Should we drop minimum wage? What benefits/drawbacks does minimum wage bring the working class?
On working class, should we drop the child labor laws to allow younger workers into the market to relieve the demand for unskilled jobs? Do you think this will cause an exploitation of children, or will it help out families that maybe low income families that could use the extra help?
If anything the minimum wage needs to be increased. With all the inflation and rise in cost of living it crazy to think that people can live off the current minimum wage. It sucks because i am a conservative (no big government) but i think minimum wage at its current status is a joke. It needs to be either fixed or removed adn let the market and demand dictate the wages.
The child labor laws is another tough one. I fear dropping the age because some people might have more kids as a means of bringing more money to the family. I would like to think we have come a long way from Sinclair’s “The Jungle”. The rules were made for a reason and i think you would see the exploitation of children once again.
There should be no intervention in the wage by government…period.
This creates disemployment by raising costs on employers who now must lay-off of their most marginally productive employees. Suddenly, street sweepers are out of work because no one thinks they’re worth $7.75/hr.
[quote]phishfood1128 wrote:
If anything the minimum wage needs to be increased. With all the inflation and rise in cost of living it crazy to think that people can live off the current minimum wage. It sucks because i am a conservative (no big government) but i think minimum wage at its current status is a joke. It needs to be either fixed or removed adn let the market and demand dictate the wages.
The child labor laws is another tough one. I fear dropping the age because some people might have more kids as a means of bringing more money to the family. I would like to think we have come a long way from Sinclair’s “The Jungle”. The rules were made for a reason and i think you would see the exploitation of children once again. [/quote]
A raise in minimum wage will only force employers to hire less people as well as cause the prices of everything else to raise.
Think of a basic supply/demand curve for the labor force. If the government enforces a price floor to create “minimum wage”, or even raise it, it causes employers to hire less people. In most cases employers already have the lowest possible number of employees already, so a raise in minimum raise will cause a price raise in their product to compensate.
[quote]pushharder wrote:
Eliminate it. Government has no business dictating what amount business should pay its employees.[/quote]
Oh really?
What if a business wants to pay it’s employees $4/hr (after min wage elimination) and the employee was barely getting by on $9/hr (min wage in effect) ? Will you, the tax payer, pick up the slack for what the employee now cannot afford?
It’s not always as simple as looking for another job or simply moving to somewhere cheaper.
[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
pushharder wrote:
Eliminate it. Government has no business dictating what amount business should pay its employees.
Oh really?
What if a business wants to pay it’s employees $4/hr (after min wage elimination) and the employee was barely getting by on $9/hr (min wage in effect) ? Will you, the tax payer, pick up the slack for what the employee now cannot afford?
It’s not always as simple as looking for another job or simply moving to somewhere cheaper.[/quote]
What if a business was barely getting by paying $4/hr for it’s employees, but now has to raise wages to $9/hr? And, if employers could pay $4/hr an hour, why would that be bad? If costs are cheaper, isn’t production going to be cheaper? If so, aren’t I likely to pass that down to my product, to keep the $4/hr workers buying my stuff at Walmart? The competition will, I had better. Heck, maybe it all wouldn’t be foreign made, then.
To me raising the minimum wage is like setting a dog off to chase it’s own tail.
[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
pushharder wrote:
Eliminate it. Government has no business dictating what amount business should pay its employees.
Oh really?
What if a business wants to pay it’s employees $4/hr (after min wage elimination) and the employee was barely getting by on $9/hr (min wage in effect) ? Will you, the tax payer, pick up the slack for what the employee now cannot afford?
It’s not always as simple as looking for another job or simply moving to somewhere cheaper.[/quote]
Why would we the tax payers have to pick up the slack? And why isn’t it as simple as getting another job or simply moving to somewhere cheaper?
My point is:
If govt. drops minimum wage, and all businesses within a 50 mile radius of an individual decide that they want to pay their employees no more than $4/hr - when they were making at least double that - do you think the cost of living will proportionately drop, too?
It won’t.
Rent won’t drop, gas won’t drop and groceries/food/entertainment will not drop.
How would the individual afford their previous lifestyle, even if it was meager to begin with?
