No peeking -- test your basic econ facts

In My Humble Opinion
41

The questions also ill-phrased, since there are ten or so States with higher minimum wage then the Federal minimum wage. So do we count minimum wage workers in CA, where the minimum wage is higher then the federal level?

42

Just guessing:

  1. 5%
  2. 10%
  3. 1%
43

Can’t speak for sales, but profit and OH numbers for construction contracts typically are 10% & 15%, respectively.

44

  1. minium wage workers: 6%

  2. profits vary by industry, before or after taxes; around 5%

  3. less than 2%

45

So, is there a point to this exercise, aside from showing that these numbers are really stand-ins for much more complex statistics? Some proposed policy you’d like to talk about that having a consensus agreement on these would be a helpful baseline for debate? These numbers change daily, and with a concept as nebulous as “profit” it’s hard to say if they exist in any real sense to begin with. So what does knowing them, as much as one can know them, buy us for the purposes of this thread?

Enjoy,
Steven

46

I’d like to point out that none of these are basic economics facts. These are, at best, measurements of the current economic situation in this country. A basic economic fact would be something like “Given constant demand, as supply of a commodity decreases, the price increases”.

And on the second question, I’d like to know what weighting the average is supposed to have. Are we averaging over all companies? Companies by number of employees? All transactions? All dollars spent?

47

Those data are a snapshot of various statistics. They imply no more knowledge about economics than the question “What was the raccoon population of New York in 2009?” implies knowledge of zoology.

A basic econ fact might be along the lines of: “When and where did the first industrial revolution start?”

48

  1. I remember a figure of about 3%, but that’s from a long time ago and it may be different now.

  2. Very low. Low single digits.

  3. In the neighborhood of one percent.

49

  1. No freakin’ idea

  2. No goddam idea

  3. Absolutely no freakin’ goddam idea

Just curious - why is it important that we know or guess these items without looking them up?

50
  1. 15%. Since the question is “workers” not “adults” there are probably a lot of high school and college kids earning these rates.
  2. 5% but only due to creative accounting that shifts profits into overhead
  3. 2%
51

  1. 10%

  2. 1%

  3. 1%