[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

[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.

[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.

[balrog666]

Your advice needed. Or perhaps just a link to the last such thread. ;^)

[Age of Reason]

All we need do is stop importing millions of unskilled immigrants, and wages will rise of their own accord.

Then we can also all but end welfare, because there would be no more poor except for those too ill to work.

[rolling_stone]

If the government wants to require a minimum wage for employees, then they should guarantee the employers a minimum profit. Makes about as much/little sense either way. What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

[Aristophanes]

Some of you on this thread will be losing your high-paying jobs in the next few months as the economy continues to slide downhill. When you do, I hope that you enjoy your next job working for WalMart.

After a few months of working for minimum wage, you can come see me, a bankruptcy lawyer. Be sure to tell me all about what a crock you think a Living Wage is then.

Best wishes.

[Real Cynic No More]

The following has been posted here before, but I recently received it in an e-mail, so I'll post it again. It is an analogy that most anyone could understand:

Subject: Tax Cuts

Think about this! It is as good an explanation as it gets...

I was having lunch with one of my favorite clients last week and the conversation turned to the government's recent round of tax cuts.

"I'm opposed to those tax cuts," the retired college instructor declared, "because they benefit the rich. The rich get much more money back than ordinary taxpayers like you and me and that's not fair."

"But the rich pay more in the first place," I argued, "so it stands to reason that they'd get more money back."

I could tell that my friend was unimpressed by this meager argument. Even college instructors are a prisoner of the myth that the "rich" somehow get a free ride in America. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.

Suppose that every day 10 men go to a restaurant for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If it was paid the way we pay our taxes, the first four men would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1; the sixth would pay $3; the seventh $7; the eighth $12; the ninth $18. The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

The 10 men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20. Now dinner for the 10 only costs $80."

The first four are unaffected. They still eat for free. Can you figure out how to divide up the $20 savings among the remaining six so that everyone gets his fair share? The men realize that $20 divided by 6 is $3.33, but if they subtract that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being paid to eat their meal.

The restaurant owner suggested that it would be most fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same proportion as they had been paying in the first place, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so now in addition to the first four men paying nothing, the fifth man also pays nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh pays $5, the eighth pays $9, the ninth pays $12,leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of $59.

Outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out the $20," complained the sixth man, pointing to the tenth, "and he got $7!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!" "That's true," shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor" The nine men surrounded the tenth man and beat him up.

The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They were $52 short!

And that, boys, girls and college instructors, is how America's tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table any more. There are lots of good restaurants in Switzerland and the Caribbean!

Abe Lincoln said; "you can't help the poor by tearing down the rich,"

[Chi-townChief]

My argument is always to agree with these "living wage" advocates and tell them that $10 per hour (or whatever they want) is peanuts - why don't they make a real stand and go for $50,000 annual minimum? Oddly enough, they never seem to answer that one.

[Jeff Chandler]

Some people's work just isn't worth very much money. (How's that?)

[weikel]

Simple fixing a wage above what a job is worth to the employer artificially creates unemployment.