Minimum wage

[Scarface]

As liberal as I am on certain issues, I'm against the idea of minimum wage. While it may be a good idea in thought, it is not so well in practice. Minimum wage causes unemployment "But Justin!" You say "how can you be against minimum wage, it makes it fair in the system". Fair it may be, right and/or economically, not so much. When the minimum wage is raised it causes businesses (mostly self proprietors and family owned businesses) to hire less people and make the current employees have more duties without any raise or reward. (I myself am a witness to this phenomenon).

So we have the fact that it puts a bigger burden on the employee and shuns away the unemployed, and we also have the fact that it costs small business more. When the employees get payed more than is perhaps necessary, the upkeep is lowered, as is the amount of product that is being produced.

If I can think of anything else, I'll post later.

Rebuttal?

 

[Dsar]

With the lack of jobs, I think you're right. The main problem is that people expect to be paid the same in a successful economy, as they do in a recession.

/agree with original poster.

 

[Lavi]

Considering the cost of living, it would be rough if you get paid a dollar an hour.

 

[Sovereign]

Are you ****ing kidding me?

 

[Scarface]

The market fixes itself when the government stays out of it, at least 99% of the time.

Also, no one will want a job for $1.00 an hour, it's all about finding equilibrium, how much businesses are willing to pay to the amount of people willing to work for any particular price. It also has to do with competition.

Yay capitalism.

*prepares to be chased out of town by an angry mob*

 

[Lavi]

I recall an interview of a guy who voluntarily worked at minimum wage for a month, and he said that life was very difficult: he had a small family to support, so he was working for hours upon end just to put food on the table, pay taxes, and all that jazz. Minimum wage being something like $5.15 per hour at the time... yeah.

 

[Scarface]

But he was willing to work at that price.

To quote someone I heard say this today; "If you're in your late 20's or 30's and you're still working minimum wage, you have more problems than not having enough money." Which I think holds true.

 

[Sovereign]

But he was willing to work at that price.

To quote someone I heard say this today; "If you're in your late 20's or 30's and you're still working minimum wage, you have more problems than not having enough money." Which I think holds true.

Ok this is completely absurd.

You have to understand that there will always be people who work for the minimum wage, and that they're essential to the well being of the economy. Not all of us can be lawyers or doctors, you HAVE to have the dude who flips the burgers or works in an assembly line.

Keeping that in mind, you cannot simply let these people die. History has shown us that without minimum wage, companies wouldn't care about the actual cost of living and give them practically nothing in return for their labour. I mean have you ever read a history book? You should know how horrible life was in 19th century England when minimum wage was nonexistent. The workers had a salary that was practically lower than what was necessary to survive. We're far passed that time.

If you're not a moral person or you think you're too cool to care about the suffering of the people then consider this; welfare and the minimum wage are tools that are essential for the well-being of the economy. Our economy is dependent on the needs of the consumer. A lot of these goods are actually very cheap, and they're directly dependent on the poor. If you abolish the minimum wage then people will make less money, they will buy less, and whole sectors of the economy would be in peril. How would companies fair if their goods would only be available to the rich? Yeah, because the Middle Class might disappear completely if companies could pay whatever they wanted.

Plus, our economy is entirely different than 19th century England (I'm saying this because I'm getting the impression you want to go back to these times; completely unrestricted brutal capitalism), the goods we produce are diversify. Back then, the only thing they made was steel and textiles. You have to keep people going to McDonalds or buying Frozen pizza, you can't just let them rot, unless you want to restructure the entirety of the economy.

If we've learned one thing from Marx is that; Capitalism IS not perfect, and people ought to recognize its flaws. Unrestricted Capitalism does not work. It is an inhuman system.

 

[Adamis]

I'm with Sin on this one. Minimum wage is there for a reason, to make sure everyone can make enough money to live off and even with it there are still alot of people who still don't make enough and have to have two or even three jobs just to support themselves.

Its better to have a small group unemployed than a large group employed but still unable to support themselves and their familes. You will still get the same problems with a larger group.

The market fixes itself when the government stays out of it, at least 99% of the time.

Also, no one will want a job for $1.00 an hour, it's all about finding equilibrium, how much businesses are willing to pay to the amount of people willing to work for any particular price. It also has to do with competition.

Yay capitalism.

*prepares to be chased out of town by an angry mob*

So you expect the average minimum wage worker to understand and be completely up-to-date with the market when they go for a job do you? There are alot of companies that will see these people coming a mile off and tell them that "In the current market climate we can only pay you $1.50 an hour. And we are being very generous at that rate, no-one else would give you more than $1 an hour." There are plenty of people out there that would be taken in by that and accept the job.

