Los Angeles Goes Stupid On Minimum Wage

It seems California hasn’t learned the lesson about raising the minimum wage to unsustainable levels. More specifically, Los Angeles has voted to raise the minimum wage to $30 at hotels and for LAX. I expect we’ll see the same outcome as when California raised fast food minimum wage to $20.

Layoffs. Lots and lots of layoffs.

It’s already starting.

1. They may not hire the worker at all. Outlawing jobs below a certain pay doesn’t guarantee higher-paid work; it guarantees unemployment for those priced out. If a person’s skills or experience don’t merit $30 in the market, this law has made it illegal for them to earn a wage at all. Consider an immigrant with limited English who might start in hotel housekeeping, dishwashing, or entry-level service jobs. At $15 – $20 an hour, an employer might take a chance and hire them, training them on the job. At $30 an hour, that same employer will likely demand a more experienced, highly productive worker for the role (if the role isn’t eliminated altogether). The rung at the bottom of the ladder gets sawed off.

2. Employers substitute and automate. When labor gets costlier, it drives businesses to find ways to get by with less labor. That can mean investing in machines or tech or shifting work onto customers or remaining staff. Many chains curtailed daily housekeeping and never restored it fully (often spinning it as “green choice” to save water, while conveniently saving on payroll).Expect more automation at the airport and hotels: kiosks instead clerks, mobile ordering in airport eateries, robotic floor cleaners. Even trash collection can be automated; Pittsburgh deployed robotic vacuum sweepers. When labor costs skyrocket, technology that replaces that labor suddenly looks a lot more attractive.

In effect, L.A. could make itself even more expensive, driving away the very tourism dollars it’s trying to redistribute.

So we’ll see a repeat of what happened when California raised the fast food minimum wage. It is insane to think it won’t happen again. Remember Einstein’s the definition of insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result this time.”

Are there any economists left in California that are not Marxists? If there are, have they been silenced by The Powers That Be because their warnings don’t support The Narrative?

Why they think that this jump in minimum wage for this particular group will somehow solve problems that can’t be solved in this fashion puzzles me. It merely makes things cost more because the wage raise will cause the cost of services to increase. It ripples through the local economy. It’s no different than when energy costs increase, something that effects the cost of everything. Decisions made in Washington that adversely affect energy prices triggers inflation that generally cannot be offset by other measures.

Will the folks in LA realize they’ve made a mistake and rescind the wage jump? Of course they won’t because they really aren’t all that smart. Look at the people they elect to office as proof of that.

Friday Funny - Why My Wife Mows The Lawn

Thoughts On A Sunday

This will be an abbreviated post as the last of the WP Clan departed just a little while ago and I usually write this post throughout the day. ‘Regular’ TOAS will return next Sunday.

It’s Mother’s Day and the WP Clan gathered here at The Gulch to celebrate the day with the WP Mom. The weather was cooperative, being sunny and in the upper 50’s until late afternoon when it finally made it into the low 60’s. We got about 2 inches of rain over the previous five days which has made the brooks and streams run with the rainfall. Fortunately we didn’t experience any flooding due to the rain, but other parts of New Hampshire, primarily the southern counties, did see some flooding here and there. Any precipitation deficit we had is now long gone as we’ve had more rain than we usually get for the entire month in just the first 9 days of the month.

One of the downsides of the rain we’ve received is that it has prevented paving of the state road that passes by the area where The Gulch is located. On more than a few occasions preparation and paving operations have delayed my ability to get to work or get home and on occasion made it impossible to leave The Gulch so I had to work from home. I had hoped all of the paving would have been completed by the middle of this coming week, but now it looks it will take at least a week longer than that.

Welcome to Construction Season!

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It’s gotten so bad for the Dems and their MSM flunkies that the “House of Stephanopoulus” has descended to outright lying regarding President Trump. In this case ABC’s Jonathan Karl posted an outright lie that was easily disproven about Qatar allegedly giving Trump a luxury Boeing jet in violation of law. It was an easily disproven lie.

