The World Economic Forum is out with a new chart that lists the world’s highest minimum wage. The data look at U.S. dollars per hour after taxes at purchasing power parities as of 2013.
The top five countries are Australia, Luxembourg, Belgium, Ireland and France. The bottom three are Mexico, Latvia and Chile. The United States and Canada, meanwhile, are ranked somewhere in the middle.
Here is the chart:
Where are the world’s highest minimum wages? https://t.co/f9yFF8hy7ppic.twitter.com/S0gQmeF5g9
— World Economic Forum (@wef) April 5, 2016
Of course, minimum wage is compulsory unemployment that hurts the very people it is supposed to help. The minimum wage should be abolished since it distorts the labor market, leads to job losses and only benefits unions. Indeed, there are many, many reasons to get rid of the minimum wage (SEE: An extensive critique on Jesse Ventura calling for minimum wage hike).
The high wages are one reason why we are the most leveraged Country/Debt farm in the world. When our current unemployment moves from 15% to 40%, we will have a nasty re-adjustment in asset prices. We are also in a dumb bubble, the biggest Ponzi scheme since history has began. We collectively owe 5.7 trillion Australian dollars, with only 7-10 Million taxpayers. Just to clarify, the debt is far more than 5 million times a million dollars, around 2-3 million dollars per household. Its a doomed system, a game of musical chairs.
http://www.australiandebtclock.com.au/