in 30 states.

Meanwhile, the failure of government schools to open has led to astounding advances in school choice throughout America. West Virginia just enacted its first educational savings account; Georgia is increasing its voucher program; South Dakota expanded its tax credit vouchers. Arizona, Indiana and Florida are in the process of expanding school choice. Altogether, 50 school choice bills have been introduced in 30 states.

The pandemic unleashed tectonic forces; one can viscerally feel the ground shifting beneath support for government schools run by and for educrats and public sector unions as jobs programs for adults – the children be damned. Thanks to lessons learned in the pandemic, a rapidly expanding cohort of Americans now wants to end the evils wrought by the monopoly of government schools and public sector unions.

Although the pandemic inflicted great harm, it may have hastened the day when every child in America will have the ability to attend the school chosen by his/her family.

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Next is part III in the series – Accountability and School Choice.

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30th Anniversary of School Choice in America – Introduction and Universal School Choice

George Noga

Every child in America deserves educational choice; the money must follow the child.

30th Anniversary of School Choice in America

Introduction and Universal School Choice

By: George Noga – August 1, 2021

This month is the 30th anniversary of Patrick Rooney’s founding of the school choice movement in America. In observance and celebration, we present a six-part (counting the prequel) series dissecting critical issues pertaining to educational choice. This post presents a summary of each part. First however, a few words about teachers.

This series is highly critical (perhaps even brutal) toward teachers in government schools and their unions. We unapologetically call them as we see them. Nonetheless, we are mindful many readers and/or family members teach in government schools. There are 3.5 million K-12 teachers in America; many are excellent – like those related to our readers. It would be wrong however to ascribe the problems with our schools to “just a few bad apples” when, in reality, the barrel contains mostly bad apples.

Our goal is for every child in America to receive a government voucher sufficient to attend the K-12 school chosen by his/her family – including private, public, religious, home and virtual.

30th Anniversary of School Choice – Summary

School Choice Movement in America (Prequel – July 25): This was published last week; if you missed it, please read it on our website: www.mllg.us. That post presented the history of the school choice movement in the USA and Florida. Yours truly founded the Florida movement in 1994; today, it provides educational choice scholarships each year to 103,000 children from low-income families at a cost of $700 million. I also served on a national board that started private voucher programs in 100 US cities.

School choice is the civil rights issue of our age. Forcing children of color

to attend failed government schools is the worst systemic racism extant.

Covid Unmasks Teachers Unions (Part II – August 8): The pandemic opened a window for Americans to see teachers in government schools and their unions for what they really are. Teachers shutting down schools unwittingly put support for school choice on steroids, as parents lost all faith in government schools and public sector unions.

Accountability and School Choice (Part III – August 15): We once and for all demolish the myth that private schools are not accountable. Free markets always are accountable and government accountability is an oxymoron. The most potent force on earth is a consumer armed with a free choice. Private schools are accountable through branding, franchising and social media, where even a few bad reviews can sink any business.

Shattering Myths About Teacher Pay (Part IV – August 22): This post provides compelling reasons why the shibboleth that teachers are underpaid is false. The facts show teachers are overpaid by about 15%-25%. Teacher pay should be determined by markets based on merit, not by public sector unions based on tenure.

Welcome to this Failed Government School (Part V – August 29): The not-to-be-missed finale in our series is a letter the principal of every government school should be required to send to parents of students prior to the start of each new school year.

Next on August 8th – How Covid unmasked teachers unions.

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I Was Present at the Creation of the . . . School Choice Movement in America

George Noga

“Mother, I have to go to school today; my teachers are counting on me.”

I Was Present at the Creation of the . . .

School Choice Movement in America

By: George Noga – July 25, 2021

August is “Back to School” month for MLLG; we will publish a multi-part series on school choice throughout the entire month for which today’s posting is a prequel.

Next month marks the 30th anniversary of the school choice movement, which began in 1991 when the late J. Patrick Rooney used his own money to fund a private voucher program in Indianapolis for children from poor families. It was an instant success. The Wall Street Journal published a glowing front page story in 1993 which led to others starting similar programs in Milwaukee and San Antonio later that year.

I was in Hawaii vacationing with my family in the summer of 1993 when I read the WSJ article. My first thought was, “I can do that too“. I was not wealthy enough to fund the program by myself and would need to raise money. Fortunately, I was well positioned to shake the money tree by virtue of owning an investment firm that had some of the wealthiest people in our area as clients and also due to my erstwhile fund raising for local arts organizations while serving as head of the Orlando Opera.