Yes, there is a Boeing jet. Yes, it used to be owned by Qatar. No, it wasn’t a gift.

Instead, it is being modifed by a Texas firm to become an ‘interim’ Air Force One while Boeing still struggles to deliver new jets for use as Air Force One to replace the aging 747’s presently being used.

I figure this is just the beginning of the new propaganda war to discredit Trump and the GOP. The truth need not apply.

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Oh, yeah, this is going to get the Left upset, not because of what this group has admitted regarding of what they’re working towards, but because of the reaction that will follow this admission.

College Palestinian Group Admits Their Job Is To Destroy The Unites States.

A Palestinian support group and domestic terror outfit that operates with impunity on many U.S. college campuses has now admitted openly that they see it as their job to destroy the United States of America by subvert our youth.

The group, Students for Justice in Palestine, is responsible for many of the racist, anti-Jewish protests at schools all across the country.

These Muslim terrorists pretend that they are supporting the human rights of so-called “Palestinians” and are protesting “genocide” being perpetrated against Gazans by Israel.

--snip--

Temple University activist Rishi Arun openly admitted that “It is our job to destroy imperialism, destroy the United States, and destroy capitalism.”

“We will do it by organizing that actively undermines and destabilizes the legitimacy and the power of [the United States],” he adds, “and the power and legitimacy of capitalism,” this terrorist added.

So he has admitted he is an active enemy of the US which means he is fomenting treason, terrorist activities, and doing so on the behalf of adversaries and enemies in the Middle East. Why is this guy still free? Somehow I doubt the First Amendment covers enemy agents working to destroy the government and doing so openly. If he is here on a student visa it should be revoked and he should be deported as an enemy alien.

Of course I expect the Left and the Dems in Congress to aid and support this enemy of the US. (Somehow I think they believe that if the support him that they will be seen as friends...but they won’t. He probably wants them dead, too.)

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While this sounds interesting, I doubt that it will actually occur.

Meet the potential 51st state: Alberta

Alberta doesn’t belong in this Canada.

That’s not treason. It’s not even radical. It’s a simple observation of cultural, economic, and political reality — a reality growing starker by the year. Albertans have known for decades that something is deeply broken in the Confederation they were born into. But it’s only recently, as Ottawa’s indifference curdled into hostility, that many have begun asking the inevitable question: What if we left?

Not just to form a new nation. But to join one that already reflects their values. A nation that respects liberty, rewards hard work, and doesn’t treat resource-producing states or provinces like piggy banks and political afterthoughts. A nation that — however imperfect — still believes in the rule of law, in constitutional government, and in the right of free people to govern themselves.

That nation is not Canada. That nation is the United States.

If it comes to that, will Alberta tell Ottawa “We’re outta here”? Goodness knows they are seeing less and less reasons to remain as part of Canada. A lot of money flows from Alberta to Ottawa and from there to some of the other “less fortunate” provinces...like Quebec, just to name one.

Albertans also dislike their political disfranchisement with Parliament set up to favor the Eastern provinces and a Prime Minister’s office that has been ruling by decree, often “in open contempt of the West.”

Why would anyone want to continue trying to live under conditions that to all intents and purposes makes Albertans nothing more than serfs to the ‘nobles’ in Ottawa.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Alberta votes to leave Canada. But I wouldn’t automatically assume they would then apply for statehood in the US.

But it could happen.

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And that’s the abbreviated news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather has been drying out, the paving is restarting, and Monday is returning yet again.

Is Artificial Intelligence A Threat To Jobs?

I saw post over at PJ Media and it got me to wondering if we were seeing yet another version of machines taking jobs away from human beings? I’d have to say the answer is likely to be “Yes”. What’s this next round of machines versus humans doing jobs?

Artificial Intelligence – or A.I. - taking over office jobs...to start with.

In light of this possibility I and going to quote something paraphrased in the original post that came from the second scariest A.I. movie I can think of:

"Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop... EVER, until your job has been fully automated!" —Kyle Reese in a reboot of "The Terminator," possibly.

