Need Anti-Living Wage Talking Points

[chambley1]

I need anti-living wage talking points for our crusade against it here in the Peoples Republic of Arlington, Virginia. Thanks Freepers

[BfloGuy]

zook's got it right.

Liberals think that every position is necessary and that higher wages will simply come out of the business-owner's massive profits.

Low-level jobs are often the easiest to get rid of.

You may have seen old TV film of gas stations where a couple young guys sprinted out to fill the tank, check the oil, and wash the windshield -- I'm old enough to remember that (well, they didn't exactly sprint).

When janitors become too pricey, they're replaced with commercial cleaning services who come in a couple times a week instead of nightly.

Of course, the people you debate with will understand this (they won't admit it) and really would like to control, not only the wage paid, but how many people you hire at that wage. Command and control.

You're in a no-win situation if these people are truly supporters of a "living wage". They will not be swayed by economics.

If they're on the fence, you've got a chance. Otherwise save your energy and get to like-minded people in case this comes up for a vote.

[ex-snook]

I see you are getting a lot of useless responses. It's pay now or pay later - for welfare or crime costs. I'd rather heads of families work, rather than just sit around and collect. Everyone isn't a college educated genius living off the information age. The manufacturing jobs 'done gone' to far away places with strange sounding names.

[n2002duke]

I have minimum wage talking points but you can adapt them.

Make sure to repeatedly use phrases like "wage controls", "government wage controls", "government-dictated wages" and limit usage of phrases like "minimum wage" or "living wage".

• Wage controls hit young people the hardest: Every 10 % increase in the minimum wage reduces employment by 2 to 6 %.

• Next hardest hit are the low-skilled, like the poor and minorities. Wage controls destroy these low-skill jobs. When those jobs go away, the people who could have had them end up on welfare, unemployed or homeless.

• Wage controls in tough economic times hit even harder. Companies struggling to stay in business will get hit with an increase in expenses that will put them out of business. That hits working families and everyone in the community.

Source

[general_re]

What, you don't think you can make the case yourself? ;)

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The majority of people in this country are employed by small businesses.

Contrary to common socialist belief, small business operators don't have bags full of money lying around that they are just too greedy to share with their employees.

Most small businesses are founded by risk-taking entrepreneurs who borrow large sums of money to start their businesses. If the expenses of a small business exceed its revenues, that business cannot service its debt and will eventually go bankrupt.

A company that is forced to pay two or three times the wages it had planned for will most likely have expenses that exceed revenues.

Companies that cannot service their debt eventually go bankrupt and don't pay any wages at all.

Or property taxes.

Or sales taxes.

[Mark]

It's like asking a woman if she would have sex with me for $1 million dollars and then if she says "yes", ask how about $20.00? She then asks "Do you think I'm a prostitute"? I would say that we already determined that, but just need to negotiate the pay.

[SamAdams76]

I can make your argument in one sentence:

Any increase in the cost of labor will be met with a proportionate increase in the cost of goods and services.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Sure, just tell them that all burger flippers should be paid enough to buy a nice home and support a family and have a new car every couple of years. Then lament that you could not buy burgers at said establishment because the price would have to go up to say, $15 a burger (to pay for these living wages), and then when nobody else wants $15 burgers the burger joint will go out of business and the burger flipper will then have no income and without marketable skills the house will be foreclosed on and their car repo'd but hey, it makes you feel good about yourself for caring. And if they still squawk say that the wage isn't going to be 'living' if the living wage earner has to pay $15 for a burger, plus other inflated prices for 'living wage' goods and services, which means their money has been seriously devalued and they are back at square one. :-/

Good luck. It is axiomatic that people who are in favor of such idiotic policies lack the ability to comprehend rudimentary logic. I prefer to just avoid them like the plague.

[Cosmo]

I've been confronted with enough liberal protestors clamouring for a living wage, have given them reasonable arguments and found the best way to deal with them IS:

to laugh at them and tell them their very very stupid.
stupid arguments do not deserve intelligent rebuttals

[billhilly]

OK. I am your neighbor and I understand the plight of those struggling to get by on $100,000 per year in Arlington, where a 1200 square foot bungalow sells for $400,000. My suggestion to anyone requiring wages is to move.

[Skip Ripley]

They're a cheap tool used by organized labor to establish an artificially high floor for wages in a given area.

Calls for increases in the minimum wage (as well as the concept of a minimum wage) can be regarded in the same light

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

If the Basic Economics lesson doesn't work, I usually give up. I have literally walked away from this conversation after hearing that a person ought to be able to support a family by flipping burger's at Wendy's.

(later, I actually had to break up with her, but that was b/c she said she'd vote for Clinton despite the fact that he probably did rape Juanitta Broadrick)

[PatrickHenry]

Simplest response: the worker can decide for himself if the wage is sufficient to attract him to the job. If he's willing to accept a "low" wage, why should a gang of bloated, flatulent, derranged politicians interfere and outlaw the arrangement? The best cure for "low" wages is to adopt policies (such as low taxes and no regulations) that attract entrepreneurs. They will create more jobs and compete for workers, and then wages will rise. Insane laws like "living wage" mandates will drive the entrepreneurs away.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

Ha! Did I ever date you? Maybe I did get through that thick skull, ..., nah, too much to hope for.

[n2002duke]

Anyone who believes that should be willing to put their money where their mouth is and pay $20 for a Frosty!

[shetlan]

"At whose expense?"

[Redmen4ever]

http://www.independent.org/tii/WorkingPapers/Thies.pdf

[GovernmentShrinker]

Point out that insane over-regulation of construction specs (i.e. B.O.C.A.-based building codes) has driven the price the most basic living necessity -- housing -- through the roof. Minimum window sizes, minimum bathroom square footage, not to mention laws prohibiting do-it-yourselfers from handling basic tasks like replacing a toilet or putting new shingles on a roof, all contribute to the skyrocketing cost of housing, which is the single biggest expense for low income people. Scrap all code requirements that do not directly impact the safety of ADJACENT properties, and the current minimum wage will quickly become a living wage.

[GrinFranklin]

Living wage is just another Democrat smokescreen. In short, it means that nobody should have to work for less money than they want to.

[xm177e2]

Just look at France. They have a high minimum wage--and few low-level jobs. There is massive unemployment and as a result massive crime (it does not help that the unemployed are largely Muslims).

Unemployment here would have a similar but much lesser effect, our minorities are not hostile to America like France's are.