I had raised enough (including $50,000 from Betsy DeVos of the Orlando Magic Youth Foundation) by the end of 1993 to fund 250 scholarships. I decided to begin in time for the 1994 school year and our Orlando program thus became the fourth one in the USA. To get the word out, we ran an ad in the Sunday paper and distributed applications at predominantly black churches. We had no idea what response to expect.

The first week after our ad, I was expecting 10-20 applications and would have been ecstatic with 50. Two days after our ad appeared, we received 250 applications and they flooded in until there were 2,500. We awarded scholarships by lottery with only 1 in 10 applicants selected. We urgently needed to raise money to help more kids.

Jeb Bush, the keynote speaker at our inaugural banquet, came up afterward and asked me if he could help. He committed a day of his time to help raise money and we soon spent a day meeting with business leaders throughout our area. Later, Jeb was able to get a corporate tax credit scholarship bill though the legislature, which provided money to foundations such as ours. The organization I founded in 1994, now called Step Up for Students, last year awarded 103,000 scholarships for $700 million to enable children from low-income families to escape failed government schools. Wow!

Because of the astounding success of our efforts in Orlando, I was invited to join the board of Children First America, the leading school choice organization in the USA. The board included Patrick Rooney, John Walton, Betsy DeVos and Ted Forstmann. During the years I served on this board, we raised many millions of dollars and were instrumental in starting private scholarship programs in over 100 American cities and our efforts led to 33 states (today) enacting educational choice voucher programs.

Each year in Orlando, we held a picnic for the scholarship children and their families. Near the end of the picnics, we invited parents, who wished to do so, to step up to the mic and share their personal journey. The stories we heard were heart rending. The scholarships truly changed countless lives. I recall one such story in particular.

One of our scholarships went to a middle school boy who had been in constant trouble at his government school. His mother told us he hated going to school and often feigned illness to avoid going. One morning, a few months after he began attending his new school, he awoke sick with a 102 degree temperature. Nonetheless, he insisted on going to school. Taken aback, his mother asked why he wanted to go. He replied, “Mother, I have to go to school today; my teachers are counting on me.”

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For the entire month of August, we address educational issues.

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MLLG Special: The Camouflaged Nexus Of . . . Climate Change, Critical Race Theory and the Spending Crisis

George Noga

There is a hidden connection among climate change, race and the spending crisis.

MLLG Special: The Camouflaged Nexus Of . . .

Climate Change, Critical Race Theory and the Spending Crisis

By: George Noga – July 18, 2021

Three mega-issues changing America are linked in ways not well understood. Climate change is regarded, including by President Biden, as an existential issue in the literal sense and not the philosophical sense of mankind’s search for meaning. The spending crisis will change America forever and Critical Race Theory has become an accepted part of pedagogy in schools, universities and workplaces throughout America.

The common denominator of these three issues is socialism along with its misanthropic stepchildren: communism, progressivism, and liberalism. In each case, unreconstructed socialists are the driving force behind the cause. They are working in tandem toward the same goal – whether or not they coordinate their efforts. They receive financing and succor from a coterie of camp followers and useful idiots including progressive groups, academia, public sector labor unions, teachers, media, government bureaucrats, NGOs, entertainment, organized religion, social media – and even sports and business.

Climate Change and Socialism

After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism, die-hard Marxists were homeless. They decided to pursue their goals via a back door by taking over the environmental (and later, climate change) movement. They simply cloaked their anti-capitalist agenda in green language and became watermelon environmentalists, i.e. green on the outside but red on the inside. Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace, said, “Following the collapse of communism, Marxists hijacked the (climate change) movement. Their far left agenda is about socialism, not ecology or (climate).”

Critical Race Theory (“CRT”) and Socialism

Marxism is based on class conflict and the belief that workers would seize the means of production and create a utopian socialist society. However, socialist-style regimes proved dismal failures, murdering over 100 million of their own people. The human carnage and economic toll were so great even die-hard Marxists couldn’t hide from it. Moreover, Marxists came to understand workers in the USA, Western Europe, Japan and many other places never would buy into the notion of class struggle.

Just as Marxists knew they needed a back door (environmentalism and climate change) to achieve their goal, they also recognized they needed an alternative to class struggle. They decided to substitute race (and ethnic) struggle for class struggle and BINGO, Critical Race Theory was created. Masters of maskirovka, commies decided on the euphemism “equity” as their mantra. By equity they mean an end to private property and redistribution of everything according to race. There would be no individual rights, only group rights. At its core, Critical Race Theory is virulent socialism.

