Raising the minimum wage is the only way to end the "Great Recession".

Truth.

As well, he needs to get some of that money at the top recirculated back into the system. It's going upwards and not 'trickling down'. Anything earned gets put into tax havens overseas, so it's like he's allowing money to be funneled out of the country.

My view is 'if you're not going to pay the toll, you can turn your ass right back around and find a different route'.

EDIT: Also, it's been proven repeatedly through history that austerity during economic downturns never works and only drags things down further.

 

All raising the minimum wage ever does is raise labor cost and therefore prices or reduce the number of entry level jobs, or both. Worst of all it makes it harder on every other working stiff.

 

Stop pretending Democrats are smarter than the free market. Prices always follow wages, either up or down. If businesses want customers they have to price their products so people can afford them.

 

You should really tell this to the ethiopians. Imagine if they knew that all they have to do to get rich is to go shopping.

 

Recessions are part of the bam and bust circles of capitalism why you have a problem with them and not capitalism itself?

For those saying that rising wages will also rise prices i take this board from here

Year Weekly Earnings (1982-84 dollars)
1972 $341.83 (peak)
1975 $314.75
1980 $290.86
1985 $285.34
1990 $271.12
1992 $266.46 (lowest point; 22% below peak)
1995 $267.07
2000 $284.79
2005 $284.99
2010 $297.67
2011 $294.78 (still 14% below peak)

how much did the prices drop in the last 30 years ?

 

Jobs should be pay wages based on the agreement between the employer and the employee. Government should NOT be allowed to force businesses to pay workers more than the work they do is worth.

 

There is rarely an "only" way to do anything. Raising the minimum wage would put more of these already struggling workers out of work. Take this, for example, coming to a fast food joint near you put low-skilled people out of work:

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Ummm.... you do realize the numbers you provided have little to nothing to do with the minimum wage, don't you?

 

Do not blame business people for what goverment policy wrought.

 

The same small businesses that already are in retrench mode because of Obamacare? If one's margins are so tight that policy changes put their jobs in jeopardy, then maybe they shouldn't be running a small business if all they intend to do is run it on the cheap.

 

So every mom and pop in the country needs to go broke and and hundreds of thousands of more people need to be out of work? Another daft leftist idea.

 

What percentage of people make minimum wage? What percent are above teen or college years, that aren't seniors looking for something to do?

 

What exactly "Hours and earnings in private non-agricultural industries, 1965-2011." has to do with students and seniors ?

 

My favorite part of this thread by the way is the title. "Raising the minimum wage is the only way to end the "Great Recession".

When did the last minimum wage bump happen? Just before the economic downturn that lead to the recession that became much worse as people starting foreclosing on their over leveraged homes?

So why do you think it would correct anything?

Can you name a time when youth unemployment among the poor was as high as it is now?

How much is a welder's apprentice worth that will be taking up the time of a skilled employee and is not ready to do the job yet? How much are they worth per hour? A jeweler's apprentice who will likely damage rare and precious gems along the way? Car stereo installation trainee?

Can you name any apprenticeship system alive today not run by government or that charges a tuition? Why do you think that is?

Yeah, maybe Wal-Mart will have to pay some of their cashiers more, (few jobs at Wal Mart are at minimum wage, but that is the stereotype), but the chance of some poor kid without job experience getting someone to pay $10 something an hour after taxes and compliance to give him the training tech schools are charging 40k and sometimes more for is laughable. There is a reason there are few machinists in this country, and the ones that are generally older. Years of hands on training isn't cheap when you have a minimum wage to pay.

 

Why the heck is it that leftists believe that government actions always happen in a vacuum and worse that the only possible outcomes are the ones they desire? there is after all a reason for the the existence of the term unintended consequence and it has everything to do with government actions that were supposed to be a panacea that proved to create worse problems than those they set out to fix.

 

All the construction trades have apprenticeships and they are not run by the government. What's your point?

 

You can only push so much cheap money into housing. Hopefully the left has learned this by now. How often do you see air condition techs that haven't paid to go to school? Mechanic these days even go to school. I see no reason half of the work highly trained nurses are doing couldn't be given to high school grads.

If you don't like the wages people are being paid then you should hire them for more. If you find it hard to turn a profit after awhile at that wage then you will be in the persons shoes you just criticized. Money doesn't grow on trees, and even then there would be limits.

 

As long as the intention is good damn the actual results I guess. I have no idea either why they think disinterested politicians who produce nothing of value are the best people to direct money in the economy. These people after all know deep down they have no influence whatsoever at the federal level. If they hate MOnsanto but Obama wants to give them some cash they will get it. They have no say in the matter. Meanwhile, in the private market they get all the free range sun grown organic broccoli they want. And the person wil thank them for their purchase. Not send police if they don't pay up for a bill they didn't agree to.

 

I am talking about the people who take these jobs. They aren't meant to be careers.

 

Man the stats show that the real wage has dropped since 1972 and my question is simple : did prices dropped ?

 

You are talking about something you know little about.

Construction is not just building houses. That is a minor part of it.

Construction apprentices don't pay to go to school, even air conditioning techs, if they join a union. If they don't want to join a union they can pay to learn and work for short money all their lives.

 

I live in a right to work state. We build houses here, just differently. Hurricane proof.

Do they have to pay the union fees their whole lives? Do unions spend the rest of their time limiting the amount of people working in their field to artificially increase their wages to the detriment of the rest of society, especially those people who are not homeless? (Are the housing prices higher then they should be?)

 

The higher minimum wage is causing business to give a serious look at robots. Robots are cheaper than people. The robot revolution is just around the corner. And the high minimum wage is making it come faster.

http://mynorthwest.com/920/2312665/...st-food-workers-demanding-higher-minimum-wage

 

The current minimum wage is lower than some would like. But that helps motivate those employees to work harder, become more attractive in the marketplace and then move on to a better job.

No one except the mentally challenged should still be working for minimum wage beyond a few months. Then, the worker starts commanding a higher wage because they are of greater value to his current or a prospective employer.

If an employer can easily find a better employee at minimum wage then it behooves the worker to become a better worker so he can get a raise or even to KEEP his job and avoid being replaced by someone fresh off the street.

And how do you like the idea of paying twice as much as you now do for a Big Mac?

That's how the store owner will be able to afford to raise the min wage of his workers to $15/hr.

Supply and demand. Capitalism.

Get it.

Got it?

Good!

 

I don't think it's the minimum wage that matters. What matters is making education more affordable.

We could have a highly skilled workforce like Norway or Germany, but it requires having a system that makes continuing education easy along with job retraining.

The problem is that we aren't properly adapting to globalization. First World nations must continually improve the skills of their labor or they face the prospect of slipping into Second World status.

 

I think we are already a second world nation. That's the way those who control our economy want it. Europeans earn more than American workers. Plus they don't have to reach into their pockets as much as Americans.

The problem with minimum wage is not that they are entry level jobs.

The problem is that since we threw away our manufacturing minimum wage jobs are nearly all there are for the people coming of age these days.