Posted on 05/06/2014 11:35:20 PM PDT by kingattax
Thank God Obama's and the Democrats' attempt to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour stalled in the Senate.
Raising the minimum wage destroys jobs. Democrats pushing for a higher minimum wage has nothing to do with improving peoples' lives and everything to do with playing two cards – class envy and fairness – from their hate-inspiring deck to win votes.
How much can Mr. Joe American grocery store owner afford to pay an unskilled worker just entering the work force? When government pulls an amount out of the air that it believes is a fair hourly wage and forces it on business owners, business owners are forced to make real-world economic decisions.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Congresswoman from California was quoted today as saying she would support a state minimum wage of $26 an hour. My question is, “why not $126?”
If businesses can't survive with the local minimum wage, they will move out. In my opinion, the market will decide what is the correct "minimum wage."
I don't like a federal minimum wage because businesses have no place to run to, and also union contracts are tied to the federal minimum wage law. The federal minimum wage is more a political issue than an economic issue.
The minimum wage itself is utterly immoral and totally contrary to Biblical principles. It was the invention of perhaps one of the five truly most evil women of the 20th Century, Frances Perkins.
If raising the minimum wage takes jobs away from the economy, what does consolidation money at the top do for it.
Capitalism is a system that requires money in circulation, a middle class and enough people with disposable income. Capitalism does not product that on its own and actually it is most efficient at pulling money from the bottom to the top.
The movement over increasing the minimum wage is a natural reaction of people that can’t find a decent living. Minimum wage is no longer a starter job for teenagers.
The obscene salaries paid at the top are worse to our economic system than any increase in the minimum wage ever could be. Those salaries break the conservative rules that used to keep the system going. It has now failed, miserably.
Want to sell cars, you need to people earning enough money to buy them. Henry Ford figured that out.
Capitalism is not a system. It is a phenomenon that occurs when people are free to buy and sell and enter contracts as they please, protected in their contracts by the law. It's the ultimate manifestation of freedom.
Teh democrats don’t actually want a higher minimum wage; they just want a political issue from pretending to want it. If they actually wanted a higher minimum wage, they would have passed it in the first two Obama years, when they had House, Senate, and our White House. They are hoping we will stop then, just like the little yapping dog on a least pretending it wants to fight a Doberman.
If the GOP-e passes amnesty, this will be a huge issue for the Democrats. The Chamber of Commerce may be salivating at the idea of flooding the labor markets and driving down wages, but ordinary Americans will demand government “do something”. The threat of fewer entry level jobs won’t matter if all those jobs are taken by immigrants anyway. The Democrats will be there with “solutions”, and what will the GOP-e have to offer?
I really think you're on the wrong website. Free Republic is a Conservative forum not a liberal debating society. The term "obscene salaries" is straight out of leftist jargon. Those job producers and risk takers that you hold in contempt deserve every cent they make.
No, what's obscene is the minimum wage. It's nothing less than slavery.
Sadly, many employers will tell you that there are lots of workers who are not worth the current minimum wage. Most employers will gladly pay more than minimum wage for workers who provide real value to their business. Employers should be free to set their wages based on the labor market and the value of the employees.
Adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage is 40% lower today than in 1975. It that a good thing? Not sure. Either the minimum wage was to high in 1975 or it was correct then making today’s minimum wage too low.
Your moniker and your tagline speak of "freedoms," but your words say something else...namely, you're not that knowledgeable about economics.
The so-called "movement" to increase the minimum wage is a political stunt, supported by a tiny slice of the workforce. The additional costs for labor will hurt those would-be employees that need it the most, and it will add costs that will drive up prices for everyone else.
And the fact that you label some salaries "obscene," means that at heart, you'd like to control salaries. But you don't just control "some" salaries without controlling ALL salaries. Singling out CEOs for having large salaries is a necessary strawman, but cutting their salaries and "spreading around the wealth" will do little for the average worker. You act like CEO salaries skim all the profits a company makes, but rest assured that CEOs who might receive millions in compensation, their companies are making far more than that.
I understand it well enough. You have not countered that it is not good for the economy to have money consolidated at the top and out of circulation.
More to the point I am making, it is the breaking of conservative business practices and economic rules that propelling the movements to increase the minimum wage.
People understand those at the top make more, should make more and those that take risks have a larger stake in the game.