Spending Crisis, Modern Monetary Theory (“MMT”) and Socialism

Most groups pushing for MMT and massive spending, debt and deficits are socialist. Once again, they are seeking a back door to socialism. Progressives understand Americans will not accept socialism under normal circumstances; therefore, they must create an emergency serious enough to beguile Americans into accepting the hitherto unacceptable. Thus, we have a spending crisis that will result in horrors so frightening people will accept anything – especially if they are promised it is only temporary. The spending crisis is yet another back door to a socialist United States of America.

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There you have it – the nexus of climate change, CRT and spending; they all represent back doors to socialism. The leaders of these movements know full well what they are doing but are few in number. They must rely on camp followers and useful idiots, i.e. clueless liberals besotted with feel-good progressive bromides and good intentions.

We must stand up to these assaults on our liberty and way of life. That requires the courage to speak the truth and to withstand the slings and arrows directed at you by elitist mobs. But courage begets courage and a majority is one person with courage.

Next on July 25th – The school choice movement in America.
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MLLG Book Review: Unsettled by Steven Koonin – The Science of Climate Change is Unsettled

George Noga

“Earth is warming and humans exert a warming influence; beyond that, nothing is settled.”

MLLG Book Review: Unsettled by Steven Koonin

The Science of Climate Change is Unsettled

By: George Noga – July 11, 2021

The May 2021 publication of Steven Koonin’s book “Unsettled” is the latest salvo from a distinguished mainstream scientist to debunk the so-called climate consensus and to expose the truth about manmade climate change. The climate alarmist dam cracked with Michael Shellenberger’s 2020 book “Apocalypse Never“, which was reviewed by MLLG on 8/16/20; read it on our website: www.mllg.us. If Shellenberger, a Time magazine “Hero of the Environment“, cracked the dam, Koonin blows it to bits.

Shellenberger refutes the fear mongering about climate change and the environment, concluding there is more reason for optimism than pessimism. He calls climate change the secular religion of rich educated elites, replacing God with nature. Apocalyptic environmentalism meets the same psychological and spiritual needs as religion and provides its acolytes a purpose and storyline that casts them as heroes, while retaining the illusion they are people of science and reason, not superstition and fantasy.

Unsettled: By Steven Koonin

Dr. Koonin, one of America’s most distinguished scientists, got his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from MIT and was a professor of theoretical physics at Caltech for 30 years including serving as VP and Provost. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a governor of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He published over 200 peer-reviewed papers. Recently, Koonin served as Undersecretary for Science at the Department of Energy in the Obama Administration where his portfolio included climate research. We could fill this entire post listing Dr. Koonin’s credentials.

Dr. Koonin goes directly for the jugular in the opening pages by proving:

  • Heat waves in the USA are no more common today than in 1900 and the warmest temperatures have not risen during the past 50 years.

  • Humans have no detectable impact on hurricanes in the past century.

  • Greenland’s ice sheet is not shrinking more rapidly than 80 years ago.

  • The net economic impact of humans on the climate is minimal.

The above is just to whet readers’ appetites. Koonin goes on to disprove most of the climate alarmist narrative including: (1) the climate is broken; (2) temperatures are rising; (3) sea level is surging; (4) ice is disappearing; (5) extreme weather is more frequent and more severe; (6) greenhouse gas emissions are causing all the preceding; (7) radical changes in human behavior are needed; (8) Earth is doomed; (9) global CO2 is at a high level; and the biggest whopper of all, (10) the science is settled.

In the few months since Unsettled was published, Dr. Koonin has been attacked by all the usual climate alarmist suspects – particularly those in the media. It is notable that not one critic has taken issue with any of the sources, data or logic used by Koonin.

If it’s consensus, it isn’t science. If it’s science, it isn’t consensus. (Crichton)

Only when the miasma of anthropological climate change finally is in humanity’s rear view mirror, may we begin to understand how so many people were hoodwinked so completely and for so long. Eventually, we may even fathom why Time magazine named a know-nothing Swedish teenager its 2019 person of the year despite her pallid screeds directly contradicting Time magazine’s own hero of the environment.

Dr. Koonin’s book will hasten the end of the manmade climate change madness that has held our planet in its vise-like grip and terrorized our children for decades.

Next: We reveal an occult nexus among three of the biggest issues of our time.

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Independence Day 2021

George Noga

People render their home world uninhabitable and then move on to despoil other worlds.

Independence Day 2021

By: George Noga – July 4, 2021

MLLG’s annual Fourth of July posting, Independence Day, is both the most popular and most forwarded of all time. We have updated the story for 2021. For readers needing a refresher, the 1996 movie Independence Day featured extraterrestrials who made their home planet unfit for habitation, failed to learn from it and invaded Earth with the intent to ravage it before moving on to savage yet other pristine worlds.

