Monday, January 11, 2016

Mark Perry Calls for Minimum Temperature Laws

Mark Perry writes:

In Defense of the Minimum Temperature Law:

Even though this winter is relatively mild so far in the US, the thousands of cold weather-related deaths that take place annually in the UK, the US and elsewhere firmly establish that we are at the mercy of a very cruel, ruthless, merciless, cold-hearted, and uncaring force: Mother Nature.

Something must be done about this unacceptable situation. Without some kind of government intervention in the market for low temperature readings being registered on existing thermometers and thermostats, Mother Nature will continually and ruthlessly expose the elderly in the UK, America and other cold climate countries to harsh winter conditions of unconscionably low temperatures. Who among us wouldn’t agree that these excessively low winter temperatures are unfair, unreasonable, unjust and even immoral?

To counteract this inherent cold weather injustice and Mother Nature’s ongoing lack of concern for cold Brits and Americans, our collective sense of fairness and justice requires legislation that will force all thermostats and thermometers sold in the United Kingdom and the United States to have a minimum, reasonable and fair temperature reading of let’s say 0 degrees Fahrenheit. As part of a newly proposed “Fair Minimum WageTemperature Act of 2016” for the US, all existing thermometers and thermostats in homes, offices, and businesses should be immediately replaced with new temperature-reading equipment with a minimum reading of 0 degrees Fahrenheit.

Any temperatures below that minimum (e.g. -10 degrees F. or -20 degrees F.) are considered to be unfair, immoral and unconscionably low, and will be illegal and outlawed by the Fair Minimum Temperature Act of 2016, with violations subject to penalties, fines and possible jail time for thermostat manufacturers continuing to sell thermostats with temperature readings below the government-mandated minimum temperature. Further, all news and weather reports, all TV and radio stations, and all newspapers and websites are immediately prohibited from quoting any temperatures below the federally mandated minimum of 0 degrees F.

If successful this winter, subsequent legislation for a “Fair Maximum Temperature Act of 2016” should be considered for summer months, e.g. a maximum allowable temperature reading of 85 degrees Fahrenheit on all thermostats to control Mother Nature’s unfair “temperature gouging” and “temperature scalping” during the hot summer months, frequently leading to weather-related deaths.

Bottom Line: If the proposed Minimum/Maximum Temperature Laws seem ridiculous, that’s because theyare totally ridiculous. And so is the Minimum Wage Law.Unfair Government Mandate Preventing Thousands of Unskilled Workers from Finding a Job. Forcing employers to pay an unskilled worker $10.10 per hour (or $12 as proposed by Hillary Clinton and $15 an hour as is currently being proposed by Bernie Sanders and the NY Times, among others) won’t change the reality that many of those workers are actually only worth $7 or $8 per hour in the labor market. The artificially high minimum wage causes distortions and inefficiencies in the unskilled labor market because the minimum wage does not accurately and truthfully reflect many workers’ true productivity, and it’s like creating a government-mandated fantasy world (or government censorship and lies, according to Don above). A disconnect is created between the true measure (e.g. $7 per hour) and an artificial, government-mandated measure ($10.10, $12 or $15 an hour), of a worker’s value or productivity.

The entire essay is here.

2 comments:

  1. I am all for this and will be getting a hold of my local representatives to demand action. We have got to stop Mother Nature arbitrarily making the temps whatever she feels on a whim. It is impossible to make any economic calculation with this nonsense.
    I bought 10 cords of woods this year, and it has been unusually warm this winter. So I won't need all 10 cords, which I usually do!
    Sure, I could use this wood next winter, but I could have used the money I would have saved if I bought only 7 cords to purchase something else this year. This has got to stop.
    Mother Nature is obviously against the free market and is in cahoots with crony-capitalist in the home heating industry. Robert, have you forwarded this topic to Bernie Sanders yet? I have no doubt he will champion it for us.

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  2. I would also suggest laws specifying allowed energy output ranges for the Sun.

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