 

[Sovereign]

I'm with Sin on this one. Minimum wage is there for a reason, to make sure everyone can make enough money to live off and even with it there are still alot of people who still don't make enough and have to have two or even three jobs just to support themselves.

Its better to have a small group unemployed than a large group employed but still unable to support themselves and their familes. You will still get the same problems with a larger group.


So you expect the average minimum wage worker to understand and be completely up-to-date with the market when they go for a job do you? There are alot of companies that will see these people coming a mile off and tell them that "In the current market climate we can only pay you $1.50 an hour. And we are being very generous at that rate, no-one else would give you more than $1 an hour." There are plenty of people out there that would be taken in by that and accept the job.

Scareface also seems to disregard the fact that unemployment is there for a reason; lack of jobs. If companies were free to charge people at 1$ then people would take that job. Everyone wants to work.

And regardless, companies would just pay incredibly low salaries regardless. They're not stupid. Perfect competition doesn't exist. It's a ****ing myth, companies just collude with one another and set a price.

That's right.

The Market doesn't set anything.

Supply and Demand?

BULLSHIT. IN YOUR DREAMS BUDDY.

LEARN TO GOD ****ING ECONOMICS.

Sheesh...

 

[Adamis]

Scareface also seems to disregard the fact that unemployment is there for a reason; lack of jobs. If companies were free to charge people at 1$ then people would take that job.

And regardless, companies would just pay incredibly low salaries regardless. They're not stupid. Perfect competition doesn't exist. It's a ****ing myth, companies just collude with one another and set a price.

That's right.

The Market doesn't set anything.

Supply and Demand?

BULLSHIT. IN YOUR DREAMS BUDDY.

LEARN TO GOD ****ING ECONOMICS.

Sheesh...

Its also interesting that this is coming from a person who lives in a country that still has 1/3 of their population living below the poverty line, and he wants to get rid of the minimum wage and make it worse!!! :CAbove:

 

[Sovereign]

Its also interesting that this is coming from a person who lives in a country that still has 1/3 of their population living below the poverty line, and he wants to get rid of the minimum wage and make it worse!!! :CAbove:

Lol I know.

Americans are so silly.

"HAI GUSY. COMAPNIES DONT MAKE ENOUGH MONEY. LOL LETSE HELP THEM MAKE PEOPLE SUFFER MORE."

 

[Brandon Rhea]

BULLSHIT. IN YOUR DREAMS BUDDY.

LEARN TO GOD ****ING ECONOMICS.

Alright, calm down, Sin.

 

[Cailst]

And regardless, companies would just pay incredibly low salaries regardless. They're not stupid. Perfect competition doesn't exist. It's a ****ing myth, companies just collude with one another and set a price.

That's right.

The Market doesn't set anything.

Supply and Demand?

BULLSHIT. IN YOUR DREAMS BUDDY.

LEARN TO GOD ****ING ECONOMICS.

Sheesh...

If the businesses were all colluding with each other, then wouldn't we have ridiculously high prices for goods and services?

Also, who taught you that markets don't set anything and that all the businesses were colluding?

 

[Niner]

Hmmm, my summer job pays me $90 a week.

 

[Cailst]

Hmmm, my summer job pays me $90 a week.

What do you do?

 

[Jaqen H'ghar]

Hmmm, my summer job pays me $90 a week.

My old job before I moved used to pay me 80 bucks for a days work. I did carpentry.

 

[Ser Gregor]

Totaly agreed with SIN. Minimum wage is a necessity, but it has to be fixed. America's wage is horrid. Minimum wage in Ontario is $8.75, and even then, most jobs pay more. I get paid $15 an hour working as an assistant at the animal clinic. The animal clinic.

 

[Cailst]

Totaly agreed with SIN. Minimum wage is a necessity, but it has to be fixed. America's wage is horrid. Minimum wage in Ontario is $8.75, and even then, most jobs pay more. I get paid $15 an hour working as an assistant at the animal clinic. The animal clinic.

In that case, it seems like a minimum wage would be completely unnecessary.

 

[The Count of Monte Cristo]

It was cool when I could say I was paid $7 dollars an hour but the increase in minimum wage annoys me, because now people who bag groceries get as much as I did.
And I was a life guard.
The season is over now.

The difficulties of a life guard is so much harder than someone who bags groceries or stocks shelves.

and we get Less hours. a lot less.