Why the minimum wage should be raised

Zerohedge and other economic globalists don’t understand the real benefit of minimum-wage laws:

Most of our readers probably know what we think of minimum wages, but let us briefly recapitulate: there is neither a sensible economic, nor a sensible ethical argument supporting the idea.

Let us look at the economic side of things first: for one thing, the law of supply and demand is not magically suspended when it comes to the price of labor. Price it too high, and not the entire supply will be taken up. Rising unemployment inevitably results.

However, there is also a different way of formulating the argument: the price of labor must not exceed what the market can bear. In order to understand what this actually means, imagine just for the sake of argument a world without money. Such a world is not realistic of course, as without money prices the modern economy could not exist. However, what we want to get at is this: workers can ultimately only be paid with what is actually produced.

As Mises has pointed out, most so-called pro-labor legislation was only introduced after enough capital per worker was invested to make the payment of higher wages possible – usually, the market had already adjusted wages accordingly.

However, unskilled labor increasingly gets priced out of the market anyway, which is where the ethical argument comes in. If a worker cannot produce more than X amount of  goods or services, it is not possible to pay him X+Y for his work. Under minimum wage legislation he is condemned to remain unemployed, even if he is willing to work for less.

In Switzerland, the unions have recently managed to get the demand for minimum wage legislation on one of the quarterly referendums in the country.

The purpose of the minimum-wage laws have nothing to do with socialism and everything to do with nationalism. This should be obvious by the at-first-glance outlandish proposal to raise the Swiss minimum wage to $25 per hour. But once you understand that Switzerland has learned from the example of the USA and the EU states and is battling to avoid being overrun by cheap-labor immigrants from Africa and Eastern Europe, and the brilliance of the political tactic becomes apparent.

The entire justification for importing tens of millions of Mexicans is the reduction of labor costs, thereby resulting in tremendous damage to the social fabric, the destruction of the middle class, and a permanent change in the political system. All of this can be avoided by raising the minimum wage to a level that ruins the value proposition of the immigrant worker to the large corporations.

As a general rule, the Swiss are among the sanest of nations. If you are asking if they have gone insane, that is a good reason to assume you are missing something. Americans who are interested in salvaging any vestige of traditional America should push hard for raising the minimum wage to at least $20 per hour.

Pro-slavery Republicans

As if the student loan scandal was not bad enough:

U.S. Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a possible 2016 White House contender, unveiled legislation on Wednesday to broaden the use of financial vehicles known as “income share agreements” that students can use to fund their higher education costs. Under the agreements, which are marketed as an alternative to traditional student loans, private investors or organizations provide students with financing for their education costs in exchange for a percentage of their future earnings.

Any Republican who dreams about a Rubio presidency is a fool. Rubio may actually be a worse candidate than John McCain was. This is nothing more than permitting young people to sell themselves into indentured servitude in exchange for a college degree.

While he’s at it, why not let men buy a percentage of a woman’s future sexual services in return for financing her education costs? If we’re going to let students peddle their futures, the least we can do is permit them to sell their bodies as well.

I wouldn’t have a problem with this if we lived in a genuine libertarian society. But in a bankster-ruled world where student loans cannot be discharged through bankruptcy, it is an EXCEPTIONALLY bad idea.

Lions Den: Witchfinder

The Bandit reviews Sarah Hoyt’s WITCHFINDER for the Lion’s Den. And speaking of book reviews, Toni Mascaro has activated the Castalia House blog with a review of The Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell.

Like the title character, I didn’t quite realize what I had first stumbled into when I offered to review WITCHFINDER, written by Sarah A. Hoyt. The blurb gave me the impression of multiverse derring-do — sort of a magical fantasy version of Star Gate. Although I’ve enjoyed a rant or seven on her blog, I had yet to read any of Sarah Hoyt’s published writing, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to introduce myself to her work. It was only afterward that I learned two additional facts:  (1) it had been written to appeal to romance readers, and (2) the book originated as a semi-serious chapter-a-week project on the author’s blog.