For 60 years liberals have ravished and ransacked blue states via toxic governance. They have made them as uninhabitable as would marauding ETs. They despoiled blue states via crippling taxation, Kafkaesque regulation, sky-high living costs, mandatory unionization, and crumbling infrastructure. Their failed government schools are petri dishes for every dysfunction and social pathology. They indoctrinate students with fake history and instill values antithetical and hostile to those of their parents.

Progressives render blue states uninhabitable with rampant crime, gun control, massive debt, corruption, unfunded liabilities and tanking debt ratings. They tolerate public homelessness, drug use and human filth. They decriminalize arson, looting and theft while defunding police and elevating rioters above law-abiding citizens. They abolish bail, release dangerous criminals and create sanctuary cities and states; they pit Americans against one another based on race, income, gender and ethnicity.

Blue state horrors include stagnating economies that are hemorrhaging people, jobs, tax base and red ink with hopelessly underfunded public pensions. Quality of life, happiness, civility, culture and freedom suffer. Housing is scarce, dilapidated and costly due to rent control, hyper-regulation, eviction bans and environmentalism run amok. Climate change wackiness makes energy more costly. The pandemic response was bollixed due to an orgy of big brother over-regulation and obeisance to teachers union demands that disproportionately harmed the most vulnerable Americans.

The failure of blue state governance is so radioactive it reached critical mass, setting off a mass exodus. People are voting with their feet, fleeing these dystopian wastelands in droves – making beelines for red states. Each and every one of the blue state horrors listed supra is much less likely to exist in red state America, and if it does exist, it is much less extensive and virulent. Life in red state America is freer, more humanistic and, as measured by Gini coefficient, much happier. The hordes abandoning blue states love life in their new homes and none ever returns to blue state snake pits.

Inexplicably however, many (if not most) of these transplanted liberals fail to make the connection and continue to vote for the same pernicious, destructive policies that laid waste to their home states. They seem hellbent on transmogrifying red states into the veritable hell holes they desperately fled. They are no smarter or better then the aliens in the movie that go from one planet to another – destroying each one in turn.

I recall an old Florida cracker expression that if someone moved from Florida to Georgia, it would raise the IQ of both states. Something similar happens when progressives move from blue to red states – only they lower the IQ of both states.

There is one critical difference between the movie and the nascent progressive looting of red states. The aliens in the movie had the technology to move on to new worlds after sucking all the life out of their temporary homes. Where can we go once progressives finish their pillage and rape of what today is red state America?

Next on July 11th, the science behind manmade climate change is unsettled.

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Wealth Inequality Benefits All Americans

George Noga

Every American is much better off with more – not less – wealth inequality.

Wealth Inequality Benefits All Americans

By: George Noga – June 27, 2021

Inequality of wealth, especially compared to the top 1%, is condemned by progressive class warriors. They are wrong. Most wealth inequality, including that of the top 1%, is beneficial, both economically and socially, to all Americans including those at the bottom of the economic pyramid. This post addresses wealth inequality; our post of May 9, 2021 addressed income inequality; read it on our website: www.mllg.us.

Although most forms of wealth inequality are a boon to society, some aren’t. The Latin American model where a few caudillos are immensely rich while most people live in poverty is condemnable. The Russian and third world model, where oligarchs get rich from abusing political power, also is evil. Some equality is harmful such as that in Haiti, Chad and Somalia; how much of that equality do you want? Then there is the matter of inherited wealth, which is addressed later in this post.

Why Wealth Inequality – Especially by the Top 1 % – Benefits Everyone

Even Soviet economists understood that newly minted wealth was the best indication of how well a society was innovating, becoming more efficient and serving the needs of all its people. In a free market capitalist economy such as the USA, wealth is created by providing products or services consumers voluntarily buy; it is always a win-win situation. Even the most powerful company cannot compel anyone to buy its products. The most potent force on earth is a consumer armed with a free choice.

Progressives like to consternate over the top 1% of wealth. AOC condemned “a system that allows billionaires to exist; every billionaire is a policy mistake”. Pocahontas called billionaires “freeloaders”. Bernie Sanders went bonkers saying, “The insatiable greed of billionaires is having an unbelievably negative impact on the fabric of our country.” So, is great wealth something to be condemned or lauded?

As noted supra, wealth is created by providing sovereign consumers with products they value. Great wealth is achieved by creating products desired by millions and even billions of consumers. The creation of great wealth is the same in principle as creation of small wealth; the only difference is the number of consumers being helped. Liberals believe it is okay to help a few people but it is evil to help a great many people.

