Should the federal minimum wage be eliminated, lowered, maintained or raised? I voted to raise it.

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"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left."
Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV)

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It is a difficult balancing act, without a doubt. However, raising the minimum wage to c. $7.00 per hour would have two advantages. First, it would indirectly eliminate the need for much government welfare. Second, it would give the working class more money to reinvest in the economy, and it is the desire of the working class to become middle class that drives an economy more than anything else. It could create some inflationary pressures, but since our current inflation is caused in part by a mini-energy crisis, switching to alternative energy (using tax incentives) would offset any such pressures.

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"The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left."
Ecclesiastes 10:2 (NIV)

Check out: www.indepolitics.com

The worst that could happen would be stagflation in which the deflationary measures that the government took to counter the minimum wage increase's effects served only to decrease investment. However, I don't see that as likely. It would require a very low level of confidence at the time of the minimum wage increase. That is just my opinion, though. I am not one of the site's fiscal experts. Stekim, MerlinX and thedreamer are the experts, with the first two being right-wing and the third being left-wing. If you really want to know the details of what could occur you'll have to ask them.

There is a big difference between the economies of New York and rural Wyoming. But in general what you get is higher prices and more unemployment at the low end. Going from $5.25 to $7.00 would (generally) cause prices to go up some and unemployment to rise some. How much would depend on the local economy.

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Some days it's not even worth chewing through the restraints.

Minimum wage set at a federal level doesn't make much sense. There is a big difference in the cost of rent from Indiana to New York to Michigan. Hell, there's a big difference between the cost of rent in Detroit and Ann Arbor.
It seems like it should be a state or local issue.

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"Conservatives say if you don't give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. As for the poor, they tell us they've lost all incentive because we've given them too much money."

-George Carlin

Raising it above $7.00 per hour should be a state issue (IMO), but that wage should be guaranteed on a national level.

It won't do any good. Sure, some folks will have an extra $70 bucks in their pocket, but with higher prices and fewer jobs the bulk of the poor won't benefit in any major way. The government has tried for decades to "end poverty", yet we still have it. Don't you think the solution lies elsewhere? How much more evidence do you need? Another 5 decades?

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Some days it's not even worth chewing through the restraints.

Raising the minimum wage would actually reduce government welfare costs. Moreover, the spending increase that would result from the increased wages, combined with intelligent actions by the Federal Reserve, would negate inflationary concerns in this matter. The decreased government spending from the lowered welfare costs would also combat inflation.