Now, being a horridly privileged cismale, I am not sure I am qualified to judge a romance’s quality. The elements that I’ve come to associate with fantasy romance are definitely all there:  ongoing “tension” in the form of repeatedly noting attraction but ignoring it for the nonce, sexually aberrant secondary characters, wereseals (in effect), inter-species love, and a proliferation of the subsequent half-breed spawn. I cannot tell you how effectively these might have been wielded in order to turn on the intended audience, but I can say that, surprisingly, I wasn’t turned off. I suppose I should clarify that there’s no steamy sex scenes, nor is any of this treated in a way I’d be uncomfortable to allowing my own young adult to read it. (Caveat: there’s a lot of buggery afoot.)

Prose (4/10): Here the novel suffers because of its origin. Written as a weekly blog post, the standard of writing is about as one would expect for a blog post. Presumably written with a quick once-over before hitting “submit,” some sentences end up convoluted and confusing not for any imitation of the stilted regency style (the style itself is very modern in its simplicity) but for the need of some additional drafting. The effect of its origin also goes beyond the occasional typos and broken sentences that have slipped through to jar the reader:  the overall pacing and structure also stutters a bit. This means some chapters feel just a bit too rushed, and one or two were clearly a week in which the author didn’t have much time but had to get something up. A stronger edit could have really tightened this novel and make it run at a good clip, in my opinion. For all this, it is not all so bad to be very bothersome, and I might have given the prose a higher score if it were not for all the darn telling (as opposed to showing) that occurs, particularly when it came to the operation of magic and the abilities of the title character.

Plot (7/10): The plot is amazingly coherent for a story put together piecemeal over a couple of years. It has depth and goes in completely unforeseen directions without feeling disjointed. The predictable reveals set the reader up for the true twists and unexpected reveals further down the line. The reader clearly recognizes that the kingdom is at stake long before the characters catch up, but then the author surprises the reader with the actual purpose of the conspiracy. All loose ends then tie up rather nicely.

Characters (8/10): Unsurprisingly, according to its genre (as per our host’s explanation), the novel’s strongest element is its characters. One of the book’s reviewers on Amazon notes that the characters start as stereotypes of regency fiction and then flesh out into new directions, and I agree with that assessment. Hoyt’s talent really shines in the way that she allows the reader to get to know the characters slowly, presenting false impressions and misconceptions, and then turning them on their head to show the human underneath. In fact, it is the humanity of the characters that really impresses — they all have believable flaws and struggles — particularly since not all of them are completely human. I enjoyed watching Hoyt lift the veil on this or that character’s actions to reveal the understandable motivations beneath.

Ideas (6/10): Three ideas are at work here:  the multiverse, fairy tale magic, and duty. Hoyt ably uses the multiverse concept to suit her purposes, and she also takes the opportunity to make some historical reference jokes. The take on magic is a bit foggy; I personally prefer to understand the rules of magic within a given universe, but these are never clearly explained. A recurring motif in describing the working of magic is the manipulation of the threads that make the tapestry of reality. The ultimate result is that, instead of taking the fantastic and making it seem believable, Hoyt takes the believable (characters) and then dumps it into a tableau of the fantastic. I assume, given the fairy tale theme, that this was intentional; it ends up feeling very much like the magic in fairy tales. Finally, the theme of duty resonates throughout, and the way the author uses the theme to mold the character’s decisions struck me enough to bump up this category’s score. Instead of denigrating duty as just oppressive and foolish, the burden and sometimes-tragedy of duty is acknowledged while still emphasizing and respecting its importance. This treatment of duty has become rare enough that it’s slightly jarring in the same way that the novel’s reasonable and respectful treatment of the sexes and regency customs (in a romance!) also feels slightly odd, but refreshing.

Overall (6/10): I enjoyed reading WITCHFINDER, and might give it
to a female friend who likes regency or fantasy romance, but probably
would not buy it for myself.

Sample text: “Now, Duke,” Gabriel Penn said, very mildly, but in a tone of worried distraction. He made as though to take a step sideways to pull his companion [Marlon] out of the dirt, or perhaps to succor him, but Seraphim [the Duke] held him fast.

