A Global Minimum Wage
It’s time to take the competition out of competition-for-the-sake-of-competition.
If you look at the gini map of the world and mix it with a map of the happiest nations in the world, then you can see that the most decent and happiest nations in the world hand a certain level of security to all people in their societies.
The nations in the middle of the gini index actually depend on making the poor in their nations receive less than the poor in the happiest nations. The goals is to entice the wealthy in those happiest nations to invest their money in these ‘lesser’ nations. These ‘lesser’ nations provide stability and the highest returns.
Nations in South America give little to their fellow citizens in the lower regions of society. Yet it does not help these nations become stable economic nations because during the busts of their economies all investors, domestic and foreign, leave the country. All rich move their money out of South America. They will return when everyone is desperate enough to work for even lower wages.
The poor do not have much money to invest of course. So, they are also not a bulwark to stabilize their nation’s economy. They got nothing. They do not have enough to be part of the Investment Games. They are not the dykes that hold back the worst of the waters.
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What the world needs now is a global minimum wage.
It actually does not need to be super much.
Yet where a house should always have a foundation, so do the financial systems in the world.
- No one should be pushed back to having raw soil be the bottom of the hut. There should be a foundation that establishes a home that is itself solid and modern. That foundation should be supported by all in the world.
For instance, a minimum wage of $1 per hour may not sound much to us, people living in wealthy nations. When the wealthy nations collectively refuse to buy products that were produced by workers making less than $1 an hour, then all these other nations would not have a choice but to live by that global minimum wage.
- Don’t worry. The price in the store does not go up in any significant way. You will not really notice it.
All industries that are vital to you are already paying better wages than $1 an hour to their workers.
So, what is the benefit?
When global business has a floor, then the floor is raised up from dirt-poor. It takes the race to the bottom out of the competition.
Just a little bit more money sticks around at that level when there is a global minimum wage. When times are rough, there is a minimum that cannot be undermined. No more race to the bottom during bad times.
With a floor (expressed in the hardest currency of the moment), the poor in the world can achieve a slightly better life, eliminating the worst of instability they may now experience.
Yes, they will still be poor and, No, you won’t experience any of this foundational change. But… the poor will notice a difference.
