Minimum Wage
desandrews
Posts: 143
From a post of mine on 11-10-2006.
http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=222588
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The last time the minimum wage was raised, I was 16 years old working as a sacker in a grocery store. I was, needless to say, very happy about the only raise I received at that job over the 4 years I worked there.
Since then, I've understood arguments on either side to raise minimum wage or just abolish it all together. The thing I don't understand is why the proposed increases out there right now are so weak? Raising it $8 or $12 phased in over time. Screw that. I think we should raise the minimum wage to $24/hr. If you work a full 40 hour week for 52 weeks that puts you at about $50,000/yr. You can't tell me the true "poverty line" is lower than this. It's almost impossible to even own a car on this salary much less a house if you're trying to raise a family. Plus, having both parents work should not be a necessity so the entire family should be able to survive on one salary, that minimum salary in my mind is $50K.
So why not raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $24.00 an hour and really get this poverty thing over with. You don't think people will want to work at McDonald's for $24 an hour?
On a side note, it should be indexed for cost of living as well, so $24 in rural areas, something more like $35 in a city like Chicago, $45 in LA and $50 in NYC. I'm sick of seeing poor inner-cities, that needs to be corrected.
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From John Stossel today...
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/01/sticking_it_to_lowskilled_work.html
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Raising the minimum wage is definitely popular. Voters in six states approved higher minimums last Election Day. State politicians in both parties are practically drooling with eagerness to "help" lower-income workers. After all, how can you call the current minimum, $5.15 an hour, a "living" wage? Who can live on that?
We all want the poor to make more money. So if government can raise wages by decree, why are the popular proposals so stingy? What good is a measly buck or two extra? Let's really do something for the poor. Let's raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour. Even better, $50!
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http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=222588
*************
The last time the minimum wage was raised, I was 16 years old working as a sacker in a grocery store. I was, needless to say, very happy about the only raise I received at that job over the 4 years I worked there.
Since then, I've understood arguments on either side to raise minimum wage or just abolish it all together. The thing I don't understand is why the proposed increases out there right now are so weak? Raising it $8 or $12 phased in over time. Screw that. I think we should raise the minimum wage to $24/hr. If you work a full 40 hour week for 52 weeks that puts you at about $50,000/yr. You can't tell me the true "poverty line" is lower than this. It's almost impossible to even own a car on this salary much less a house if you're trying to raise a family. Plus, having both parents work should not be a necessity so the entire family should be able to survive on one salary, that minimum salary in my mind is $50K.
So why not raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $24.00 an hour and really get this poverty thing over with. You don't think people will want to work at McDonald's for $24 an hour?
On a side note, it should be indexed for cost of living as well, so $24 in rural areas, something more like $35 in a city like Chicago, $45 in LA and $50 in NYC. I'm sick of seeing poor inner-cities, that needs to be corrected.
********************
From John Stossel today...
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/01/sticking_it_to_lowskilled_work.html
********************
Raising the minimum wage is definitely popular. Voters in six states approved higher minimums last Election Day. State politicians in both parties are practically drooling with eagerness to "help" lower-income workers. After all, how can you call the current minimum, $5.15 an hour, a "living" wage? Who can live on that?
We all want the poor to make more money. So if government can raise wages by decree, why are the popular proposals so stingy? What good is a measly buck or two extra? Let's really do something for the poor. Let's raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour. Even better, $50!
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Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
However, I think that if you want to make $50,000 a year, then you should do what most people drawing that salary did, which is to go to college and get an education.
I smell bait in this thread. Chum, maybe.
LOL, I think I can smell it too. Yep, that's chum.
...and why don't you want to take that bait? Are you afraid you might not be able to put together a decent argument?
Let's eliminate the bait and get down to the question then, what will you accomplish by raising the minimum wage to $7+/hr? Will that accomplishment be significant, moderate or little-to-nothing at all? What will the costs be? Do the costs outweigh the accomplishments? Care to take that one or is it too stinky for you?
And when you are proposing your new minimum please include a full economic analysis of the effects this wage change will have on the American economy and industry.
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
raising the minimum wage puts people out of work and will destroy the economy. look at all the goods being bought from asia because of cheap labor. why do you think it costs $50K/year to make a decent living now? and why pay you $6.00/hour when a korean will do the same work for $4.00/day?
we did this to ourselves by not having proper import taxes like other countries. for example; you'll pay twice as much for a pack of american cigarettes in japan than for a pack of japanese cigarettes. it's much cheaper to buy the japanese cigarettes thus the money stays in the country and the economy thrives.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/01/the_minimum_wage_should_be_0_e.html
Some relevant info:
Most people who make the minimum wage are employed in the service industries, not affected by the cost of manufactured imports.
This is the 21st century. We no longer believe with rights go responsibilities. We only have rights, and we don't care if our rights infringe on you and your freedoms. If you have a problem with our rights then you are an evil person. Most likely you operate a profitable business where you employ people. Truely an evil person in the 21st century.
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
You know, just like it did in 1938, 1939, 1945, 1950, 1956, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1990, 1991, 1996, and 1997.
i forgot to look where you're from but i own a manufacturing company north of chicago. i've got 2 guys that program the machines and 20 mexicans working for minumum wage running them. 1 man runs at least 2 machines except the bar feed machines in which case he runs 3. i spent 22 years in the manufacturing business making everything from printer rollers to aircraft parts. the other manufacturers i worked with (farming out work to them) did the same.
So we should go ahead and do it because it won't kill us? That sounds like a strong endorsement.
Well, at least you can't be accused of participating in a serious discussion.
My statement above is uncalled for. This has nothing to do with you RainDog.
No offense taken. Now, if you'd've written "Well, at least you can't be accused of participating in a serious discussion, you no-account, asinine, moronic, two-faced jerkwad," then maybe.
Exactly why it was uncalled for, not where I want the discussion to go.
Thanks.
Since when are CEO profits and wages tied to overall wages? If a company loses money for a year and the CEO takes no salary, would you demand that his employees do the same?
Wouldn't the problem also be remedied by employees demanding fair pay from the employers and withholding their labor until they get it? Are they also not "willing to do it themselves"?
Ok, that it clear. I am not one of those who thinks it will wreck the economy either. I also think, and it sounds like you do to, that a minimum wage increase will not directly affect many poor heads of households. But you make a good argument that there will be a ripple effect through all workers' wages. I don't doubt that.
But all of this is irrelevant to me, since I think FFG stated the reason for my strong opposition to a minimum wage - theft. Your last sentence summed up exactly why I am opposed to it. The government is somehow deciding that an employer must pay an employee more than they're worth, as if the government 1)can somehow devine worth and 2)has any legitimate role in valuations of employees.
when it hits you, you feel to pain.
So brutalize me with music.”
~ Bob Marley
We already have that. It's called Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Unemployment, etc. Except they mostly demand that other people pay those taxes.
True.
I'd like to see a system whereby anyone who wants others to be paid more can start a business, create jobs and hire them.
Why? It's a hell of a lot easier to just wait for someone else to do that and then hold a gun to their head.
there's a hundred other people willing to take that job for the money offered. if you don't work you get fired; plus you don't get unemployment. withholding labor is cutting your own throat.
thanks for the insite. the chicago market must be different.
Then that should tell you something about the actual value of that job.
Then that should tell you something about the value of your skills.
What an outrage!!!!! You mean you don't get paid by other people for providing zero value to them?
Is that not the highest ideal of "public welfare" and "altruism"??? Sacrificing yourself for others?
So if there are a hundred other people willing to take a job you think is undervalued, is that job actually undervalued?