They can't understand when all they can afford is food, gasoline and rent that someone at the top is making more in a week than they make in five years.
They are not helpless to correct that situation. They can elect representatives that will raise the minimum wage. My contention is that is brought on by people like you, not me.
I used the word obscene because it fits. As far as being on the wrong website, I thought FR was for conservatives. Since when is it conservative to pay multi-million salaries? That does not fit any conservative business model I can think of.
If you are advocating total hands off, then you will get what you wish for. The working class does have some ability to offer corrections to the capitalism. You are not a good student of history if you are not aware of that.
The question is are you willing to live with those consequences? If so, keep pushing for the present system that erodes the middle class and leaves people to lobby their representatives for an increase in the minimum wage so they can eat.
And it is the best system so far. But it is not perfect. By design it sends money to the top. What happens when it all gets there? That's a little question waiting for your answer.
Forgive if this sounds harsh but that is just plain whacky. Sorry, it just strikes me as so far out there the literal use of the word whacky fits. I don't mean it as an insult.
Oh, but they ARE helpless. When they have to depend on elected representatives to "improve their situation," they'll forever be enslaved to that kind of living--voting for any politician who promises to throw the equivalent of a few breadcrumbs to them.
And the worst of it is, people like you don't see the connection between rising labor costs and rising prices everywhere else; i.e., inflation. You see "wealth" and profit as a fixed "pie," with CEOs and business owners "keeping a larger piece" than are their lowest employees. You don't see that in order to stay in business, and company has to either reduce their labor pool (layoffs), or cut the number of hours worked to offset increased labor costs.
I disagree that people understand that some should (and will) make more than others. Community organizers and rabble-rousers like Obama seek to cause dissention among the populace. They love to take class issues and fan the flames to turn one against another. You seem to have bought into this ruse as well.
Being against a raise in the minimum wage breaks no conservative ideals. You somehow belive it translates into "keeping people down," rather than rewarding them for their work. That's inherently false. By instituting a minimum wage, the government has in effect, set the floor for all entry-level employee pay. Would-be entry-level employees cannot negotiate a salary based on supply and demand; it's already being done for them. Sometimes, they come out ahead, and other times farther behind.
The government's own statistics show that the number of minimum wage, family bread-winners is very small. Furthermore, statistics also show that most people starting out at minimum wage make more than that 6-12 months after their date of hire.
But the bottom line is this: Forcing an increase in the minimum wage, even to $10, or even $15 per hour is not going to significantly help a family; e.g., 2 adults and 1-2 children. The minimum wage was never meant to provide enough so that a family could live a middle-class lifestyle. Quite frankly, it's not an employer's responsibility to provide enough to constitute a "living wage," whatever that's supposed to mean.
So I ask you, do you believe--as the Representative from California recently claimed--should the minimum wage be set at $25-26 per hour? What would something like that do to the economy? If you cut CEO pay in half, across the board--could any company afford that? What would such an increase do to the price of a loaf of bread? Of a fast food meal? Of a gallon of gasoline?
Yes, it's not a personal attack by either of us. We just have extremely different viewpoints on the matter.
The minimum wage violates one of the Ten Commandments because it is nothing more than theft. Coercing me to pay a minimum sum to a worker is simply stealing. And it's immoral because a contrived wage set by the government takes away liberty, not only that of the employer but of the employee as well. The false bottom of the minimum wage prohibits the two parties from agreeing on a correct, marketplace-driven amount for the labor.
Explore further the background of the evil woman who crafted the minimum wage during the corrupt FDR administration and you'll appreciate why I despise her so much and her programs. Frances Perkins not only was the monstrous woman behind the minimum wage but she also gave unprecedented power to union criminals. Plus she was the "brains" behind the socialist scheme known as Social Security. I don't say this lightly. Frances Perkins was among the five most evil women of the entire 20th Century. So much of what's wrong with America can be traced back to her.
Okay, now I am just being funny. I did read the rest of your post. I just have to ask, in good humor mind you, is one of the Ten Commandments really Thou shalt not raise the minimum wage?
Obviously the point you are making is that you consider the minimum wage stealing. That's an argument I don't accept. Moses did not come down the mountain with a mountain of legal documents. As I remember I handed him but two stone tablets.
FReepRegards to you and thanks for taking this in good fun.
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