BluesDriver66
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2020
- Posts
- 1,536
There are some good posts in this thread, from both sides.
There are some points that have been missed though and those are;
1. The government, at any level, that raises minimum wage is in effect giving itself a raise. At the Federal level the most regressive tax is the payroll tax. It's a fixed percent of the wage earners paycheck. This percentage is matched by the employer. The higher the minimum wage, the more the government collects. At the local and state level this translates into higher prices for goods and services which in turn translates into more tax dollars flowing into the state/county/city coffers.
2. Let's call minimum wage earners what they are, menial workers. These jobs require the least skill of any in the job market and virtually anyone can be trained to fulfill these rolls. The minimum wage worker is usually found in those sectors of the economy that provide basic services. Fast food, grocery, construction laborer (in some areas only). There comes a point where the goods/services provided are not worth the cost to those who are earning above minimum wage. Minimum wage acts as an incentive to price these individuals out of the labor market or as pointed out in another post, to automate the job.
3. Anyone not severely handicapped, mentally or physically, can move out of the minimum wage arena through education and hard work. Hard work is recognized by any employer and is rewarded. Minimum wage is a foot in the door, not a career.
4. Higher minimum wages drive automation. Today everyone points to Amazon as a driver in working their people hard but you need to look at the level of automation in their distribution centers. A model that was actually created by Avon decades ago. Low wage earners (minimum wage) are replaced by higher skilled workers, just far fewer of them. This in turn creates a situation where far too much labor is chasing far fewer jobs. At some point the welfare system breaks down.
Overall minimum wage laws do no good for anyone except the politicians. They can pretend they're doing 'good' while actually doing harm in the long run. Go to the grocery store, the gas station, the lumber yard, damn near anywhere you go, what are you paying for the goods and services today? This is all do to government interference in the markets. And these higher prices are driving the calls for higher minimum wages, which in turn will increase the cost of good and services which will require yet more calls for higher minimum wages. See the cycle here?
There is a percentage of the population in an economy, any economy, that live at a subsistence level. Some out of choice, some out of self-imposed limitations. You can raise the minimum wage to $100/hr., the economy will adjust and they'll still be living at a subsistence level. No law conceived by man, no matter how well intentioned, will ever change the nature of man.
That's the biggest load of horse shit I've ever read. This "poor people are poor because they are stupid and/or lazy and deserve less than what it takes to survive" attitude. I can't count how many hard working and highly educated IT workers lost their jobs to India or forced to train their low wage replacement workers imported on HB1 visas.
I personally know many many people who work hard their entire lives and get nothing and then there are dumb fucks Paris Hillton and Donald Trumps of the world who never worked a hard day in their life and live in the lap of luxury.
You really have to be some brain dead gullible dupe to believe that Horatio Alger crap of hard work being rewarded. Might as well believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.