Posted on 03/06/2014 4:34:49 PM PST by The_Harlequin
Last month, President Obama decreed by executive order to raise the minimum wage for federal contractors. This week he continues to campaign for support of a Congressional bill that would raise the minimum wage nationwide. As the debate rages on, we are at least reminded of the math illiteracy we face in our schools and society. It also serves as evidence that the minimum wage proponents don’t really care about the math anyway—just as long as they can take credit for handing out more money to low wage earners.
The arguments offered by proponents are more political posturing than economic reality. To hear liberals tell it, it’s a policy so full of economic benefits that only a heartless miser could possibly object. Really, the argument pretty much ends there. In their liberal world, the employer‘s part in all of this is immaterial. Never mind that any wage increase must come from those paying the salaries. It’s a factor that’s just not part of their half-baked equation.
Increasing the minimum wage sounds like a good idea, as far as the argument goes. But that’s mostly if you’re on the receiving end of this government mandated generosity. Wages would increase for millions of workers bringing them above current poverty levels and thereby raising the national income. On the face of it, it sounds like a good deal.
However, this scenario ignores some important factors. First, the money has to come from somewhere, and that “somewhere” are the employers who are struggling to maintain their bottom line. How are they supposed to adjust their ledgers to meet the burden of a sudden and arbitrary increase in their cost of doing business? Liberals prefer not to deal in those kinds of trivial details.
And consider this other detail: Employees who were producing $10.10 an hour worth of work now find themselves earning the same amount as their new minimum wage co-workers. Has the value of their work suddenly become equivalent? Of course not. But it presents no problem for Congressional Democrats who can afford to live outside the economic reality in which the rest of us must reside.
According to the progressive think tank Economic Policy Institute, they expect 21.3 million employees would eventually get a raise as a consequence of the new minimum wage. In effect it would be a pay increase domino effect that minimum wage supporters would welcome. Raises for everybody!
All rhetoric aside, the minimum wage issue is merely another variation of the same old song loved by socialists everywhere—wealth redistribution. As an economic formula, the method is pretty simple: 1) Find out who has money. 2) Figure out a way to take it. 3) Convince voters that it will cost them nothing. And like most frauds, you'll find that it’s a deal that’s too good to be true.
All this “minimum wage” stuff is just grandstanding for the dunderheaded marks in the cheap seats.
Everyone with a job gets more money while the folks next to them on the roster are fired, and - bang - those who retain a job find prices rising to preserve profits.
End result - nothing, except to raise unemployment and screw people on fixed incomes.
Minimum wage should be zero. And some people are not even worth that.
They were saying that Washington State has the highest minimum wage in the country and is also one of the top job producers and lower unemployment. Is any of this true?
Also, look at how many union contracts are tied to the minimum wage. When the minimum wage goes up, the unions get a raise as well.
Since the poverty level is set at the total of full time minimum wage...just imagine the re-set of all benefits!
This would make so many more people eligible for programs that I can’t even imagine the number.
Why is that never factored in to the reasons it will break every budget?
Washington has Boeing, Microsoft, farming and the closest port to Asia. These produce good jobs, by and large. We also have above average unemployment in the 24 and under demographic thanks to our high minimum wage.
As mentioned in related threads, with the exceptions of the federal entities indicated in the Constitution’s Clauses 16 & 17 of Section 8 of Article I as examples, entities under the exclusive legislative control of Congress, the states have never delegated to the feds, via the Constitution, the specific power to define a national minimum wage.
Only the states have the 10th Amendment-protected power to individually define minimum wage for intrastate labor.
Corrupt federal lawmakers have been successfully exploiting this national minimum wage myth for decades in order to win votes from low-information citizens imo, citizens who have never been taught the Founding States’ division of federal and state government powers.
Note that if the Constitution’s Article V supermajority of states should ultimately decide that it would be best for Congress to establish a national minimum wage, then there is nothing to stop them from amending the Constitution to specifically grant Congress such power.
What would make these idiots think they could impose an equitable minimum wage for somebody in rural Kansas and downtown New York city on a national basis. They don’t do it with Bacon-Davis.
Have you read anywhere what the effect would be when raising the poverty level from about 15K to 21K?
Would not the many support programs cover millions more people?
I SAY THIS MIN. WAGE kerfuffle IS ALL JUST B.S. AND ‘SILLY TALK’ IT’S JUST ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF UNTHOUGHT-OUT ‘LONG WAY AROUND-ISM’ THAT CLUTTERS THE MINDS OF OUR LEADERS TODAY....
LISTEN.... WE DO NOT NEED A MIN. WAGE WHAT WE NEED....IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE FAIRNESS TO ALL IS ...BUT A COMPREHENSIVE PACKAGE OF
MINIMUM BENEFITS
THAT’S RIGHT A.....COMPLETE WRAP AROUND BASKET OF MIN. BENEFITS....
FOR EXAMPLE WE ALL MUST BE PROVIDED A FREE MINNIE CAR..A MINIMUM NUMBER OF BOTTLES OF RIPPLE A WEEK A MIN. WEEKLY AMOUNT OF HITS OF WEED ....MIN. STEAKS AND CHOPS...A MIN. NUMBER OF HOUSE CLEANING HOURS FOR OUR CRIBS......
I DONT SEE HOW WE AS A NATION CAN PROPERLY PURSUE HAPPINESS AND LIFE AND LIBERTY W/O SUCHLIKE MINIMUMS....CASE CLOSED...
I JUST HOPE WE CAN FIND PROPER WAYS TO EXTRACT THE MONEY WE NEED FOR PROPER HAPPINESS PURSUIT-ING FROM THOSE TIGHT FISTED LIMITED GOV’T CONSERVATIVE S.O.B’S WHO HAVE HELD OUR COMMON MEN BACK SINCE 1776..IT’S BEEN A LONG DISGUSTING SLOG MY FELLOW AMERICANS BUT A NEW DAY IS DAWNING ... A NEW AND SHINING DAY....IT IS DAWNING ALRIGHT.... I FEEL IT WITH EVERY TOKE OF MY BEING...JOIN OUR FIGHT FELLOW-FREEPERS...
WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE OR SOMETHING...
Back then, it was $2.65/hr and I was working at a supermarket, bagging groceries, shagging carts in the parking lot and doing whatever else was assigned to me. Mopping bathrooms, cleaning up spills, washing windows, etc.
When they raised the minimum wage to $2.90/hr, it affected all the other workers because they needed a similar raise also so they could keep their place in the pecking order. So people making $2.80 went to $3.05 and people making $4.50 an hour went to $4.75 an hour. And so on.
Since about 1980, I never paid attention to minimum wage again.
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