Wheem said:
Uh, $15/hour would be quite a significant increase in labor costs. Those costs would ultimately be borne by customers (though everyone knows it's only rich people that shop at WalMart and McDonalds, so no big deal amirite?) and shareholders (despite what you may have heard, they're hardly all Mr./Ms. Moneybags, either).
Here's the thing Mr. Fiscal Conservative. The cost is currently being taken up by someone. Guess who it is- the government. That's right, most of the people working minimum wage jobs also need welfare/food stamps to feed their families. So, perhaps, a good way to cut costs in War on Poverty programs would be to raise the minimum wage, hmm?
Costs borne by customers- The free market should correct that, if all the regulations were enforced, which of course they aren't, but that's another issue.
Costs borne by shareholders- What the ****? Don't do this because the stocks of a few companies might decrease? There is NO PRECEDENT that an increase in the minimum wage will cause a stock market crash.
It also adds a huge incentive to replace workers with technology; if you want to speed up the transition to all self-service checkout, then by all means keep arguing for a more-than-doubling of the federal minimum wage.
That's really ok. If people don't have to do the most ****ty jobs anymore that would be great, and it would also create higher paying engineering jobs for the people designing and maintaining the robots.
Besides, it's not only giant megacorps that employ people at minimum wage, and some of the smaller businesses may already be struggling as it is. Causing them such a huge hike in expenses probably isn't going to help matters any, especially in parts of the country with lower wages and costs of living.
I sympathize with struggling small businesses, I really do. Wouldn't it be nice if they would have a huge increase in sales once people can afford ****?
But if raising the minimum wage is such a great thing - why be a cheapskate? Why is $15/hour the magic number that gets bandied about now? Why not $20? Or $20,000 for that matter? Then we could all be driving Porsches and living in big houses on the beach, it'd be totally awesome. Though maybe the government should provide us with unicorns and magic carpets to get around on, as all those Porsches might be bad for the environment.
I would be fine with 20 and not fine with 20000. But 20 isn't what is being discussed. 15 is being discussed. So don't bring other numbers into it, it's simply diverting the topic to those numbers rather than the 15$ being discussed. The minimum wage should be raised to 20000 when inflation reaches that high, of course, but as of now absolutely no one suggests that.
Edit:
For ****s sake your post is so full of stupidity.
Wheem said:
If politicians couldn't offer so many favors; like putting up barriers to entry, enacting useless regulations that hurt smaller businesses much more than larger ones, engaging in various forms of protectionism (omg JOBS!!!!), etc...then you'd see a lot less corporate and union money in politics.
Entry barriers are bad yes, useless regulations are bad yes but when Politicians say they want to cut useless regulation they destroy the good regulations that actually regulate banks, big oil, etc. because they are corrupt bastards; but yes, onerous regulation is bad, just look at Greece. But... "Engaging in various forms of protectionism". For ****s sake. This actually goes hand in hand with the minimum wage thing. If we want high wages, and we want to remain a manufacturing center of the world, we need trade protectionism.