Some of the examples of A.I. that is already out there is already impressive. I think we’ve all seen examples from things like ChatGPT and Grok, just to name two. One friend has said he uses A.I. rather than Google to do web searches because as he said, “I get better results that are more relevant to what I’m looking for.” I have also seen examples where A.I. gets it hilariously wrong, particularly when it comes to generating images.

Could A.I. do my job, engineering, better than I can? For some parts of my job I’d have to say that it probably can, particularly when it comes to dealing with the products I help design and develop by ensuring they will meet the ever growing range of environmental regulations and requirements being generated, particularly in the EU. But when it comes to being creative, to wondering “What if?” and seeing what can be done, I would have to say that it can’t, at least not any time soon. My job has led me to file for and receive a number of patents, many of which were thought of by wondering if there were better ways of doing “This, That, and the Other Thing” which has in turn led to new products that have garnered a lot of business for my employer.

What about other jobs like bookkeeping, logistics planning, order entry, or product schedule planning, just to name a few? I’d say the answer is a qualified “Yes”, that being because it isn’t quite there yet, but it is getting there.

What about something as simple as providing companionship? A.I. is already doing some of that as we’ve seen with the phenomenon of so-called A.I. “girlfriends”. We’ve seen the fictional application of A.I. for this in the movie Her even though the A.I. hadn’t been developed for this purpose.

Is A.I. scary? Yes, part of that being we don’t really know what it will become capable of doing. We’ve seen examples of A.I. going wrong in movies like The Terminator. As I said, I thought it was the second scariest A.I. movie. The scariest?

Colossus – The Forbin Project.

The coolest A.I. movie?

A.I. Artificial Intelligence, with Haley Joel Osment as an A.I. in the form of a young boy.

Getting back to the main subject, will A.I. end up taking over your job? Who knows?

Friday Funny - Running

I'll Tell You The Story - Binky And COVID

Thoughts On A Sunday

It’s been a somewhat screwy weekend weather-wise, between sunshine, clouds, rain – both light and heavy – as well as fog. One other thing is that the leaves have been coming out on the trees with the birches leading the way, at least around here at The Gulch. I’ve also seen the leaves coming out on the apple tree next to the house, and on maples here and there. I think the oaks will be out shortly.

The Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout will be coming out of winter storage in a little less than 2 weeks. After some work like clean up and getting the gear loaded into the boat it should be back in the water a few days after we pick it up from storage.

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I have been dealing with a changeover from my old work laptop, a Lenovo P50, to my new one, a Lenovo P16, for some time now. The P16 is using Windows 11 and from my previous post on the subject you know I really don’t like Windows 11.

I spent almost the entire work day this past Friday trying to finalize the changeover and have hit a few snags, something I hope to get squared away over the next couple of days. I have made the suggestion to one of our IT head honchos that maybe it’s time to consider dumping Windows for Linux. While I heard sympathetic noises, it looks like my employer is held in thrall to Microsoft.

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Elon Musk won his first election...by a landslide!

The results: 173-4!

In this case it was about incorporating the town of Starbase, Texas.

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Just when I thought the hypocrisy couldn’t and deeper I was proven wrong. In this case it’s taking place in the UK.

The hypocrisy?

The Members of the UK Parliament have lost access to EV charging stations in the New Palace Yard’s underground parking garage, having been removed due to “health and safety grounds following a review by the Safety and Fire teams, and in consultation with the Chair of the Administration Committee.”

In other words, they don’t want anyone charging EVs – the same ones they pushed as the solution to climate charge – because they are too dangerous to be allowed to charge in a parking garage because they might ignite and cause damage and destruction to neighboring vehicles and to the underground garage itself.

It looks like they are admitting (finally) that EVs are not much more than wheeled thermal grenades with loose pins.

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As if it isn’t well known that California’s High Speed Rail project is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget, it seems that the Pyrite State isn’t willing to admit it’s a doomed project, one that should be canceled. From the beginning this was a doomed project, with poor planning regarding its route and which sections of the rail line would be built first.

