Can America afford to pay a higher minimum wage?

Per the Federal Reserve's wealth distribution table 2020 Q4, the top 50% own $120.41 Trillion in wealth, or 98% of the nation's wealth, and the bottom half own $2.49 Trillion, or 2% of the nation's wealth.

Therefore, any kind of talk where we can't pay a livable wage, forcing the upper half to let go of some of that 98% so that a portion of the bottom half can have a little more, at least enough to live on, is crazy talk.

Scroll down to 2020 Q4, and add up the numbers yourself.
https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/dfa/distribute/table/

 

Of course we can.

But it should be decided on a local basis, not a Federal one or even a State level.

 

There should be a federal baseline, because republicans are against minimums, altogether.

We had such a baseline in the 60s, whereby today's equivalent was about $10 per hour, so that should be the baseline.

 

So your plan is to use the government force to redistribute the wealth already in circulation.
The trick used here is getting the American people to fall for the lie that there is a finite amount of wealth in this country. Wealth is created. We don’t live in a world where there is only so much wealth and some how the rich get it and hoard it all.
Minimum wage laws infringe on others’ property rights, stifle job creation, encourage nepotism, hurt small businesses and eliminate the competition for large corporations that liberals claim to hate so much, whereby they in turn raise prices that hurt working families.
A classic “steal from the rich and give to the poor” move.

 

Why do you hate poor people?

 

If there is not a finite amount of wealth, then a minimum wage should have little to no effect on anyone but those that will be making more money

 

Well let’s follow the logic here. If wealth is created then anything that inhibits that creation inhibits the overall wealth that can be had overall.
Taxes, a forced wage, forced regulations all inhibit wealth creation.

 

Taxes and regulations I agree do, they are part of the cost of living in a society.

But how does a forced wage inhibit wealth creation?

 

If it takes ten people to make your business run right and make a profit forcing me to pay them more hurts the bottom line.
So I’ll have to let go of some people. Overwork the rest.
Or shut down altogether.
By the way, do you think I’ll fire my relatives or the other people I hired off the street?

 

Your argument is a red herring.

The upper half have 98% of the national's wealth.

The lower half has 2% of the nation's wealth.

IF the upper half choose not to pay the lower half more, then yes. we force the upper half to pay the lower half more.


That argument has NOTHING TO DO WITH 'finite size of the pie'

The argument simply demonstrates the resources are there that we can afford to pay the lower portion of society a livable wage.

That is the argument because the argument against it is that they can't afford it.

The wealth chart PROVES there are plenty of resources available to pay them a livable wage.

Stealing is illegal, no one is suggesting anything illegal here.

 

Why do you hate logic?

 

Or charge more for your product, or become more efficient at making it so your cost are lower.

There are always more than two options, something the people on this forum seem to not grasp

 

The engine of job creation is with the middle class and the poor. You pay them more, they will spend a much greater percentage of their income on consumer goods, the purchases that drive economic growth more than other purcheases, than the rich spend of their income.

The tendency of the rich to pay as little as possible to the lowest rung of society inhibits wealth creation.

Therefore, the truth is the OPPOSITE of your reasoning.

There are limits, of course, so don't push the concept into strawman territory.

 

Those are certainly options.
Charging more for the product hurts business.
Becoming more efficient subsumes it isn’t efficient already which is false.
All of these are artificial price fixes. Not caused by value but by force.
But I suppose you’re morally ok with using force.

 

Depends, modest increases in wages can improve the economy without burdening management. Where your reasoning works is if it is overdone, and no one is suggesting that. Where the law comes into play is to make sure the lowest rung is not exploited.

 

Not if it's modest, and the upper half accept less so that the bottom half can have a modest amount more.
It all depends.

No one is suggesting fixing prices at the retail or on raw materials.

None of that has anything to do with paying a minimum wage.

Force is a part of life. Taxes are force. Stopping at red lights are force. Buying insurance if you own a car is force for car owners. Your 'force' (the flip side of the 'freedom' ) argument is specious.

 

If what you are saying is correct than you wouldn’t need to use force to accomplish it. Of course it isn’t correct.
Money is exchanged between people because of value. Price fixing labor bypasses this basic concept. Evidenced by the once thriving industrial cities hamstrung by labor unions.
Simply forcing wages does not create wealth. How can it?

 

How can anyone be exploited in a voluntary work force?

 

By forcing labor costs you are forcing prices on goods.

And there we have it. “Force is a part of life”..
seriously? What else will you be willing to force on people?
And this goes to your overall philosophy of life I assume. If the public won’t do what we like, we’ll force them. Is that it?

 

A tiny number own Trumpets too. Would you force all of us to own Trumpets? What about pianos. A small number own pianos yet the rich own many. Should we force the poor to own pianos?

 

Also, I would say that while forced wages may limit the wealth creation of one person, it opens up the wealth creation for other.

Yeah, I am morally ok using force to collect taxes and enforce regulations the members of the society have deemed necessary, even if I do not agree with the.

As far as a minimum wage I think it is wrong for it to be done on anything but a city/town level.

 

The poor don't get a paycheck. Why do you hate them?

 

America doesn't pay wages, employers pay wages. Wrong question.

 

It depends on what you want more of- newer, smaller businesses or larger, well-established businesses. Larger businesses that have had an opportunity to secure more reserve operating capital will be able to more easily absorb and offset the increased cost of increased wages. Or, to put another way, they can afford to delay passing that cost along to the consumer for a longer period of time. Smaller businesses with less reserve operating capital will have to pass the cost of increased wages along to the consumer more quickly. The result is that when wages are artificially increased, smaller businesses lose more business than larger businesses because smaller businesses have to raise their prices sooner and more people will buy from bigger businesses with lower prices. Smaller business then goes under, and the big businesses raise their prices to recoup their losses once the smaller businesses are gone and there's less competition. So if we want to help big business by getting rid of small business competition, then sure, we can 'afford' to raise the minimum wage.

But the real question is- how will raising the minimum wage help wage-earners? Most minimum wage earners pay rent, rent is the single largest cost to the wage-earner and landlords always raise the cost of rent to match what wage earners are able to afford. So raising the minimum wage is only going to enrich landlords, not help wage-earners. Reducing the necessary cost of housing is not only necessary if our goal is to increase minimum wage earner ability to 'climb the ladder', but indeed if we can reduce the cost of their housing there would be no need to increase minimum wages in the first place.

Bottom line is that as things sit now, increasing minimum wage without other accompanying reforms will only help large business crush small business and allow landlords to raise rents, make more money and buy up more of the housing to turn into rentals. Its a prime example of being so desperate to try to fix a difficult problem that we don't take the time and effort ot fix it properly, and just keep making it worse and worse. Eventually we'll all be making $100/hour working at Walmart but paying $10,000/mo rent and still wondering why the minimum wage isn't keeping up with cost of living... we first have to prevent cost of living from always just scaling up to meet wages if we want increase in wages to benefit wage earners.