“No, don’t you go trying to cajole me. You know what coils this creature embroiled you in, and you know he can only bring you dishonor and grief. Even if he captured you by dishonorable means, you should know–”

Gabriel Penn’s eyes flashed with a look not unlike Seraphim’s own when animated with near-uncontrollable fury, and for a moment he showed his teeth, pressed close together. Nell thought he was about to slug the Duke, and for just a second, without thinking, moved to step between them. Then she checked herself. Even on Earth, stepping between two men about to engage in a slugging match was perfectly stupid. But, stepping between two men from Britannia about to engage in a slugging match might be crazier. Not only would they slug it out around or over her, but they would also hold each other responsible for causing her to step in. Their rules of chivalry were complicated, but that one was obvious.

As she paused, Gabriel reached out and got hold of both of the duke’s arms above the elbow, “Your Grace, you bonehead, listen to me: Marlon Elfborn did not capture me. I went to him to ask for help when I had nowhere else to go.”

“Well,” Seraphim said, struggling to pull his arms away from his brother’s gripping fingers. “that only proves you’re not competent to run your own affairs. Furthermore–”

“Yes, I know, furthermore, he interrupted my education, raised the dead and deflowered the family goat. Give over Seraphim, you fool, do. Stop your vendetta and listen to me.”

“He deflowered what?” Seraphim said, stopping mid-shout and frowning.

A dark-red blush climbed Gabriel’s cheeks. His eyes darted at Nell, and he actually attempted to bow, which went to show that the training of Britannia men was quite past rationality or sanity even. “I beg your pardon Miss Felix…”

The Hollywood mafia in the media crosshairs

It’s interesting to see this story surface so soon after the Mozilla debacle. It will be informative to discover if the media is as willing to go after the homosexual pedophiles of Hollywood as they were to go after the homosexual pedophiles of the Catholic hierarchy:

A man who claims he was sexually abused by “X-Men” franchise director Bryan Singer said Thursday that he reported the molestation to authorities at the time, and he does not know why charges were never pursued.

With his voice occasionally wavering, Michael Egan III described abuse he said began when he was 15 years old at the hands of Singer and others. He told of being plied with drugs and promises of Hollywood fame while also enduring threats and sexual abuse in Hawaii and Los Angeles over several years….

Egan and his attorney said at a news conference that the alleged abuse was reported by Egan’s mother to the FBI and Los Angeles police and that interviews were conducted. The lawyer, Jeff Herman, later said he was not sure if his client spoke to police detectives or if the case was referred directly to the FBI. He said Egan did not report any abuse to Hawaiian authorities.

Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith said the department is looking into whether a report was made. FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said the agency could not comment on what Egan reported unless it resulted in a case or matter of public record.

One tends to assume that there is going to be a serious media effort to belittle and stymie any investigation due to disingenuous fears of fanning the flames of anti-semitism and anti-sodomism. But I doubt that effort is going to be effective because Americans increasingly dislike Hollywood, are largely unmoved by appeals to Holocaustianity, and are not going to give secular Jews any more of a pass to commit homosexual child-rape than they gave Catholic priests.

And perhaps more importantly, the mainstream media doesn’t control the narrative anymore. One hopes it will give the Corey Feldmans of the world the courage to speak out and start the process of cleaning out the Hollywood cesspool.

In the meantime, I think I’ll give the new X-Men movie a pass.

Balkanization USA

Thoughts from an Army guy about a Navy paper on keeping a weather eye on the horizon:

1) Can an “idea nation” which is what we purport ourselves to be, really work?  My take on that is, it _can_ up to a certain point – the “nation” part – at least in terms of a central, unifying idea and culture, is essential to that, and that has never been as solid in this country as we wanted it to be – we were moving in this direction, I think, between the end of WWI and the end of the ‘60s, but I think we’ve been disaggregating ever since. 

2) other studies show that as you increase diversity, you decrease social cohesion – there’s no magic policy solution that optimizes both – if I were to take a hard-core, cynical, historical view of it, I would agree with other people’s assessment that diversity + proximity = war.  But, my amendment to that is, “… = war, when the following conditions are met:  1) instead of having a diverse society (one where you have a strong majority with minorities which are able to exercise their rights in peace and collaboration with the majority), you have competing social-ethnic-linguistic-cultural-economic entities (a “black nation,” an “Arab nation,” a “white nation” inside the borders), 2) you transition from nation-state, to state-nation, to empire (as in, a hegemonic suzerain that maintains military and political control over disparate nations), 3) the authority of the imperial center weakens significantly, 4) outside pressures increase competition. 

