[cynicom]

Cheering across the board??? There is a very bad downside to all this. Minimum income people are most likely eligible for food stamps, Medicaid, low income housing, on and on.

We all know who picks up the tab for all of those give away programs.

Fact of life, we pay up front at Burger King or we have money taken from us by government. Poverty or low wages indeed breeds bigger government from both parties.

[investigateworld]

RE: ...Fact of life, we pay up front at Burger King or we have money taken from us by government. Poverty or low wages indeed breeds bigger government from both parties."
Bingo

[skr]

True, some min. wage earners will remain at that level, but many others will seek better-paying jobs, and the taxpayers won't have to pay for them.

[Young Scholar]

Cheering across the board??? There is a very bad downside to all this. Minimum income people are most likely eligible for food stamps, Medicaid, low income housing, on and on.

Perhaps, but increasing the minimum wage will result in job losses. Those whose labor is worth less than the minimum wage will be unable to get any job at all, meaning they will go from food stamps and (un)Earned Income Tax Credit to being fully supported by welfare. If the government is going to "help" poor people, it's far better they do it through something like a reverse income tax than a minimum wage, which distorts the market in one of the worst possible ways.