by John Haughey, The Center Square contributor | May 18, 2021 03:00 PM Print this article
U.S. manufacturers report demand is up and with the nation poised to invest billions in the coming years on infrastructure, prospects are good for continued growth, including in Missouri where manufacturing employs 10% of the state’s workforce and contributes nearly $41 billion annually to local economies.
But significant supply chain disruptions persist with U.S. manufacturers hamstrung by six-month waits for aluminum and other raw materials while a boom in automobile and appliance sales spike demand for steel and metals by 35% to 40% on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis.
Federal Minimum Wage Hasn t Risen Since 2009. But Our Living Costs Have Soared
On 5/11/21 at 10:59 AM EDT
The federal minimum wage has not risen since 2009, but that hasn t stopped the cost of living continuing to rise over the past 12 years, leading to higher prices for essential goods and services.
Democrats had hoped to include a minimum wage raise in the most recent round of COVID-19 stimulus. Their plan would have raised the rate from $7.25 an hour to $15, but the Senate parliamentarian ruled the measure could not be included under the rules of budget reconciliation.
The current federal minimum wage came into effect on July 24, 2009. This was the last of three scheduled increases in the rate passed in 2007.
President Joe Biden participates in a conference phone call with governors affected by a snowstorm in the Midwest and southwest Feb. 16, 2021, in the Oval Office of the White House. | White House/Lawrence Jackson
âIn the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.â
Proverbs 21:20 NIV
In the field of personal financial planning, we apply this verse all the time when we tell clients to maintain a cash reserve of at least three to six months of living expenses. Having cash reserves in our time is equivalent to having food and oil in storehouses. In the wisdom literature of Proverbs, when it is âwiseâ to do one thing the implication is that it is âunwiseâ or âfoolishâ to do the opposite. Therefore, since it is wise to maintain healthy storehouses of supplies, it is foolish to have nothing in oneâs barn.
In his 1919 book,
The Economic Consequences of the Peace, John Maynard Keynes described the open borders of the then bygone first age of globalisation before WWI:
“
The inhabitant of London could order by telephone, sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the whole earth, in such quantity as he might see fit, and reasonably expect their early delivery on his doorstep, he could at the same moment and by the same means adventure his wealth in the natural resources and new enterprises of any quarter of the world, [and] he could secure forthwith, if he wished it, cheap and comfortable means of transit to any country or climate without passport or other formality.”
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