The Minimum wage...is it minimum

Many people talk about social equality and that all men are equal. I tend to take a middle path on this. If one looks at the success of olden civilizations, it will be clear that there was an obvious social demarcation between classes of people. The Hindu society itself was divided into four classes based on their role in society, namely Brahmana ("scholarly community"), Kshatriya ("warriors or politicians community"), Vaishya ("mercantile community") and Shudra ("service providing community"). Each person in the society should have a role and they should perform that role. There is no question of equality here.

America and a few western countries are now at a stage where they are finding it hard to find people to do menial jobs. Have a visit of the Servos and convenience stores in Melbourne during the weekends you will find scores of Chinese immigrants and Asian students working there. Simple reason is that the local people do not work in such jobs. So is the case with America. America is facing a problem with illegal immigrants from Mexico. The argument in favour of the illegal immigrants is that they form a fabric of America and they are ready to do the menial jobs Americans don’t want to do and better they will do it for half the pay.

It is widely argued (at least in some quarters) that increasing the minimum wage is critical to an economy thus bringing social equality. I tend to disagree on that. I bought a wrist watch (no prizes for guessing where it was made from) from Kmart. It cost be $7.50. I tried hard to get it adjusted to my size by removing a couple of (I don’t know what you call them, you know the chain type of thing) plates I guess. I could not and then I took it to the watch repairer whom you find in the middle of the aisle in shopping malls. You won’t believe it; he quoted $22.50 to do it. It is ridiculous. But lets wait for a minute and think rationally why is he charging that much. Well, my theory is that the worker will be paid at least $20 per hour as a consequence of the minimum wage and his skill. Know you can work the math and add margin, cost of rent etc., and figure out whey I was charged that much.

Another example, when I was studying I had to change the muffler on my Apollo Holder. It cost me $40 for a second hand muffler and $60 to refit. It was a 45 minute job.

I cannot see this happening in any of the developed countries, because we have no minimum wages and we always have another person do it for cheaper. On the other hand in western countries irrespective of what service you require you will find the price more or less the same and they will not budge on the price.

The point I am trying to get at is there should be no minimum wage the invisible hands of supply and demand should determine that. I do hope India does not tread the path of minimum wages.

Disclaimer: I am not an economist and I do not claim that my theory is fool proof. I welcome comments and criticisms.

I had to do this...sorry

I start with Diwali and I dont know where its going to end

It is Diwali today and tomorrow...no lights...no lamps...no music...no crackers...no new clothes...no sweets...no fanfare...

I live in an alien nation called Australia...the land of the Kangaroo (Kangaroos outnumber hunans here). To put it in perspective the population of Australia is nearly equal to the population of Bombay.

I am in Brisbane, not so multi-ethnic as Melbourne or Sydney. Apparently there is a huge celebration in Federation Square in Melboure. I hate to miss it.

Okay enough beating about the bush. The point I am getting at is we tend to forget a lot of India connections trying to chase the Pardes Dream. It might be materialistically (I have no idea if I have spelt that right, please excuse me if it is'nt - this spell checker on the blogger is'nt that great, see again I am off on a tangent, you know what? Now I even doubt if there is a word materialistically, forget the spelling - time to visit dictionary.com - confirmed there is - I can't beleive I am off again) beneficial, but I feel I am moving far away from my motherland. It drives be bananas sometimes.

I am not that emotional a person (I know a lot of people who will vouch for that ;) but still when I listen to Indian Music I feel the urge to go back and live life there. The movies in Satyam, teh Molaga Bajii in Beasat Nagar, Picnic Bar (I am not sure if they call the same now, its in Mylapore), SV Sekar Dramas in the Hall near Gemini Flyover. It was so much fun and with so little money. India is amazing.

But the then the monstrous perils of Indian politics, the roads, the transport, the rotten bureaucracy, (I would'nt dare mention Indian Railways - looks like Apna Laloo has done good work - not sure if the good work is only in getting the numbers right - how about customer service improvement?) scare me to death. In fact I have actually tried sending my CVs to a few Indian companies and I don't think it would be hard for me to get a good job. (With the kind of econimic activity going on in India you got to be really dumb to not get a decent job I guess).

The point I am trying to get to here is that I am missing too much for too little.

The mystic manage is'nt so mystic anymore

He! He!

I am no more jobless. Managed, to find a job after Uni. Working for CITEC, a Queensland Govt. owned commercial organistaion provinding Software Services.

Am a Busines Analyst and am mostly interacting with Govt. Depts.

It ain't too bad.

www.citec.com.au

The J'ist in me

Today while reading the interview with Karan Thapar and Mani Shankar Aiyar on the stripping of the petroleum portfolio I realised that my interests were more towards current affairs and politics. I have always been interested in this and only today it struck me that is one profession where I would like to be in. However, weird it might sound Journalism could have been my career, but may be it is a little too late or probably a little early. But my dream still is to work for the UN in some capacity that will complement my technical and managerial skills.

But for now I get back to reading the interview. Well, if anybody is interested in the interview here is the URL http://www.ibnlive.com/article.php?id=6024§ion_id=4&single=true. I used to think PHP is on the way out, but, on the contrary more and more sites are on PHP. Just, proves that I am a little lost in touch with whatz happening on the internet.