Imaginos1892 wrote:You can’t change the minimum wage. No matter what you do, how loudly you complain. it always remains exactly the same — ZERO!! As in, unemployed. The more it costs businesses to hire people, the fewer they will hire. That’s not even economics, it’s simple accounting.
Thank you for pointing out why capitalism is a terrible system.
You seem to believe that it’s better to be unemployed than working for low pay. I disagree. A person working for low pay is still productive, still contributing to the economy. Sitting on his dead ass unemployed, or running around looking for a job, not so much. And that’s where he’s going to be if the government tries to force businesses to pay $15.00 an hour for a job that adds $5.00 an hour to the bottom line.
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I actually believe that a person's ability to live safe from dangers such as homelessness, hunger, or disease should not be contingent on whether or not they are employed, just to be clear on this. Furthermore, "contributing to the economy" shouldn't be the primary measure by which we sort jobs into desirable and undesirable.
That there is something like a
precariat as a social class should be a strong enough indictment of the concept of neoliberal capitalism, but instead, you seem to be defending it as necessary for the system to work!
Minimum wage, in the sense you mean it, is also a constant.
No, it really isn't. It's a political decision to institute one and to raise or lower it.
All costs are ultimately labor costs. If you Raise The Minimum Wage! to $15.00, or $20.00, or $50.00, it increases the cost of labor, which increases the cost of everything, until inflation dilutes the actual buying power of your new minimum wage to just about the same as the old minimum wage before you started monkeying with it. What do you think has been happening to the dollar, the pound, the euro, and all the other currencies that are worth less than 10% of what they were 40 years ago? (OK, the euro has only been around for 20 years, but it has inflated right along with all the rest since then)
Why do I get the feeling that you don't know as much about economics as you think you do?
Over that same timeframe, we've seen wages stagnate while companies reap ever-increasing profits. The basic idea that if a company is successful, part of that success is translated into better conditions for its employees has seemingly been abandoned. Especially in the past decade, real wages have effectively been stagnant for a vast portion of the work force; Any raises being effectively cancelled out by inflation, taxes that rich people aren't paying, cancellation of relief programs.
Yes, raising the minimum wage increases the cost of labor. Congratulations, you are very smart, have a gold star. What I'm saying is that labor has been undervalued for a very long time now, and that it is time for some measure of equality to be restored.
All costs are relative to the cost of labor. Increase the cost of labor, everything else ratchets up, and the same amount of work still buys the same amount of goods. No law, theory or slogan can ever change that.
Again, you are very smart, congratulations.
The government can’t force businesses to pay some arbitrary ‘minimum wage’, only prohibit them from paying less. If a job is not worth that much, they will eliminate the job.
The government
literally can do this. You seem to be under the impression that the government shouldn't invalidate business models. This is wrong.
The government is supposed to be a balancing tool between the interests of the powerful and the interests of the powerless. The rise of the left amongst young people and adults under 40 reflects this (As does the rise of right-wing extremism amongst the stupid and easily led). Both of these movements have, at their core, people who have understood that things are out of balance and that a realignment has to happen.
What’s your next proposal, have the government force businesses to hire people they don’t need, and pay them more than they’re worth?
My actual next proposal is to raise the marginal tax rate to a level where excessive concentrations of wealth are impossible. Raising minimum wages is a patch for a symptom, not a fix for the problem.
