Results tagged “education”

I frequently see Democrats propose a significant increase in the minimum wage, also known as a "living wage," as a solution to what they see as the exploitation of the lower class. This would be disastrous. A price floor for unskilled labor has a multitude of negative effects on the very people it's meant to help. The minimum wage in the United States is close to the equilibrium rate for unskilled labor, but the following negative effects would become far more pronounced if the government mandated a significantly higher living wage.

• A minimum wage reduces the freedom of employees and employers. Just as a minimum wage tells the employer, "You may not hire employees below this rate," it also tells workers, "You may not accept work unless you can compete at this rate."
• An employee desperate for a job cannot undercut minimum wage workers. Minimum wage laws are regularly peddled in third-world nations as an instrument of discrimination to prevent minority groups from competing for jobs.
• Lower profit margins for employers encourage them to outsource jobs or switch to a business that does not employ low wage workers, thus decreasing the number of minimum wage jobs available.
• Employers pass higher costs to their customers by raising the price of services, which disproportionately increases the cost of living for the lower class.

A minimum wage benefits some at the expense of the least experienced and least productive workers. It renders the least employable workers unemployable.

If the goal is to improve the quality of life for the lower class, much more effective solutions exist. The best solution would be to reduce the supply of unskilled labor through voluntary vocational training programs. This would empower workers to take higher paying jobs while driving up the equilibrium rate for the remaining unskilled workers.

Heavy-handed government solutions that make more economic sense than a minimum wage include a negative income tax or earned income tax credit, both of which pass the financial burden to the entire society rather than the employers and customers of unskilled workers. A more radical proposal is a social security program of basic income.

Giles Bowkett of Ruby fame recently alleged that libertarian society is impossible because libertarianism assumes cultural conditions that can exist only with pervasive free education. And he's correct ... except in his understanding of libertarianism and education.

The libertarian position on education is simple. Greater quality and efficiency is best achieved by a wide diversity of choices. Parents should have the freedom to choose the best schools for their young children, and schools should be managed locally to promote greater accountability and involvement. Libertarianism does not mandate that parents pay all expenses for their child's education out-of-pocket, but it does require that parents have full control over the funds spent on their child's education.

Prior to the 1850's, there was no education system in the United States. Local towns and cities organized their own schools, which they funded through some combination of tuition and local taxes. There was no requirement that anyone attend school, so students spent far less time sitting in classrooms. Americans were nevertheless among the most educated thanks to a combination of apprenticeships, homeschooling, formal education, parents who understood the importance of raising productive members of society, and good old self-motivation. "Unschooled" did not imply "uneducated."

Giles Bowkett underestimates the curiosity and ambition of our children. Public schools of today resemble prisons and have many of the same problems. Compulsory public education traps children of low-income families in underachieving schools while forcing parents to pay for such schools through sales taxes.

Updated on January 12, 2009 10:50 PM to add citations.

I ran into this nytimes.com article this afternoon. Marisa L. Dudiak uses blogs as a form of expression in her second-grade class.

"It allowed them to interact with their peers more quickly than a journal," she said, "and it evened the playing field." Mrs. Dudiak said she found that those who were quiet in class usually came alive online.

The article mentions that blogs are easier to maintain than complex course web sites.

"School Web sites are labor-intensive and are left up to administrators and teachers," said Mr. Grunwald, whose consulting firm in Washington focuses on the technology link between home and school. "With blogging intended to be a vehicle for students, the labor is built in. The work that is required to refresh and maintain an interesting blog is being provided by students."

Instructors have discovered that children often put more thought and time into a blog than they would otherwise put into a journal, because their parents and peers may also read their work.