Would you republicans vote for a $12 minimum wage?

Yep. Everyone "up the ladder" will demand a raise because some skills are more valuable and in demand than others. Now everyone makes relatively more and employers raise their prices and pass those labor costs off to the consumer. In other words, we get inflation pretty much across the board.

Government benefits because a lot of people end up in higher tax brackets, while the wealthy and corporations continue to get tax loopholes, so the government makes more revenue off the middle-class....which never trickles back down to the poor. What a racket!

 

If I were in Congress I would give you the full 15 if you could get behind the measures I had mentioned in post #72. It doesn't matter what wage you offer if you are not going to compromise on any other measure. It's just impossible to negotiate. Your position is that you'll take less than what you really want but won't give me a single thing that I want. How is that negotiating?

 

It's the only way Democrat's know how to.

 

I guess that's why nothing gets done.

 

Alright, I'll repeat it since you have trouble reading:

But, without a minimum, otherwise, corporations will exploit those is poor bargaining positions, like in China where 8 people sleep in bunk bed rooms for living quarters, and work 16 hours a day for $2 with one day off.

It's clear China doesn't have a non-exploitive minimum.

Paying people so little they must work 16 hours day 6 days a week just to afford a bunkbed is exploitation in the extreme, such is the plight of those not protected by livable minimum wages.

We need a minimum wage to prevent exploitation.

 

Minimum wage:




McDonald's Menu 1974:



McDonald's Menu 1980:




Now compare the percentage increase in minimum wage to the price increase of a Big Mac over that 5-6 year period.

 

These folks think $12 is a low number ...
Come on man !

 

I don't need you to repeat. I need you to justify.

How does a minimum wage prevent exploitation? You can make up whatever number you want to pay them. That number will still represent the value they produce.

Also, do you believe this premise only applies to labor? Should there be a minimum price for goods? If I declare that the minimum you can spend on a pack of gum is 5 dollars do 1 dollar packs of gum become more valuable?

 

Because it won't.

 

Its better than 15 but its still strange. I'm sure there are places it should be a little lower, a little higher, the same, a lot higher and so on. This should depend on the state. Why not instead of one flat wage, a flat increase instead. Like minimum goes up 25% (or some percentage) for ALL minimum wages that way its still proportional and still makes sense.
They currently are too low and something really should be done. I can tell you nobody is actually paying rent in NYC on their 11.25 an hour unless they are turning tricks or renting a shed or closet. I just think a flat minimum wage across the board doesn't make much sense, but I do think that something needs to happen, but something that make sense.

 

Now prove that one had to do with the other.

 

Yes, it will.

 

McDonald's is probably one of the most efficient food service providers in the nation, and it's labor costs are more than 1/3rd of it's total cost of doing business. 36%!

When a business's cost of goods increases, they have to raise prices to stay in business.

Prices always increase after the federal government forces minimum wages higher. That person working the minimum wage job gets hurt the worst from the resulting price inflation.





https://marketrealist.com/2019/11/how-mcdonalds-wages-major-costs-stack-up/

 

Here's the article I based my post on. It explains it a lot better than I could.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/a-better-way-to-raise-the-minimum-wage-123520433.html

Like with all things, there's pluses and minuses. what government should do is to eliminate all the minuses as possible. It should look into all possibilities to improve things and not just stick with something only because that's what my party want. especially if there is a better way to cut back on those you hurt and help more in the process.

But since our government is run by political parties and ideologues, I don't really expect them to do that.

 

Labor follows the Pareto distribution. 80% of the outcome is due to 20% of the cause.

Let's say you're a farmer that sells bean plants. 20% of your plants will produce 80% of the beans. You sell this 20% of your plants for a premium, because they have the most beans. The remaining 80% of the plants likewise follow the distribution. 16% will have 80% more beans than the remaining 64% of plants. And so on. You sell your highest value plants for $20 a plant, and your least valuable plants for $2 a plant. The remaining plants get sold for something in the middle.

Now enter the government that mandates the least you can sell a bean plant for is $10. What happens to the bean market? Do people still buy the formerly $2 plants with the least amount of beans? What happens to the value of their money if they do?

 

The federal government should just stay out of minimum wage, but that is a good article on "regional" minimum wages based on regional cost of living.

That article has a chart showing that we already have regional minimum wages, set by the states or even by individual cities (which is how it should be, if we're going to have a government minimum at all).




The article also makes a good point. A $15 federal minimum wage mandate would create 900,000 jobs at $15/hr and 1,400,000 employees would lose their jobs and make the "real" minimum wage, which is always "zero". The net result is that half a million fewer people would be employed.

 

Prices rise even when the min stays the same.

 

So no proof.

 

So why add yet another reason for prices to rise?

 

Prices fall when the min stays the same too.

Is there any mechanism that would cause prices to fall as a result of the min being raised?

 

Because that's not another reason.

 

Don't know.

 

I assumed as much. But you don't think that calls into question your confidence in your answer to Bullseye, do you?

 

Basic economic realities are difficult for some folks to grasp more than they are for others.

 

Yeah, it is.