Categories
Economics

[2265] Of does minimum wage discriminate poor entrepreneurs?

I am unsure how seriously I should entertain the current thought I am harboring. I am thinking of something that is absurd at the first pass but on second thought, it is not so. I meant to write this as a satire for The Malaysian Insider in a fashion that I have done earlier but given my tight schedule, I have refrained from doing so.

I fear I might forget this line of reasoning if I do not record it down anytime soon. And so, here it is.

Minimum wage can be redefined as a guarantee of certain level of wages to those who are employed at the minimum wage level at a firm covered by the minimum wage law. Consider an economy-wide minimum wage law that typically covers low-skilled employees.

In that case, the law discriminates between those who work as employees and those who work by themselves. This statement can be stated more convincingly as a comparison between, for example, a security guard (essentially a low-skilled employee) and a pisang goreng (Malaysian-style banana fritters) seller. Let these two individuals have the same expected income from their economic activity sans minimum wage for the employee.

Is there a reason why the security guard deserves minimum wage, but not the pisang goreng entrepreneur?

The discrimination is unfair and unjust.

This of course is not a call for minimum wage for entrepreneurs. That would be ridiculous. This is just to highlight some of the moral deprivations of the policy.

Categories
Photography

[2264] Of how I see the world

I am unbelievably busy at the moment and I do not have much time to write properly. But I have tons of lame pictures that I snapped while catching my breath before rushing to places yet again. No rest for the wicked, so they say.

I need to update this blog regardless. If there is something that I would like to keep constant in my life, it is this blog. It has to be updated no matter what.

That is exactly how I see the world, literally.

This was taken in a library that supposedly has the largest collection in the southern hemisphere. But I have been to larger libraries with larger collection more ornately designed (guess one of them; here is a hint: it is the former home of JSTOR). So, I am not easily impressed.

Nevertheless, it is larger than my collection and it is comfortable. That is why it is one of my favorite spots here at school.

Categories
Personal

[2263] Of staring at the sky

Do you know what I like?

I like lying on the grass during a blue sunny day and just stare at the clouds as the wind blows them across the sky, slowly. It makes you forget everything, momentarily.

Categories
Photography

[2262] Of my god, it’s full of stars

Nine months after my first visit to the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, I found myself there again dead in the middle of the night. That has to tell you something about how I love war memorials.

What I like most about this picture is the stars. The small size of the picture does not do justice to the stars. I am working on that. I hope that some time in the near future, I will find a new template that I like that will allow me to post larger photos without messing everything up.

About that stars, I have never actually managed, or thought of, capturing them. I did not know it was possible with my camera and lens, until that night. The craziest thing is that I could not see most of the stars with my naked eyes when I was standing there doing 30-second exposures for nearly an hour.

Maybe, that says more about my vision than about my camera’s capability. Oh well…

Categories
Economics Politics & government Society

[2261] Of the importance of apathy

An interesting parallel appears here between economics and exit, on the one hand, and politics and voice, on the other. Just as in economics it had long been thought that the more elastic demand is (that is, the more rapidly exit ensues whenever deterioration occurs) the better for the functioning of the economic system, so it has long been an article of faith of political theory that the proper functioning of democracy requires a maximally alert, active, and vocal public. In the United States, this belief was shaken by empirical studies of voting and political behavior which demonstrated the existence of considerable political apathy on the part of large sections of the public, for long periods of time. Since the democratic system appeared to survive this apathy rather well, it became clear that the relations between political activism of the citizens and stable democracy are considerably more complex than had once been thought. As in the case of exit, a mixture of alert and inert citizens, or even an alternation of involvement and withdrawal, may actually serve democracy better than either total, permanent activism or total apathy. One reason, stressed by Robert Dahl, is that the ordinary failure, on the part of most citizens, to use their potential political resources to the full makes it possible for them to react with unexpected vigor—by using normally unused reserves of political power and influence—whenever their vital interests are directly threatened… [Albert Hirschman. Exit, Voice and Loyalty. Chapter 3. 1970]