Progressive Radio Rants -- Minimum Wage

Francesca R said:
Billions of adults work for less than that a day.

Fix it please. Thanks.
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That is mostly the rule in countries where less than that is a day's decent provisions, or where the ruling class have no qualms about reducing the working class to peons.

$10 per hour here in America gets you a bit less than a middle class lifestyle.
 
The numbers in other countries are on a purchasing power parity comparison. They are called "poor" countries for a reason.

Your delusion probably coddles your protectionist fallacies though.
 
leftysergeant said:
Less than a decent day's provisions for a day's work is theft of labor.
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No, it isn't. You don't know what the word "theft" means. You made minimum wage grooming dogs because that is all your labor was worth, your employers weren't robbing you, you offered nothing above minimum wage, stop getting angry with those who make more.
 
Francesca R said:
The numbers in other countries are on a purchasing power parity comparison. They are called "poor" countries for a reason.
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And in countries where you can pan diamonds out of river mud, people are still starving while the investor class wears gold like it was cotton.

That is just so totally wrong.
 
When the minimum wage is high, companies cannot afford to hire new employees. This is what I thought when I heard this being talked about on Progressive Radio. Now I have the statistics to back me up when I later heard that in states that have a high minimum wage also have high unemployment. It is logical to think that if the minimum wage is high, companies will not be able to afford to retain low income employees.

Some companies that depend on unskilled labor will have to fold and go out of business all together.

Companies that depend on products from these closed companies will have to get their goods from overseas competitors.

This is the harsh reality.

It is conceivable that a re session or even a depression could be the end result.
 
leftysergeant said:
And in countries where you can pan diamonds out of river mud, people are still starving while the investor class wears gold like it was cotton.

That is just so totally wrong.
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Right, it is wrong. Where people have no economic freedom, they are not politically free either.
 
Bill Thompson said:
When the minimum wage is high, companies cannot afford to hire new employees. This is what I thought when I heard this being talked about on Progressive Radio. Now I have the statistics to back me up when I later heard that in states that have a high minimum wage also have high unemployment.
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Wouldl you mind terribly backing that up with some facts? How does Washington compare to Alabama on both minimum wage and unemployment?

Some companies that depend on unskilled labor will have to fold and go out of business all together.
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Cry me a river. There is no reason that you should stay in business if your business plan sucks that badly. People who have a more rational business plan will be there to take your place.

Companies that depend on products from these closed companies will have to get their goods from overseas competitors.
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We don't have to let them.
 
leftysergeant said:
And in countries where you can pan diamonds out of river mud, people are still starving while the investor class wears gold like it was cotton.

That is just so totally wrong.
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But not relevant. If you shared out the plutocrats ill-gotten income evenly you would not be able to lift wages to the equivalent PPP of $10 per hour or anywhere near it.
 
Stylesjl said:
I suppose one way to bridge the gap might be to make sure those living on minimum wage get government support to partly supplement their income (but then this passes the burden from the employer on to the taxpayer and may just drive down wages even further)
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The burden is better put on the taxpayer since the deadweight loss is shared more evenly.

Ultimately however the solution is to help keep wages high by other means, reducing the necessity of the minimum wage to begin with.
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There's nothing wrong with the state placing a floor under low end income. But doing it by outlawing value-adding employment (which means growth generating) is a less efficient route to the goal you mention, compared to things like working tax credit/earned income credit (a form of negative starting rate of tax)
 
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The issue with below min-wage jobs is normally that the labour is not worth the min-wage. Therefore the jobs either don't get done (which puts the cost on the unemployed) or they get subsidised by labour higher up the income chain or by customers or by shareholders or by suppliers. You and I don't know where the cost falls and you are only guessing that it all gets stuck to somebody whose actions you don't like. Essentially it is arbitrary and it is less so via redistributive tax transfer.
 
leftysergeant said:
Why should we subsidize greedy swine who do not want to pay what labor is worth?
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Who are you to decide what labor is worth?

Removed breach.
Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: LashL
 
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Okay, just to clarify: is this an argument about having a minimum wage, or any argument about how much that should be?
 
leftysergeant said:
Why should we subsidize greedy swine who do not want to pay what labor is worth?
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Because the "greedy swine" -- that is, the employment market -- determines what labor is worth, just like the market determines what any other product is worth. I can declare my labor is "worth" $10,000 an hour, and refuse to work for less so I won't subsidize greedy swine who want to steal my labor, but the sole result would be that I'd be unemployed.
 
Bill Thompson said:
When the minimum wage is high, companies cannot afford to hire new employees. This is what I thought when I heard this being talked about on Progressive Radio. Now I have the statistics to back me up when I later heard that in states that have a high minimum wage also have high unemployment. It is logical to think that if the minimum wage is high, companies will not be able to afford to retain low income employees.

Some companies that depend on unskilled labor will have to fold and go out of business all together.

Companies that depend on products from these closed companies will have to get their goods from overseas competitors.

This is the harsh reality.

It is conceivable that a re session or even a depression could be the end result.
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You were just given examples above which refute this. Why did you ignore them?
 
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