Should we demand minimum wage for everyone? This will just turn America into another third world cesspool. Who will pay the bills? Who will buy the products? This isn't what America was built on.
Janet: Should we demand minimum wage for everyone?
What is the connection here? Any at all? As a mother you tell your child, "I cannot increase your allowance," and the child replies, "So, you don't want to give me allowance at all." Your reply amounts to the same thing.
A salary is justified if it is supported by productivity; that is, by wealth created. If you make 5 gadgets in an hour, and the company sells them for $20 each, you get, say, $10 in salary, and the owner gets $10 as return on his investment. If you make the same number of gadgets but the company sells them for $15 each, less wealth is created, and both you and the owner cannot be paid. That may happen because the demand for your product declined (say, a substitute for it has been found), or simply because the buyers have less ability to pay for it.
If you increase prodactivity to 6 gadgets per hour, and the company is able to sell your output, you can participate more in the wealth created and receive a higher salary.
Productivity fluctuates. When the salaries go up, you do not hear any admiration of management expressed in the press and by the public at large. Now we are in a period where less wealth is created. The salaries go down, and all the b----g in the word and cursing of management has been unleashed.