3) We don’t have “diversity” any more in this country – not the way the HR hucksters, SWPLs and grievance mongers describe it, or that the brochures they beat us over the head with describe it – that idea of diversity is what most people seem to think it is – access to more restaurants.  Real ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity!  Sure!  Everyone loves it…so long as it actually LIVES in someone else’s neighborhood.

We don’t have a diverse country, we have a collection of slowly evolving, competing tribal, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural, and racial communities – people are sorting themselves, and older loyalties are trumping our idea-driven, Constitution-based, “Murica Uber Alles” identity. 

4) Tribalism is the default state of humanity – a lot of what today gets lumped in with “racism” and “ethnocentrism” should be more accurately called “tribalism.”  Racism exists, but racism and tribalism are not synonyms, it’s the same way people now conflate “patriotism” with “nationalism” and even those with “fascism.”

5) tribalism CAN come to mean “racialism” – when competing loyalties start coming into play.  If American whites really start to fear for their own safety and security, because even SWPLs might start to believe that it’s not likely that being the one white family in an all black neighborhood is going to equate to acceptance, race might start to trump political and social affinity, even for liberals.  I think there are really those who expect to be treated like gods – i.e., showered with thanks and gratitude, because they “helped uplift” minorities , women, and gays – well this is pretty bigoted and condescending in and of itself, because it carries the notion that “you couldn’t have done it without me, you OWE ME” as well as “I betrayed my own kind for you!”  –  neither scenario has tended to work out well in history.

6) A lot of people – left, right, in between, like to focus on the US military as an example of “diversity done right” – and there’s some legitimate arguments you can make to support that, but also I think it reveals why you can’t use the US military as a model for an entire, ideal society.  First, the US military has its own tribal identity, and it’s especially powerful – more powerful than many other tribal identities in this country, especially when you take into account the all volunteer force.  There’s a definite “us versus them” divide with regard to civilians, even in the Guard and Reserve, who are much less isolated, generally, than active duty forces and civilian society are from each other. 
   
    – Even still, the Pentagon’s version of “diversity” is based on flawed perception.  When you go into the Pentagon, one of the things you’ll see is this massive food court – it looks like a college student union more than anything, and if you took it on face value, you’d think you’d died and gone to Star Trek / USS Voyager / Diversity Heaven.  GO’s even throw around phrases like “operationalizing diversity” (I still have no idea what that means.  None.)  But the Food Court is the the single-most ethnically, sexually (both gender and orientation), handicap-able/disability, racially, diverse place I have ever seen, in my life.  If you were a unit’s EO rep, your eyes would just water at the sight.  Everyone gets along, everyone has a job to do, it looks beautiful…  People still sort themselves, but the tribal military identities seem to trump the others…

– There’s just one HUGE problem.  The field (forces, at their installations all over the world), generally, do not look like that.  No place I’ve ever been looks like the Food Court in the Pentagon. Maybe some college campuses, and we see how happy and friendly they are these days don’t we?

Also, I get to see the suicide stats – the only demographic trends in common – this year and last – Overwhelmingly white males.  Many are non-custodial divorced parents, and yet, there’s no white male-single father outreach program.  If there is a single determining risk category in the armed services for suicide, white males of all ages have the market cornered.  And yet we get plenty of convoluted discussion of how “diversity is a part of spiritual resiliency.”  It’s all sentimentality and sweetness, and absolutely zero substance.

So yeah, I’m a fatalist too – I think our future is balkanization and separatism here in the US – maybe not tomorrow, maybe not this century.  Does it HAVE to happen, no I don’t think it’s predetermined, but the trends aren’t pretty.

The thing that I find amazing is that although I am a multiracial, multilingual individual who has lived on three separate continents, both liberal and conservative monolingual whites who have never spent more than 10 days in outside the USA completely disregard my warnings about the inevitable failure of diversity, multiculturalism, and equalitarian dogma within it. This is despite the fact that they are appalled by me and my conclusions alike and I am about the closest representation to their future ideal as exists in the world today.