You guys are suffering what most people suffer and that is a lack of a holistic view of the situation. You are not considering the repercussions of such changes because yelling that the “government shouldn’t get involved” is enough to make your dicks hard.
Push,
Don’t you own your own business? What good will dropping minimum wage do you?
One point of clarification: Producers will raise prices not because they are forced to pay more for employees but rather because the overall supply of goods is reduced and demand is unchanged.
An employer will not layoff its most productive employees but rather start with those that do not contribute directly to productivity; for example, a factory owner would probably lay off custodial employees first and or eliminate production on those goods that are not profitable.
Price increases will only come after everything has been done to keep prices the same because it is really risky for a business owner to raise prices. The only real plus is that every business owner is in the same situation; it just becomes a game of chicken where no one wants to be the first to raise prices.
[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
My point is:
If govt. drops minimum wage, and all businesses within a 50 mile radius of an individual decide that they want to pay their employees no more than $4/hr - when they were making at least double that - do you think the cost of living will proportionately drop, too?
It won’t.
Rent won’t drop, gas won’t drop and groceries/food/entertainment will not drop.
How would the individual afford their previous lifestyle, even if it was meager to begin with?
You guys are suffering what most people suffer and that is a lack of a holistic view of the situation. You are not considering the repercussions of such changes because yelling that the “government shouldn’t get involved” is enough to make your dicks hard.
Push,
Don’t you own your own business? What good will dropping minimum wage do you?[/quote]
Please pick up an economics book and read it.
The cost of living will come down if the government were to remove price controls.
Suddenly everyone will become employable, productivity will go through the roof, and prices will therefor come down on all goods and services.
In fact, as the overall capital infrastructure increases labor becomes scarce compared to those capital goods so therefore wages must also increase. The government is just punishing people by trying to help them.
Wage controls hurt productivity and thus cause wages to be lower than they actually could be.
I have some thoughts on this, but I’m very interested to see how this thread develops.
I wish some of the thoughts expressed above could happen. But unfortunately I doubt they would.
[quote]phishfood1128 wrote:
If anything the minimum wage needs to be increased. With all the inflation and rise in cost of living it crazy to think that people can live off the current minimum wage. …[/quote]
If you don’t have the skills and education to get a higher paying job, you should not be trying to live on your own. And if you don’t have what it takes to earn a living, you sure as hell should not be getting married and having a family. It’s idiotic to think that you should be able to live off the minimum wage.
The minimum wage might have started off as a legitimate concern, but now it’s a government attempt to keep as many people as possible ignorant and enslaved to the government.
On another note, should teenagers getting their first job be making enough “to get by”? The argument for a living wage falls apart when you take into account people who aren’t trying to live on their own.
[quote]yorik wrote:
phishfood1128 wrote:
If anything the minimum wage needs to be increased. With all the inflation and rise in cost of living it crazy to think that people can live off the current minimum wage. …
If you don’t have the skills and education to get a higher paying job, you should not be trying to live on your own. And if you don’t have what it takes to earn a living, you sure as hell should not be getting married and having a family. It’s idiotic to think that you should be able to live off the minimum wage.
The minimum wage might have started off as a legitimate concern, but now it’s a government attempt to keep as many people as possible ignorant and enslaved to the government.
On another note, should teenagers getting their first job be making enough “to get by”? The argument for a living wage falls apart when you take into account people who aren’t trying to live on their own.
[/quote]
It’s always been about keeping the masses enslaved to the government.
Promise the lazy and ignorant free stuff and suddenly government gains legitimacy.
People start to see the stuff the government has the power take from other people as a right that they are entitled to.
[quote]PonceDeLeon wrote:
My point is:
If govt. drops minimum wage, and all businesses within a 50 mile radius of an individual decide that they want to pay their employees no more than $4/hr - when they were making at least double that - do you think the cost of living will proportionately drop, too?
[/quote]
Then I will open a business there and get the bestest people to work for me for 5$ !
The bestest!
i am glad i could get this thread going. I am all for letting the market dictate the wages. I am by no means an expert in economics nor am i really that interested in the subject. As i said before i wish there were no governmental controls but there are and always will be. Lets be honest the government sometimes makes the hard decisions that the people cant or wont make (whether it be local, state, or national gov.).