California’s high-speed rail project is a lesson in the inefficiency of big government. The project was started nearly twenty years ago and they have not even started laying down tracks.

One of the reasons it’s in the news right now is because it has gone way over budget and the people in charge are looking for alternate forms of funding.

The current CEO, who came on board last summer, is now claiming that the project might be finished in twenty years. That would be the year 2045.

It’s going to take a total of 40 years to build a high-speed rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco? Maybe they should have hired the guys who designed and built the TGV high speed rail system in France. It would have been done in only a few years and would have been operating for almost 15 years by now. But then, California isn’t exactly known for getting things done in a timely fashion and hasn’t been for decades. Heck, they can’t seem to repair a quarter-mile stretch of Highway 1 in Big Sur, something that’s been waiting for repair for 840 days now and isn’t likely to for another 840 days if past performance is any indicator.

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I’m not sure what to make of this. Is it calculated act to open dialogue with the US or is it an act desperation to keep its economy operating?

China EXEMPTS A Quarter of US Imports From Tariffs

China quietly exempts US goods from tariffs, covering around $40 billion worth of imports, in an effort to soften the blow of the trade war on its own economy.

Chinese officials are quietly drawing up a “whitelist” of critical U.S. goods that importers rely on to exempt them from Beijing’s retaliatory tariffs, Reuters reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

The news adds to a growing number of reports from China of businesses discovering that tariffs have been waived on some goods, such as certain semiconductor and integrated circuit products.

It also shows how, underneath its tough rhetoric, Beijing is trying to mitigate the impact of the U.S. trade war on its export-reliant economy, the world’s second-largest, which was already under pressure from a broader slowdown.

Even before the trade war China’s economy had been struggling. The punitive tariffs placed an even greater burden on its economy as trade fell off. Then add in the purported demographic problems facing China and it is a perfect storm of bad economic forces.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

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Hmm. What do we have here?

A blast from the past, indeed.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the rain is hanging around for a couple of more days, everyone is getting ready of the summer tourist season, and where we wonder where the heck the weekend went.

Bicyclist Need To Learn Traffic Laws Apply To Them Too

I saw this over at Instapundit, a PJ Media posting reminding bicyclists that the roads were built for cars and trucks. As Glenn Reynolds commented in his post, “I’m convinced that so many people hate cyclists because they’re perceived as cheaters, demanding the rights of cars when it suits them, then running traffic lights or u-turning in traffic without a thought.”

I will admit that I have seen more than few bicyclists doing what Glenn mentions, but more often that not it’s not the cyclists who are more than just casual riders – the serious die-hard cyclists – but the ‘casual’ riders who seem to think the traffic laws and “rules of the road” don’t apply to them. They’ll do incredibly dumb stuff, somehow thinking any ‘argument’ they have with motor vehicles that weigh 10+ times what they do will somehow work out in their favor. Imagine their surprise when they find out they’re wrong.

I have seen more than a few...hundred…videos on YouTube of cyclists ignoring traffic laws, taking shortcuts that cut across traffic, pretending traffic signals don’t mean them, and those incidents ended badly for the cyclists. One thing I have noticed is that an increasing number of them are riding e-bikes. I don’t if it’s because e-bikes are becoming more popular or that the clueless scofflaws are buying them. It seems most accidents takes place primarily at intersections and the cyclists ignore stop signs and traffic lights.

Another group of riders that are also increasingly putting their lives at risk are those riding e-scooters. It may be just my opinion but it seems to me they are even worse than the scofflaw cyclists, weaving in and out of traffic, hopping on and off sidewalks and weaving their way through traffic and around pedestrians. It also appears that many of the e-scooter riders are young and not yet of driving age which might be one factor as to why they do what they do.

While I haven’t seen much of the behavior described above around here, I have seen it. It makes me wonder how many of those folks are “from away” and are merely repeating the behavior used back where they come from.

Friday Funny - I'm Spanish