[JavaJumpy]

“The minimum-wage increase the congress passed. Minimum-wage increases ALWAYS lead to higher unemployment.”

I can never successfully argue this with a lib. What am I doing wrong? It ends up being that I am heartless for wanting a poor father to try to feed his five kids on $6.50/hour because he CAN’T find any other job and he’s too TIRED to go to school or doesn’t have enough money and can’t get full backing to go to school and no one should have to take out loans to go to school. With them, there’s always an excuse.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

First of all, most people on minimum wage do not use those jobs as a primary means of support. That is, most people have these types of jobs as secondary jobs to complement their income, not establish it.

Second, many on minimum wage are very young and do not have enough marketable skills, knowledge, and experience to deserve a higher wage.

Third, those employers who hire minimum-wage jobs do so because (usually) they have a menial, low-skill-level task that needs to be accomplished. They usually create and fill these positions to free up some of their own time or the time of the other more important employees.

Fourth, many employers would like to pay more than minimum wage for these level positions because they don't want to lose those employees to other jobs, but they simply cannot afford to do so. They are not being greedy, they simply can't afford to pay more because of the nature of their business.

When the government forces an employer to pay more for these positions, very often, the only sensible decision is to cut the position. They burden themselves or other employees with the money and invest the money saved somewhere else (sometimes in machinery that helps reduce the labor burden that the laid-off employee alleviated).

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Also, if you want to use your liberal friends’ guilt against them, ask this, “Would you rather that half as many people keep their jobs but earn more than they need or that everyone have jobs and make a little less?”

[infowarrior]

It ends up being that I am heartless for wanting a poor father to try to feed his five kids on $6.50/hour because he CAN’T find any other job and he’s too TIRED to go to school or doesn’t have enough money and can’t get full backing to go to school and no one should have to take out loans to go to school. With them, there’s always an excuse.

Codswallop! I, myself, not 20 years ago, did exactly that. Worked two jobs, at $5.00 an hour, and went to school full-time. A family of 5... I also sold blood plasma from my own body, in order to make ends meet. I'm not a genius, an Einstein, or the like, but an average man. I f I could do it, then so can just about anybody else, provided they chose to better themselves ! For those who choose not to, then they would, and more importantly, should, get scant sympathy from me...

the infowarrior