The minimum wage debate

[(SWGO)DesertEagle]

Minimum wage is exactly what it says - the very least amount by law. "Liveable" minimum wage is another made up word
along with "social justice" and "sustainable". In reality this is from Karl Marx....we all get the same wage. Each according to his means, each according to his ability.

People finally deciding that they need to be responsible, and realizing that at some point they must work are not entitled to extra compensation. They see it as unfair, It is not my fault, nor the business owners that now a single parent or person who never took their education seriously should be paid $30,000.00 a year because it is "fair". By most accounts...the glut of minimum wage workers can be viewed as a stunning general life failure of an unemployable generation.

It is fascinating that these same folks never take into consideration of the actual compensation they receive in other state or local aid. Lets face it....our employers love to tell us how much our benefits equate to our income any more; but think about the true low income workers and how many benefits they actually receive.

I submit that any person who wraps and bags my double cheese burger DOES NOT have the right to be paid $15.00 an hour.
If you don't like your station in life...do something about it. Go back to school. Work a second job (I know I did that for 5 years after I got out of the army). Hard work = better life style.

Preach it Pootus.

[NiteRunner81]

Another hand for Pootus!!!

[Darth Crater]

Heh. Well, I see "debate" is still used interchangeably with "echo chamber" here. I was interested in some legitimate discussion, but apparently we're spamming smilies instead.

[Duel of Fates]

So, if someone agrees with someone else's post, we must be long winded with our accolades? Maybe we should cut and paste from at least two articles pertaining to that topic, why we agree with someone?

Told ya Haas, these darn smilies reduce intelligent conversation and open discussion.

[Darth Crater]

So, if someone agrees with someone else's post, we must be long winded with our accolades? Maybe we should cut and paste from at least two articles pertaining to that topic, why we agree with someone?

Told ya Haas, these darn smilies reduce intelligent conversation and open discussion.

It's not really the content-less posts I mind, although this forum could really use a "Like" function (like Xenforo has) to cut down on those. I'm just disappointed because I'm trying to make up my mind on this, asked several questions, and got maybe one sentence of throwaway response. Then a random rant from Pootus (who I remember being a "birther" of all things) gets half a page of non-contributing applause.

Anyway, thank you all for clarifying how you define "debate" here, I'll step back out.

[Duel of Fates]

Well, here is a little bit for you to chew over. The CBO has predicted that if the minimum wage is raised, it will cost 500,000 people to lose their jobs. And that was a conservative estimation of job loss. Tell me how that helps the economy? Yes. Some will get a raise, while others will be tossed into unemployment. Still many others applying for jobs will see employers not hiring due to a raise in the minimum wage. Small businesses will not be able to compete and prices for goods and services will rise dramatically.

This whole thing is a chicken [poo] farce. Obama and his lib cronies can hold this bright shiny carrot out for the uninformed, and then say "Ah shucks. Those nasty Republicans don't want you to have more money". And it won't pass and the politicking will commence right before the midterm elections. Typical.

[MATTHEW'S_DAD]

Sorry Crater but this is so simple there's really not that much to add. Minimum wage goes up, then cost of goods goes up. This results in the recent recipients of said raise having almost the same buying power they had to begin with. Minimum wage was 3 something when I started working and it was not intended to be lived on and I fully understood that while making that money. I had bought a crappy car and could afford gas and insurance and lunch at McDonald's. Now the kid across the street makes 7 bucks an hour and can afford a crappy car, gas, insurance and apparently Taco Bell judging from the trash bags in his yard. Nothing is different except that he thinks he has a career bagging groceries and when I had the same position I knew it was just a job.

[MATTHEW'S_DAD]

^

Hahaha!!!!! I love me some me!!!!

[Duel of Fates]

[CommanderOtto]

So California State Rep Barbara Lee wants to increase California's Minimum Wage to $26 an hour.

That's completely ridiculous at the current time and has no chance of passing. Hopefully she knows that, and it was just hyperbole.

Apparently the minimum wage there is currently $8/hr, though. In my opinion a bit ridiculous in the opposite direction.

Most of these debates end with "well, this is ALL I qualify for!" Well, maybe if you had got some education, made better life choices, not got knocked up as a high schooler, not did drugs, just maybe you could qualify for something that pays more. Minimum Skills, Minimum Education, Minimum Qualifications EARNS you MINIMUM WAGE!!!

Is it fair to punish people for choices that they made at the age of 16-20, when their brains were literally not fully developed yet? Maybe we should try to make it easier for older people to improve their prospects. Anyone know if education loans are currently restricted by age or not?

These same people don't believe that the increase in minimum wage correlates to inflation.

Well, the minimum wage absolutely should correlate to inflation, since it should be based on quality of life rather than on a dollar value. If you're saying that minimum wage increases cause inflation... I'd be interested in seeing the math on that. I don't see how it actually adds more money to the economy, but I'm not dismissing the idea out of hand.

hey crater, just letting you know, there is some truth to what you are saying, but Nite's comment is also partially right. If i remember correctly, minimum wage does cause inflation. There are different types of inflation. There is demand inflation, and cost-push inflation. Cost-push inflation is when something is pushing the cost of producing something... in this case, a wage increase is pushing prices up because the cost is being passed to consumers. A car factory has to pay more to workers, so cars become more expensive. Inflation is not always caused because the government is injecting money into the economy. However, if the government approves a "common sense" minimum wage increase, then the effect on inflation would be almost negligible. If it is a totally crazy increase (like the 26 bucks per hour), then that would cause some serious inflation. But back to a "common sense" wage increase... sometimes workers might actually have some real gain, but it really depends on where you live and overall prices there.

also, a minimum wage can cause unemployment if it is raised above the equilibrium price of labor. If it is too high then factories will pay the higher wage, but will hire less. If the minimum wage is too low, then won't make any difference because the market will already pay above that. An example of minimum wage in the economy (above the equilibrium price):


see the graph. It says Market Wage is in point E. Imagine the market wage is $6. If minimum wage is put at an imaginary $7 then that would cause unemployment because the minimum wage is above what companies want to pay (the part where the minimum wage line hits the demand line). When that happens, you see the quantity of labor demanded is less than at point E.

so it is true... that minimum wage causes inflation (negligible) and could cause unemployment. But... sometimes people claim that we should live without a minimum wage so that everyone can have a job. That statement is also misleading. In theory everyone would have a job, but in real life it seems that is not the case since there are places without minimum wage and still have unemployment (and those employed have miserable salaries).