Friday Gathering: Cash for Clunkers Edition
By Stew
I enjoy reading other bloggers and here are a few posts from around the personal finance blogosphere that I enjoyed this week:
Being Frugal wonders if there is ever a moral obligation to pay more. The reason cited in the post is related to employee compensation, i.e. should we choose Company A over Company B simply because their employees are better compensated – even if Company A costs more. I believe that a product or service is worth only what the market will bear. If Company A wants to charge more, they must demonstrate why their product or service is superior.
Pete at Bible Money Matters discusses the government Cash for Clunkers program. I’m not sure what to think of Cash for Clunkers, but I find it a little humorous that the EPA just changed the gas mileage ratings for about 100 cars overnight making them ineligible for the rebate. Awesome. Late Edit: Just as I am finishing up this post, I find out that the program has been suspended.
The Silicon Valley Blogger posted an insightful conversation about the minimum wage. I enjoyed her treatment of it (I believe it was a guest post) and came away with the same two suspicions that I have had for a long time – the minimum wage raises prices and lowers the number of jobs. Once again, the worker is worth what the market will bear. If you do not want to earn a low salary, find a way to be worth more to your employer.
One of the best articles from the past week is found at Wisdom Journal and it is entitled: Put the squeeze on SpongeBob. I often wonder how getting rid of our television would affect my children’s level of consumerism. We limit the amount of name brand stuff that we get, our children stick with the basics for the most part, but they always recognize and ask for the cutting edge, marketed products. Frankly, our kids don’t watch a lot of television anyway, but it always astounds me how much they pick up from the commercials that they do see.
Have a great weekend! Don’t just spend money, spend time with family.
Photo by youngthousands
July 31st, 2009 at 8:15 am
The latest is that the cash for clunkers program is running our of money…after one week.
July 31st, 2009 at 12:45 pm
The cash for clunkers program has not been suspended. The Democrats are trying to get more of the stimulus money to support the program and it’s expected to happen.
July 31st, 2009 at 2:00 pm
“If you do not want to earn a low salary, find a way to be worth more to your employer.”
Ouch. I know quite a few people who are unable to do just that, one in particular who just doesn’t have the mental ability to do more with his life. Should he suffer for it?
Starting out in a low wage job and working my way up more then an extra $1 an hour in very little time I was a bit annoyed that the increase in wages cut me back down to rock bottom wage again. That being said maybe we should also worry about the $3.85 an hour our waitresses make.
July 31st, 2009 at 5:18 pm
“If you do not want to earn a low salary, find a way to be worth more to your employer.”
Don’t you think that it’s a little tired to drag out the “poor people are poor because they don’t work hard enough!” argument? With the state of things as they are now, employers have little difficulty finding someone who will be happy to do a job for the minimum amount of money.
My company has strict orders from corporate to give out no more than $4.00/hour of raises to be split among 25 people this year. I don’t know if you’ve ever worked retail, but it doesn’t matter how much your boss thinks you’re worth, raises are set strictly by corporate. These are the people who suffer if minimum wage stays the same regardless of what the cost of living is.
August 6th, 2009 at 12:27 am
Thanks for the roundup! Do you agree with Obama that the Cash For Clunkers program is a success?
August 6th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
ha, ha. Not so much. :)