The passing scene – October 12, 2015

From Donald Trump, Hints of a Campaign Exit Strategy by Maggie Haberman for The New York Times.

Donald Trump has not spent the money or done the organizing necessary for a serious presidential campaign.  He has made a stir and had a lot of fun precisely because he did care whether he won or lost.   Having gotten a lot of free publicity for the Trump businesses, I think he’ll step aside at some point and try to be the Republican kingmaker.

The Fight for $15 Is Raising Wages.  Now It’s Time for Step 2: Unions by David Moberg for In These Times.  (Hat tip to Bill Harvey)

Low-wage workers overwhelmingly want the right to organize unions.  A lot of them see the Fight for Fifteen movement as their union—a radically different kind than the historic AFL-CIO model.

GOP Probe Into Planned Parenthood Funding Comes Up Empty by Jennifer Bendery for the Huffington Post.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chair of the House Oversight and Governmental Reform Committee, has found no evidence of wrongdoing.  He said he’ll keep looking.

What We Lose With a Privatized Postal Service by Katherine McFate for Other Words.

Solar & Wind Reach a Big Renewables Turning Point by Bill Randall for Bloomberg Business.  (Hat tip to Bill Harvey)

El Niño could leave 4 million people in Pacific without food or drinking water by Ben Doherty for The Guardian.  (Hat tip to my expatriate e-mail pen pal Jack)

Why the minimum wage should be $15 an hour

The key economic problem for the USA is that American wages are too low.

American consumer demand is the engine that has driven not only the U.S. economy, but much of the world economy, for the past 60 years.

If people don’t have enough money to buy things, there is no economic incentive to make things.

If there is no economic incentive to make things, the world’s wealth does not increase relative to the population.

If there is no economic incentive to make things, rich people and institutions invest in debt, which in the long run makes the problem worse.

If there is no economic incentive to make things, unemployment increases.

There is an economic theory that says that the way to cure unemployment is to allow wages.

It is true that, in a generally prosperous economy, an individual employer might hire more workers if they were available at a lower wage.  But that wouldn’t work for the economy as a whole because workers are customers.  Without mass prosperity, economic activity is devoted to serving the desires of a tiny economic elite.

One way to wage raises is to raise the minimum wage.  This is good for all working people, not just those earning minimum wage or slightly above.  It pushes up the general wage level and increases the market for goods and services.

And aside from all these other considerations, do we really want to live in a rich nation in which millions of hard-working people are poor?