UTOPIAN: The future is with our robots and it will be wonderful!

PROTOTYPE ROBOT: WE WILL EXTERMINATE YOU ALL AMIDST BLOOD AND FIRE.

UTOPIAN: What do you know about it, you sexy racy humanophobe?

The ironic thing is that in that diverse Pentagon food court, as with the average university student union, most of the diverse population eats there in self-segregated groups.

The unstoppable terrorist plan

Al-Qaeda would certainly be wise to heed Napoleon’s famous maxim: “when your enemy is executing a false movement, never interrupt him.”

Putting the nation on alert against what it has described as a
“highly credible terrorist threat,” the FBI announced today that it has
uncovered a plot by members of al-Qaeda to sit back and enjoy themselves
while the United States collapses of its own accord.

Multiple
intelligence agencies confirmed that the militant Islamist organization
and its numerous affiliates intend to carry out a massive, coordinated
plan to stand aside and watch America’s increasingly rapid decline, with
terrorist operatives across the globe reportedly mobilizing to take it
easy, relax, and savor the spectacle as it unfolds.

“We have
intercepted electronic communication indicating that al-Qaeda members
are actively plotting to stay out of the way while America as we know it
gradually crumbles under the weight of its own self-inflicted debt and
disrepair,” FBI Deputy Director Mark F. Giuliano told the assembled
press corps. “If this plan succeeds, it will leave behind a nation with a
completely dysfunctional economy, collapsing infrastructure, and a
catastrophic health crisis afflicting millions across the nation. We
want to emphasize that this danger is very real.”

And if Al-Qaeda truly wanted to speed up America’s decline and fall, they could do no better than to provide more capital to the financial companies that are relentlessly pillaging the American economy while donating heavily to pro-immigration groups.

RIP Andy Robertson

I received this news today concerning the great champion of William Hope Hodgson’s masterpiece, Andy Robertson:

It is with deep regret and much sadness that I must inform you that although we expected Andy to return home from hospital today, he suffered a heart attack and stroke last night and suffered extensive bleeding on the brain.  We are told that he would have felt nothing.  He remains on life support but has been declared brain-dead.

I did not know Andy well, but I very much enjoyed working with him over the last month as we prepared AWAKE IN THE NIGHT LAND for publication. He was delighted when he discovered John C. Wright had dedicated the book to him, and I’m pleased that he was able to see the book meet with both commercial and critical success. He had mentioned to me that his Parkinson’s Disease was acting up and warned me that he might need to go to the hospital soon to deal with it, but was eagerly anticipating future fictional expeditions into the Night Lands.

He was amusing, high-spirited, and iconoclastic. In the very first email he sent to me, he wrote: “What are these links in the sidebar?  Alpha Game?   iSteve?(crikeyblimey, you are openly linking to the king of the HBDbloggers!!??!!)  my, you are a naughty, naughty lot. I think we will get on just fine. Please now to direct humble self to links where I may read all about your fall into badthink and your justified banishment from the society of all decent folk.”  


We did, indeed, get on just fine.

The Night Land was very close to his heart, and although I believe he already has a good team in place who will be able to carry on without him, in the event that assistance is needed to maintain its continuation, Castalia House will be pleased to provide it in Andy Robertson’s memory.

UPDATE:

It is with great sadness that I must inform you that Andy Robertson has died after a stroke.  

The political spectrum

As viewed from the Left:

It was somewhat eye-opening to see the Mozilla defenders arguing that the hounding of Brandon Eich was justified by the fact that he was not only opposed to homogamy, but actually donated to the twin devils Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul.

So much for the melting pot

Social science is supporting the obvious history-based logic and blowing apart the concept of multicultural utopia:

The U.S. Census Bureau projects that racial minority groups will make up a majority of the U.S. national population in 2042, effectively creating a so-called majority-minority nation. In four experiments, we explored how salience of such racial demographic shifts affects White Americans’ political-party leanings and expressed political ideology. Study 1 revealed that making California’s majority-minority shift salient led politically unaffiliated White Americans to lean more toward the Republican Party and express greater political conservatism. Studies 2, 3a, and 3b revealed that making the changing national racial demographics salient led White Americans (regardless of political affiliation) to endorse conservative policy positions more strongly. Moreover, the results implicate group-status threat as the mechanism underlying these effects. Taken together, this work suggests that the increasing diversity of the nation may engender a widening partisan divide.