Inequality between the top fraction of one percent and everyone else stems from the outsize success of entrepreneurs like Zuckerberg, Gates, Bezos, Jobs and Walton, who created millions of good jobs and enriched the lives of billions of people with innovative new products. Wal-Mart saves the average American family $100 per month via lower prices. The Waltons’ wealth pales compared to the benefits Wal-Mart provides ordinary Americans. We should celebrate such successes. Even though the great wealth that accrues to mega-entrepreneurs increases wealth inequality, Americans are much better off because of it. We need more of that kind of wealth inequality.

Inherited Wealth

Dynastic wealth is viewed differently; many who accept new wealth are less sanguine about wealth not earned. Arguably, a modest amount of dynastic wealth is a small price to pay for the societal benefits of the original wealth creation. While acknowledging inherited wealth is different, it is a tempest in a teapot for the following reasons.

  1. The motivation of the person creating the original wealth includes providing for his/her family and future generations – a universal human sentiment.
  2. The vast majority of billionaires did not inherit. Of the Forbes list of American billionaires and their family members, over 80% are self-made.
  3. Most goes to charity. Gates, Buffet and others are giving it all away.
  4. Estate taxes take a large bite out of dynastic wealth in each generation.
  5. Most wealth is dissipated within three generations due to an ever-expanding pool of future beneficiaries, prodigal behavior and poor investments.

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Inequality of wealth in America is an unalloyed blessing; the more inequality we have, the better – especially if it results from the creation of incredible new products that make us more productive, enrich our lives every day and save us lots of money.

July 4th is MLLG’s inimitable post: Independence Day 2021.

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Ten Truths About Minimum Wage

George Noga

Minimum wage is the poster child for the law of unintended consequences.

Ten Truths About Minimum Wage

By: George Noga – June 20, 2021

We have written often about minimum wage, but this is our first post entirely on that topic; it contains much new material and updated statistics. Like most liberal bromides, the minimum wage harms the people it is intended to help. Here are ten truths about the minimum wage and the harm it causes the most vulnerable Americans.

1. The poor need jobs. Most people in poverty don’t work; raising the minimum wage makes it harder for them to find jobs. Those on welfare or unemployment don’t benefit.

2. Median household income $66,000. Those on minimum wage, like spouses and teens living at home, are part of solid middle class households; they are not poor.

3. Median age 24, 60% in school. A majority of minimum wage earners are young students; they are not full time workers trying to support a family.

4. 1% affected, 6 months or less. Nearly all (99%) workers earn above the minimum wage and virtually no heads of households or full time workers are affected. Those who do earn the minimum wage do so for an average of less than six months.

5. Increased cost of living. Child care workers earn $11/hour. A $15 wage would raise the monthly cost to families by $250 and would force many poor people to quit work to care for their children. Raising grocery workers to $15 would hike food costs.

6. The EITC is cut. Any benefit from a higher minimum wage would be substantially negated by a reduced earned income tax credit and is a disincentive to working.

7. Unemployment increased. Whenever the minimum rises, businesses automate and relocate. When the price of anything (labor) goes up, there is less of it.

8. Total wages decrease. Although hourly rates will rise to the new minimum, total earnings will go down due to fewer hours worked. When Seattle raised its minimum wage in 2016 to $13/hour, the earnings of low-wage workers actually declined.

9. Most vulnerable harmed. All the aforementioned problems with minimum wage disproportionately harm uneducated, poor, minority, low-skilled and young workers.

10. Differences between states. There are glaring differences in $15/hour between say Mississippi and New York. Mississippi would experience increased costs of over 40% in child care and other low-wage services; restaurants would all but cease to exist.

The ten truths and statistics listed supra are hard facts, not opinion. Economists of all political persuasions are near-unanimous in opposing raising the minimum wage. Why therefore is a $15 minimum wage an article of faith for progressives?

The answer is the same as for other progressive shibboleths: (1) it is about socialism, not economics; (2) they are virtue signaling; (3) it is all about intentions, not results; (4) it is a sop to labor unions by reducing competition for lower-paying jobs; (5) they know their media sycophants will shill for them; and (6) liberalism is a lie.

Markets determine wages, not governments. Regardless of the law, the real minimum wage always is zero, zilch, nada, niente, scratch, nix, zip, nothing – and that is the wage more and more workers will receive if the minimum is raised to $15 per hour.

Our next post is about inequality of wealth in America.

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More Liberty Less Government – mllg@cfl.rr.com – www.mllg.us