Any thoughts about increasing Minimum Wage?

by journey-on 49 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  BurnTheShips

  BTW I notice a lot here are using the Rush fallacy of minimum wages.

  Rush the band or Rush the man?

  The above statement is right up there with the 5g0 fallacy of red herring labeling. It turns the discussion away from an idea to a debate about a person instead. If Rush spouts it, its automatically gotta be wrong ya know?

  Here is the problem a worker must have a job to live most employers know this.

  Here is the counterweight: A worker knows that an employer must employ labor to produce and turn a profit.
• 

  BurnTheShips

  Well complain to the Federal Reserve Bank they set inflation it's their the problem not the workers they are trying to cheat out of a living.

  They are only a part of the equation. Even if the Fed maintained an absolutley neutral money supply, we could still encounter inflationary pressure for various reasons. Not to mention that trillions are in sovereign reserves of several foreign entities. If they change their currency pegs or release their dollar holdings, there is little the Fed can do to ameliorate the damage. Globalization, along with the Dollar as a global reserve currency (only recently challenged) has removed a great deal of power from the Fed.

  It sound like you don't know why inflation exist in the first place to lower wages ( and the value of any debt ) covertly through a secret tax payed trough price increase.

  Conspiracy theories again eh? I will admit that monetary inflation is an invisible tax.

  Burn
• 

  brinjen

  Just a question, in the US is the minimum wage set according to age? Here in Oz, the minimum wage is $13.47 per hour. Under 17's only get 50% of that, because, as it's been pointed out someone that age usually won't have a family to feed and is inexperienced. The percentages increase until the age of 21. From what I can gather, it seems to be the same minimum wage across all ages.
• 

  BurnTheShips

  1)- CEOs and other C-level executives of publicly traded entities would no longer be able to profit from selling out their stockholders, customers, and employees. No more multi-million dollar bonuses or golden parachutes for mismanagement, unneccesary outsourcing and short-sightedness. Countrywide Mortgage anyone? The CEO just got a $100 million dollar bonus that we taxpayers ultimately end up paying, while the housing bubble he and his ilk fomented and caused the failure of we will also pay.

  I could not disagree more. It is encumbent on the owners of the company, the shareholders, to enforce whatever compensation policies they see fit. This is not a government concern.

  Politics of, for, and by the highest bidder would be severely limited. The politics of this country would begin to return to the citizenry at large rather than corporately controlled special interest lobbies. Campaign finance could still be controlled by privately held corporations and wealthy financiers, but large, publicly held interests could no longer have their way with stockholder's investments being used to enact legislation that punishes stockholders, customers, and employees.

  The question is this:

  How to limit corporate interest in the political process without somehow violating free speech rights?

  Burn
• 

  BurnTheShips

  Thing is there is an on going attempt by corporations to keep wages low one way or another in order to keep the upper classes profits up at the cost of the lower and middle classes.

  Corporate interests are definitely fighting to do the above. It is simple profit motive. The paradox is that if everyone is poor there is no one to sell to.However no Marxist class warfare theory is needed to explain it.You just hate rich people.
• 

  BurnTheShips

  Because 7 dollars isn't livable.

  The minimum wage is supposed to keep people who full time work above the poverty line.

  Let the market set the wages. The market is more efficient. If someone can't live off of burger flipping or toilet scrubbing, let them get two jobs. Or three. Or two jobs and the other time for votech or community college education-both already largely subsidized by the government.

  At one point in my 20s I worked weekdays at a full time construction job and evenings at a fine dining restaurant. Weekend mornings I did valet parking at a ritzy hotel. It didn't kill me. But I never stopped! The situation helped me realize I needed to make a change. An older semi retired fellow I worked with told me "Burn, what the F&*^ are you doing? Go to school!" I did.

  Another paradox of a high minimum wage is that high school kids are disincentivized from going to college. It is counterproductive. If menial labor pays good money, the competition for those jobs increases. If it does not, people work to improve themselves and move on to better things. With a dearth of applicants for a job with shit pay, the wage rises automatically to its natural level.
• 

  5go

  Just a question, in the US is the minimum wage set according to age? Here in Oz, the minimum wage is $13.47 per hour. Under 17's only get 50% of that, because, as it's been pointed out someone that age usually won't have a family to feed and is inexperienced. The percentages increase until the age of 21. From what I can gather, it seems to be the same minimum wage across all ages.

  Nope, and it took an act of democrat leadership to get it raised from $5 to $7 and trust me there are plenty of single moms making minimum wage in the US. Which is why they are on welfare so it was stupid to just let it sit there at that level so long.

  By the way I would go for that here it makes sence and would shut up the rights argument that it's just teens making minimum wage.
• 

  brinjen

  By the way I would go for that here it makes sence and would shut up the rights argument that it's just teens making minimum wage.

  It certainly works well here, teens can get a few hours work a week for pocket money, whilst learning on the job skills. They continue this through high school and beyond. By the time they've finished their education, they have not only their educational credentials but real on the job experience. At this point, they either continue full-time (usually with a promotion) at their current job or move to something different altogether...
• 

  funkyderek

  5go:

  Don't like the minimum wage go to China.

  That's exactly what happens. Companies who can't - or won't (the difference is irrelevant) - compete by paying high wages will, where possible, move their operations to where wages are cheaper, with all the knock-on effects that you undoubtedly see around you.
• 

  5go

  That's exactly what happens. Companies who can't - or won't (the difference is irrelevant) - compete by paying high wages will, where possible, move their operations to where wages are cheaper, with all the knock-on effects that you undoubtedly see around you.

  That is why need to beat the Chinese to the bottom.

  I think not!

  I find it quite ironic that capitalist hold up a communist country as the ideal capitalist state don't you. Seeing as most socialist like my self see through China's plan as a long term strategy to weaken an adversary's economy before the adversary weakens them militarily in a conflict.