Divemedic

 I posted the other day about the effect of the new Florida minimum wage on prices. I spoke with my brother about it, and he actually gave me a few details about how he is going to deal with it. 

My brother owns a retail sales company that has 30 employees. Since the new minimum wage is going to increase his labor costs, he is going to have to find a way to make the new numbers work. He can’t raise prices very much, because his competition will slaughter him if he does. 

So he has to cut costs. He can’t cut the cost of inventory, those prices are what they are. he is already at a cost disadvantage because larger companies already buy product by the railcar and get quantity discounts that he cannot hope to match.

Here is what he came up with:

Plan A:

An employee currently is paid for 2,080 hours per year. A 16 percent raise is equivalent to 333 hours of work. That is equal to 42 days at 8 hours a day, or about 2 months of the work year. 

Vacation, paid sick leave, and holidays mean that employees get paid for 180 hours per year when they are not working. That means that 9 percent of his labor cost is paying employees when they are not working. So, half of the first year’s raise is going to be made up by eliminating all paid time off- no sick leave, vacations, or holidays. If you aren’t at work, you aren’t getting paid. Now he isn’t a Scrooge- his employees will still get holidays off, they just won’t be getting paid. 

Additionally, he will be implementing a quota system for productivity. Any employee who falls short of their quota will receive a warning. If they continue to fail to meet that quota, they will be terminated. 

Plan B: 

Liquidate, fire everyone, and retire. 

 Yesterday, a student was told to remove her mask because it had BLM printed on it. The school is even handed- the dress code prohibits Trump stuff, too. Also prohibited are things like rebel flags, clothing with sexual or vulgar language, and other things that are disruptive in a school. 

Anyway, that student then organized a group of about 30 to 50 students who then refused to go to class and stood outside chanting “Black Lives Matter” while standing in front of the school’s entrance so as to prevent anyone from entering. They began sending pictures of themselves protesting to other students in an attempt to get them to leave class and join the protest. 

This student is known to me- I had her last year. She is a loudmouthed asshole. In fact, the same student was the subject of a post last year. When I was having trouble in class with students using phones during class, I gave them a writing assignment of “How cell phones disrupt learning” and I got back a barely literate screed that included statements like “I am not your pet or your child… but I am not finna sit here and act like I am OK with the way y’all treat us just because y’all got a little piece of paper that says you are a teacher”

 The voters of the state of Florida voted to increase the minimum wage. The current wage is $8.56 per hour. On September 30, 2021, that will increase by 16 percent to $10 per hour. Each year, it will increase by an additional dollar per hour until the year 2026, when it will reach $15 an hour. 

My rental expenses are increasing. Last year, our property taxes increased by 28% and didn’t increase rent.  Now we are going to see increases in landscaping costs, repair costs, and likely utility increases. The cost of landscaping is sure to increase. There will be other increases, such as added costs for repair parts, supplies, and other things like utilities. I just don’t know how much our costs are going to rise. 

As a preemptive measure, we are increasing rents on our properties by 5 percent as each lease expires. Next year, we will likely increase by at least ten percent, more if taxes or other expenses rise more than expected. 

Our costs increase, we pass the increase on to the consumer. That’s how economics works. 

 It looks to be over. Biden will be the next President. The only real positive here is that the Republicans still hold the Senate, but it is by a small margin. Collins and Murkowski crossing the aisle will be enough to give the Democrats all sorts of things from their wish list. 

What do the next two years hold? Will there be new gun laws? Probably. Puerto Rico being admitted as a state would give the Democrats two more votes in the Senate. Will that happen? Who knows? Will Biden complete the entire term, or will we see President Harris? Will SCOTUS get packed? 

Interesting times. I am going to post a few items that explain my take on the changes brought about for Florida by this election, then I don’t think I will be posting for a bit, until I see how things are going to play out. 

I was informed by a female student that she is “nonbinary” and wants to be referred to by a male name – let’s call it “Steve.” I refused. The school is telling me that I MUST call a student by whatever name they choose for themselves. They also have told me that I cannot divulge the student’s sexual identity to anyone- including the child’s parents- without the student’s permission.

I am not going to use her made up name. In fact, I will only refer to students by the name that they are registered under. I am also refusing to keep such a secret from the child’s parents. They can fire me if they want, but I promise that should that happen, I will make sure that the school district becomes national news.

There will be one less Democrat voter in Palm Beach county next election. Election fraud and unauthorized access to a computer network are both felonies in Florida. 

 There were people in comments to my 6-3 article that wanted to point out that Roberts is a wishy-washy conservative and will cave to the Democrat side. He can’t. Let me explain why:

Whatever the opinion is, the senior member of the court that is a part of that opinion is the one who decides who gets to write that opinion. So if Roberts wants to side with the 3 judge minority, then Thomas gets to assign the writing of the majority opinion to whichever justice he pleases. 

The only way that Roberts gets to do any damage control whatsoever is by limiting the scope of the opinion. Otherwise, the majority opinion will contain the strongest progun opinion that will still maintain the opinion of the majority. So he HAS to vote with the progun majority, or there is a risk that 922(o) will be struck down. 

 Remember that on election night in 2016 at 9pm, the New York Times was still predicting an 80% chance that Hillary would win the presidency.

 Now that ACB is confirmed, there is a 6-3 majority of conservative justices in SCOTUS. What will that mean for gun rights? I am very encouraged at this point.