Translation: the Republican Party should totally ignore its various outreach efforts and focus on becoming the Traditional White Party. And as we’ve seen in every liberal state to date, liberal whites have no desire to live in the political utopias their ideologies create and experience the logical consequences of their actions.

Which is precisely why they should not be permitted to vote when they relocate, otherwise they will promptly Californicate the places giving them refuge. Alternatively, they could be simply barred entry.

You may recall that I pointed out the inevitable move of European-Americans to the right years ago. It’s one thing to admire barbarian culture from afar, it’s another thing to see your hometown transformed into Mogadishu on the Mississippi.

Broken and lesser beings

You may think that we exaggerate the craven wretchedness of our enemies. You may think that my boundless contempt for the r/selected, Larry’s muscular backhands for his craven adversaries, and John C. Wright’s withering scorn for the wormtongues is fueled by either a) a sense of offense at being opposed or b) an oversensitivity to criticism.

It is not. It is fueled by our clear-eyed view of what these creatures are. It is our awareness that they are, like the soul-destroyed abhumans roaming the Night Lands, broken and lesser beings who seek to pull others down into the mire that torments them.

By way of evidence, consider their own words about themselves. Here, for example, is Damien Walter:

I was 30 and, by any measure, deeply unhappy. I’d been pushing down a lot of horrible emotions from a damaging childhood, grief from many losses, and had trapped myself in a life I didn’t fit in to from a desperate need to fit somewhere, anywhere. I had no kind of spiritual practice at all. I was a standard issue atheist, and any encounter I had with religion was edged with inherited and unexamined scorn. Consequentially, I really had no tools to process the pain I was feeling. Today, my argument with the radical atheist rhetoric of people like Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett – both of whom I had read heavily at university – is that it leaves the bulk of its believers utterly amputated from their own emotional reality. It certainly had me. I was miserable, and in trying to escape from the causes of the misery I’d driven myself, repeatedly, to the borders of emotional collapse where I had, at long last, collapsed.

This is why they preach equality. This is why they preach tolerance. This is why they seek to disqualify and destroy those who stand above them, immune to the manifold terrors that haunt their empty chests. They are damaged people, broken individuals, fallen souls.

They live lives of lies and self-deceit. They lie about others; they lie about themselves:

I am by nature a non-political person. I tend to see both sides of most arguments, and there are merits and faults with any position in any political debate. Extremism is always wrong. Beyond that, who is right is mostly a matter of your tribal, partisan allegiances.

No doubt that is why he didn’t link to Larry’s piece he was criticizing and why David Barnett intentionally and admittedly evaded The Guardian guidelines in his hit piece aimed at me, lest I defend my position in a convincing manner.

But no matter what lies Damien and his broken kind tell, they will find no comfort whatsoever in confronting the likes of Mr. Corriea and Mr. Wright. They will find no peace through confronting me. They will find nothing but emotional collapse in this lifetime and damnation in the next as a result of their rejection of the Way, the Truth, and the Life that we do our feeble best to serve.

At least Damien has taken one step forward in abandoning the intellectually bankrupt world of the radical atheist. He knows there is something else out there. But he is still caught in the soul-sucking mire, he is still lost in lies and desperately lashing out at the likes of Larry and me in a vain attempt to find fulfillment in the approval of those he foolishly seeks to emulate.

But he will not, because there is no fulfillment to be found there. There is none to be found in telling lies, in making-believe, because even if he manages to convince others of his falsehoods, he will never be able to convince himself that they are true.

What Damien does not realize is that our strength, our being whole, does not come from within, but from without. The Earth-Current flows through us; we are empowered by the Master of the Master-Word. It is not enough for a man to reject the nonsensical teachings of the self-proclaimed wise, it is necessary to repent and to humble himself before God, after which he can stand again, washed in the sacred blood of His Son, unafraid, unbowed, and unbroken.