Posted on 10/22/2014 10:13:27 AM PDT by Phillyred
Should we raise the minimum wage? In my opinion, yes.
Presently, profits, productivity and the stock market are at or near record levels. But for some reason the great American capitalists can’t afford to pay their employees more than $7.25 per hour. That’s a hard story to swallow.
Meanwhile the average salary of a CEO is close to 400 times what his or her employee earns. If anything, it’s the CEOs we can’t afford, not the workers.
And did we not have to bail out these same unregulated Wall Street capitalists as they crashed the economy, destroying millions of jobs as a result? Some job creators they are!
So yes, we should absolutely raise the minimum wage immediately, adjust it annually for inflation and show hard-working Americans that capitalism can also benefit them. Better yet, adjust wages annually as a percentage of CEO salaries, and let capitalism work for all, not just the privileged.
Glenn Gawinowicz
Oreland
Yes we definitely have to raise the minimum wage. We have 32 million illegals with low job skills that will be given green cards soon and how do we expect them to live on minimum wage combined with welfare? In some cities the black unemployment rate is 50%. We have to raise that percentage to 90% so even more become dependent on the government.
And don’t forget 52 weeks a year vacation days.
Yes - raise it to $50/hour
Then, everyone can be above average.
I want the minimum wage raised to a $1,000 an hour (plus a Christmas bonus check). I figure after about a year I could retire someplace cheaper!
Profits are higher in part because employers are automating more and reorganizing to use fewer workers because of the expense of non cyber labor. Raise the minimum wage and get more robotic McDonalds.
It’s amazing how much stupidity can be packed into just five short paragraphs.
All I can say is, my SS check had better reflect the higher payments I'll be making to my government forced "retirement" fund.
That would mean a minimum wage increase of $1 is a $400 increase for the CEO. Why doesn’t the misguided lobby for a max wage law?
Market value is the only way wages should be determined. Labor skills determine the incremental value of labor to a business.
Another brain-dead liberal “thinker”.
Has this person ever heard of inflation?
Wages affect the prices of goods and services. And with higher wages, companies will have to raise the prices of their goods and services. Then, the people who got their minimum wage raises, will be paying higher prices for the goods and services which they consumer on a regular basis. Then, because those “minimum wages” won’t be enough to cover the expenses of having a decent standard of living, demands for a higher minimum wage will start all over again.
Liberals are incapable of looking at repercussions, or they know what the repercussions will be, but, they prefer to buy voters with the perception that, liberal politicians and liberal media people care about them.
So, if wages get increased, the prices of goods and services will also increase, but, the most damaging effect will be the number of layoffs that will occur. How much can a laid-off worker purchase with a paycheck of $0.00?
“Get the chick working at the fast food drive through to get my order right and I’ll consider it.”
They give value meals a number and they still can’t get it right. Many of them aren’t worth $4 an hour.
A perfect example of reductio ad absurdum.
The real victims of a higher minimum wage will be those who are happy to have their low-wage job, often for small employers who really cannot afford to pay more. Some like the feeling of camaraderie, service, and the satisfaction of helping people that comes with many low wage jobs. Others have caretaker or watchman types of jobs where they can spend most of their time watching TV, internet or reading, waiting to respond to the occasional call or problem. I’m sure most low-wage employees knew what they were getting when they happily accepted the position they applied for.
Why should the government tell these people “If you like your job, you can’t keep your job.”? Trouble is, we never get commercials and ads with these arguments against anti-freedom wage mandates.
The real minimum wage is $0.00 per hour. That’s how much I pay when I don’t hire someone. The tax rate on witholding I pay is 0%. These folks are also cheap to train and manage as the cost is nothing.
Most Democrats don't realize that the minimum wage would not even arise as an issue if not for organized labor. Unions use the U.S. minimum wage as a low-end benchmark when arguing wage increases with management. An increase in the minimum wage is to unions a rationale for increasing union wages.
The racist Democrats instituted the minimum wage in the 1930’s to price Blacks, Mexicans, Chinese and other undesirables out of the labor market. Prior to the wage mandate a manufacturer or farmer might employ two or three non-whites for what it would cost for one American Caucasian. With the minimum wage the businessman was more likely to hire the white guy.
Minimum wage laws are obviously government interference in the economy.
But so is erasing the southern border. Because it has flooded the minimum wage labor market with foreigners who take American jobs.
Why aren’t any of you talking about that? Minimum wage and the erasure of the southern border are inseparable in an intelligent discussion of this issue.
Economic truth: You can ALWAYS find a third worlder who will do an unskilled job for less than an American.
It’s the government’s duty to protect American workers from having their jobs in construction and hospitality and countless other industries stolen out from under them. They have failed.
Minimum wage laws are the only rational response I’ve heard to give the least skilled Americans some relief in the wake of the collapse (read: abrogation) of the southern border.
Americans owe it to other Americans.
Wrong premise. The question should be "should consumers of products and services provided by these companies be forced, by virtue only of the new law, to pay more for what they receive?"
So whether the companies can "afford" it or not is irrelevant.
Companies are not obliged to take increased expenses and merely take them out of profits. Generally they will reduce expenses by cutting employees (bad), increase prices, or a combination of the two. Period.
If the cost of labor is higher, people will buy less of it, or they’ll find a replacement (read: automation)
True for largely all commodities.
Nobody disputes that. That is a universal economic truism.
But it’s also a universal economic truism that when the GOVERNMENT controls labor, you no longer have a free market. The GOVERNMENT has flooded the low skill labor market with millions of foreigners. It is an artificial, government-imposed disruption.
Why isn’t everyone screaming and stamping their feet about that? THAT is the real crime against the American worker. A minimum wage would at least help them fight back. So it’s government interference — so what. YOU’VE ALREADY GOT THAT with no border.
Why are you guys only concerned with helping factory owners ARTIFICIALLY pay the lowest wages possible? What about American workers?
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