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Yet somehow profits keep soaring and the stock market remains nuts. I guess someone must still be working, huh? Maybe these companies and their execs should pay more taxes instead of just buying back their own stock and cashing in on their bonuses?Our government (particularly on the left) believe in rewarding people that don't try. Can you blame people when they don't? Extra unemployment from February until September gave us a labor shortage and contributed to our inflation that we haven't seen in 30 years. Social programs are generous enough where people can support themselves so there is no reason to work. For those that do work if you increase their wages, they will work less hours so as not to interfere with what government gives them.
Where did you hear that bullshit?All minimum wage does is increase prices to compensate for the increase.
Tell that to someone making minimum wage.Raising minimum wage is just going to raise the cost of living. It’s not going to fix anything.
My $0.02.
Tell that to someone making minimum wage.
How so?Short term it helps them. I don’t think it fixes anything long-term.
How so?
Let's put it another way - what happens to minimum wage earner purchasing power when you DON'T raise minimum wage?
Over a decade it effectively goes down by ~20% due to inflation.
How so?
Let's put it another way - what happens to minimum wage earner purchasing power when you DON'T raise minimum wage?
Over a decade it effectively goes down by ~20% due to inflation.
How?I would argue that raising minimum wage is just going to increase inflation.
And if you don't raise?Given the fact a huge minimum wage increase will create a domino effect, the people making the new minimum wage will be in the same position they are in today with the current one due to inflation.
Yet somehow profits keep soaring and the stock market remains nuts. I guess someone must still be working, huh? Maybe these companies and their execs should pay more taxes instead of just buying back their own stock and cashing in on their bonuses?
If the answer is no, and I'm pretty sure it is, then why have a minimum wage at all? If you raise the minimum wage to $15 all you're doing is ensuring that any job worth less than that won't exist legally, and that means unskilled people will have less job opportunities and less possibilities for expanding their value in the market. Grown people should not be inhibited by the government when it comes to their ability to negotiate their own labor. It's immoral, patronizing and it doesn't actually achieve its intended effect. It does ensure less jobs and less business opportunities though.
The minimum wage is well-intentioned, and our economy can survive despite it, but all it really does is limit the people that are worth the least. The impact a $15/hr minimum wage would have on the job market, particularly in more rural states, is no doubt massive. I consider myself left wing. I support a lot of left wing ideas. This is not one of them though. There shouldn't be a minimum wage. It's not actually helping poor people. I think it's bad for everybody.
www.epi.org
How?
Labor costs are fractional to all product costs.
If a product costs $10 to make and labor is 25% of it's cost, how can resultant product cost ever possibly outstrip the raise?
And if you don't raise?
Somehow inflation will cease to exist? Somehow real minimum wage will not be decreasing?
Nice story, but you didn't answer the questionIf you don't raise MW it may encourage people to try a little harder like when I was younger. Very few lower income people were on welfare or food stamps when I was young. When we didn't make enough money, we worked more hours, got an additional job, and took measures to try and get jobs that paid better.
That's off the table for many younger people today. I've known plenty of cases where workers would work only to their maximum allowed by government programs in order for these workers to keep them. Get a job working 20 hours a week, able to support yourself with government handouts, life couldn't get much better. Screw all those people working 40, 50 hours or more. I'm living on the gravy train.
If you quit feeding your horse carrots, and let a carrot dangle in front of him, you will travel many more miles.
But what makes you think that such effect outstrips the raise?If people have more money to spend then the cost of products will also raise as people are willing/able to spend more for them.
Nice story, but you didn't answer the question
The answer is obvious, inflation exists aside from just minimum wage and if minimum wage is not increased it effectively decreases over time.
People should not be depending on government to set their worth in the working world. They need to set that for themselves.
Inflation was in the 1% range for the last number of years. Now we are at 6.25% and much of it has to do with industry being forced to pay labor much more money than in the past. If you're going to sit your lazy ass down and wait for government to get you more money, then all the money in the world won't help because you have zero ambition to do something for yourself.
But what makes you think that such effect outstrips the raise?
If you can present a serious model that shows anything of the sort I promise you big fame...because no serious economist believes this currently.
CBO consistently shows real income growth from minimum wage increases after account for inflationary effects and job loss.
And our parents spouted the same drivel daily as we all quietly benefitted most from FDR's economic reforms and began letting most of them slide away again under Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden.. But, make no mistake. It's mostly been due to Reagan and you Reaganites. As workers you never developed any genuine self-respect, so of course you think of government as optional and the enemy most of the time. Of course you'll jump to defend any billionaire before giving a poor person a fucking break. This ideology has been pounded into your skull so hard it would take an immaculately conceived brain fart to blast it away now. That's obvious. But here's a hint anyway -- change happens. Learn to adapt. Quit pining for those good-ole-days that never really were and thinking you're smarter than our kids. You're not. They know it and they know what they're doing. They owe you no explanation. Unlike our parent's generation, ours finally succeeded in generally making life harder for our progeny. Own that fact. Grow some humility. Quit pretending to know everything just because this or that may have happened to you personally. All that stuff ain't worth shit.If you don't raise MW it may encourage people to try a little harder like when I was younger. Very few lower income people were on welfare or food stamps when I was young. When we didn't make enough money, we worked more hours, got an additional job, and took measures to try and get jobs that paid better.
