Minimum wage - it helps poor people

[Generator]

Its a tough life being a Republican businessman. The tried and true business of exploiting resources is becoming scarce. Have to pay people in healthcare and wage. Its almost like your not a slave driver no more! If god wanted a minimum wage he wouldn't have made Mexicans.

The Republican despises workers. They absolutely are disgusted by the people who labor for them. When they look at there chicken scratch book accounts...well it just drives them mad.

 

[dmcowen674]

Facts and logic are kryptonite to conservatives, of course they'd be hostile to studies that contradict their worldview.

These idiots still believe Reagan's trickle down economics worked

*totally ignores 30 years of stagnant/declining wages for the average american*

Because they are not Americans.

They hate America.

They are Republicans

 

[matt0611]

Matt, you need to get a little less ignorant about labor history and economics.

Your magic theory that eliminating the minimum wage leads to hire wages, is wrong.

You know what increases wages? Economic growth, productivity / capital. The notion that we can just slowly increase the minimum wage to increase wages is ridiculous. Why not increase in more and faster? Ah yes! Because theres some magic voodoo that only happens when you do it slowly! HA!

Tell me, if we got rid of the minimum wage tomorrow, would we have more jobs or less jobs?

I haven't had the time to a deep look at the study you posted Phokus, but I've read the Card / Krueger study, and it was a deeply flawed study and there are many studies that contradict it.

 

[bamacre]

IIRC, less than 2% of Americans earn the minimum wage. We have 10% unemployment, and the market is paying the rest of Americans more than the government mandated minimum.

Some may say the minimum wage is good, others not (including me), but considering that such a low percentage of Americans are earning the minimum wage, I conclude it isn't very harmful at the going rate. If the minimum wage disappeared overnight, it wouldn't have a huge impact on most Americans, raising it (nominally) could make it more harmful by causing unemployment to increase.

 

[Red Dawn]

You know what increases wages? Economic growth, productivity / capital. The notion that we can just slowly increase the minimum wage to increase wages is ridiculous. Why not increase in more and faster? Ah yes! Because theres some magic voodoo that only happens when you do it slowly! HA!

Tell me, if we got rid of the minimum wage tomorrow, would we have more jobs or less jobs?

I haven't had the time to a deep look at the study you posted Phokus, but I've read the Card / Krueger study, and it was a deeply flawed study IMO.

We'd have a lot more working poor. Starbucks, DD, McDonalds and the like aren't hurting financially even though they pay minimum wage. Yeah they'd be more profitable if they only had to pay their employees $2.50 an hour but it would be them who benefit, not those who'd work for them.

 

[Jaskalas]

I'll give you a minimum wage as high as you want.

The price would be to abolish the IRS and ban the federal government from collecting taxes directly. They would have to get your money from the states. You should agree to this, because with a high enough minimum wage you wouldn't need the Fed's welfare programs. You could drastically reduce our military, and it's a win/win.

 

[bamacre]

If you really wanted to help the poor, stop taxing them. To those who say they don't pay taxes, I suggest you go to McDonalds and get a job. Then when you get your paycheck, look at it and tell me you didn't pay taxes. Take some of that money and buy a 6pack of beer and a pack of cigarettes and they get taxed again. When we think of taxes, we tend to think of Federal Income taxes, but it's all the other taxes that are killing the poor. Sales tax, sin tax, wheel tax, property tax, it's an almost endless list. And when some of you talk about legalizing marijuana, you end it with "and tax the hell out of it." Like it's a bunch of rich white people hitting the bongs.

 

[bamacre]

We'd have a lot more working poor. Starbucks, DD, McDonalds and the like aren't hurting financially even though they pay minimum wage. Yeah they'd be more profitable if they only had to pay their employees $2.50 an hour but it would be them who benefit, not those who'd work for them.

Why would their profits go up? They have to compete with other businesses. McDonalds has to compete with Burger King and Wendy's. It's much more likely that prices would fall much more than profits would rise. And if the opposite were true, minimum wage increased, if by too much, they would cut employment and focus on automating those employees' jobs. You can manipulate market forces for a while, but it will eventually win.

 

[Red Dawn]

Why would their profits go up? They have to compete with other businesses. McDonalds has to compete with Burger King and Wendy's. It's much more likely that prices would fall much more than profits would rise. And if the opposite were true, minimum wage increased, if by too much, they would cut employment and focus on automating those employees' jobs. You can manipulate market forces for a while, but it will eventually win.

I don't see a call for increasing Minimum Wage, just for doing away with it.

 

[bamacre]

I don't see a call for increasing Minimum Wage, just for doing away with it.

I'd be one to support doing away with it, but it certainly wouldn't be a top priority. Looking at the small number of people earning the minimum wage, I don't see it as being too harmful. There are other things we're doing that, IMO, are much more harmful to our economy.

 

[Red Dawn]

I'd be one to support doing away with it, but it certainly wouldn't be a top priority. Looking at the small number of people earning the minimum wage, I don't see it as being too harmful. There are other things we're doing that, IMO, are much more harmful to our economy.

I don't think it's harmful, hell they can't even get Americans to pick produce for minimum wage

 

[bamacre]

I don't think it's harmful, hell they can't even get Americans to pick produce for minimum wage

And what does that tell you? People demand more than the minimum wage, and most of them get more. If one were to argue the merits of a minimum wage, they should suggest increasing it. But for most Americans, it is irrelevant because they are already earning more than the minimum wage, without the force of government.

 

[Patranus]

I don't think it's harmful, hell they can't even get Americans to pick produce for minimum wage

That is because there is no incentive to work when the "progressives" hand you a check every month and then give you a food stamps.

If people were required to work in exchange for temporary government assistance, the attitude towards work for the poor would change instantly. Sadly, the "progressives" would rather pander to this group, especially in the inner cities where they have convinced these people they are actually helping them.

 

[biostud]

Poor people should help themselves.

Exactly, make unions and demand a proper wage for their hard work.