Thrilling Thursday – California Hikes Wages 25%, Saves US Economy!

Unfortunately, not until 2016 but this is exactly what we need to really move the economy forward so first break in the dam, thank goodness.  Still, it's a 25% increase over 2 years, not bad and not a bad reason to buy gold and silver (yesterday's play on SLW is a good start) as California, no matter how wacky you think they are, usually leads the nation in necessary reforms and this is one that's been a long time coming.  See "Inflation Nation", where I laid out the bull case for inflation way back in 2008.  

As you can see from the chart, the .25 an hour your Grandfather earned in 1938 really did suck but, by 1968, I remember my 10-year older brothers did quite well for themselves earning $1.60 an hour, which gave them plenty of money to go on dates, buy clothes my parents didn't approve of and get their own muscle cars (my first car was my older brother's '68 Barracuda).  

Even I, at 10-years old in 1973, was able to make $20 a week from my paper route and, based on this chart, that was like $132 today and I remember there was a big road sign near my house that told me a new VW Beetle was $1,999 and that, at the time, was my goal to save up for (with whatever I had left from my comic purchases, of course).  

$132 is what a modern-day adult makes working 18 hours at minimum wage – and my money was tax-free (or, at least no one asked me for any at the time)!   There's something terribly, terribly wrong with that and if you think that the average person in the United States of America has the same opportunities as you did when you started out in life making an inflation-adjusted 30% LESS than you did in your first job – you are deluding yourself. 

Let's extrapolate that $132 and call it $300 a week and say it should be $450 a week instead ($11.25/hour).  What's the difference?  Well, $15,600 a year…

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