The minimum wage machine

[FBKampfer]

That's a very cynical view. Hard working and devoted employees are hard to come by and worth a lot. However, if your job does not require hard work or any devotion/loyalty...

It is an accurate view. Anyone that takes a logical look at things will see this is the rule, not the exception.

Especially as the size of the company increases, so does the visibility of their greed and immorality.

Look at the economic shart-show we saw at the end of the 2000's. We gave businesses more freedom to operate because they said they would be responsible. And what happened, they repeated the actions leading to the great depression almost exactly.

1800`s trusts and city bosses, the near slave labor conditions, the great depression, the great recession.

Every time we trust business and rich men to do what's responsible at the expense of greater profits, they rob us blind. I for one am done giving them the chance; the ideal of rugged individualism is not worth economic failure. Only those already well off, or the poorly educated believe it is.

[DmonSlyr]

That is bogus economics. A forced increase in wages will only serve to concentrate wealth into a smaller segment of the population. While some employees get the wage raise, others get fired. While it is true that the smaller, wealthier segment of the population will then have the disposable income to spend on luxury items, the rest are reduced to begging on the streets.

Based on your ideology we should just pay everyone 8$ an hour so that companies could hire as many people as they want!! No one could buy anything except minimal small goods, and saving would be impossible, but hey, everyone would have a job!!

[PR3D4TOR]

My ideology? lol

Regardless of what my "ideology" is or isn't, what you posted is bogus economics. It simply doesn't work like that. Forcing employers to pay more for the same work does not generate more wealth.

[PR3D4TOR]

Especially as the size of the company increases, so does the visibility of their greed and immorality.

Immorality is such a subjective word. What is immoral about business?

[Aspen]

I run a small business.  In order to keep the business healthy and worth operating, labor expenses need to be kept at a certain percentage.  When the minimum wage goes up, the base line is raised and all wages creep up.  More so on the low end an less on the upper end as a percentage.  I will continue to keep labor expenses at the same percentage.  That will be done by running leaner, raising prices, cutting benefits, or raising productivity through automation or outsourcing.

My suppliers will be doing the same thing so my cost of raw materials will increase.  I will keep the cost of goods at the same percentage as well by raising prices or sourcing less expensive raw materials from overseas.

If I don't do this, the business fails and my employees and I are both out of job.  In the end, the consumer will pay for the higher costs.  Once the ripple effect settles, nothing has changed.  The new minimum wage doesn't give the employee any more buying power because prices have increased.

[DmonSlyr]

I run a small business.  In order to keep the business healthy and worth operating, labor expenses need to be kept at a certain percentage.  When the minimum wage goes up, the base line is raised and all wages creep up.  More so on the low end an less on the upper end as a percentage.  I will continue to keep labor expenses at the same percentage.  That will be done by running leaner, raising prices, cutting benefits, or raising productivity through automation or outsourcing.

My suppliers will be doing the same thing so my cost of raw materials will increase.  I will keep the cost of goods at the same percentage as well by raising prices or sourcing less expensive raw materials from overseas.

If I don't do this, the business fails and my employees and I are both out of job.  In the end, the consumer will pay for the higher costs.  Once the ripple effect settles, nothing has changed.  The new minimum wage doesn't give the employee any more buying power because prices have increased.

I see your point. What I have a hard time understanding is, if those prices creep up anyway, and you find your suppliers raising prices on you, you would have to raise your prices. This would in effect fall on the customer. Now, if this happens every few years, while the wage base stays the same, how does that effect the spending in the economy? What I am looking out for, is that prices are already or have already been increasing, profits and revenues have been great for business owners. But at what point does it start having an effect on the overall market when wages do not increase while prices do over time? At what point ethically do business owners consider their labor force living standards while they reap ALL the growth and revenue %s of the company. Much like how Walmart's business owners are each worth billions of dollars each, yet a large % of their full time workers cannot afford living standards, nor can they afford to grow their education, nor can they afford to change to a better job because of "skills" and their dire need for a pay check while helping to support a family.


I understand that kids and teenagers are suppose to be making low wages, but the sad truth is that most of these employees are mid 20s and 30s who now have children to support. While choices and education are on one hand, the ability to achive better education and make better choices is on the other hand, and it's very slim for these people, thus keeping them at the bottom.

[Meatwad]

I had a number of minimum wage jobs and that's all I could find because I thought that i could get by without finishing college. Yes I could get by, but barely. So the solution i had was to finish college, get a degree, and reapply for higher paying jobs. I got one too thanks to the degree.

So ultimately unskilled labor and jobs that about all you need is a ged should stay mininum wage. If you want a higher paying job, you have to have an education with preferably a college degree. And more money may mean you will have to get a job outside of your "comfort zone", meaning doing something you have never done and thought you would never do. But when you have a family to raise, you do whatever you can to provide, even if it means that you start a new profession/trade/etc.

Raising minimum wage wont work when spending  $50 on groceries turns into $80 because stores had to increase the cost of goods to cover higher wages. And yes, it does happen, a lot

[BuckShot]

It hasn't worked on Seattle. The reduction in welfare was not proportional to the # of those who got a boost.

They are actually asking for less hours so they can still get the guvmint cheese money card.

[zack1234]

It is senseless to talk monetary rewards when the real question is what one should accept as a minimum lifestyle.

 

There it is in a nutshell.

This thread is closed

I am always amazed at American ideas of fair play, Henry Ford must be spinning like a top.

[Blooz]

I understand that kids and teenagers are suppose to be making low wages, but the sad truth is that most of these employees are mid 20s and 30s who now have children to support. While choices and education are on one hand, the ability to achive better education and make better choices is on the other hand, and it's very slim for these people, thus keeping them at the bottom.

Your priorities in this line of thinking are backward.

If you're in your 20's or 30's and don't have money to support a family, you've made a bad choice. Making babies is also a choice. A very important choice.

You know why I don't drive a Ferrari to work every day? Because I can't afford one and I don't expect anyone to give me the money to have one.

People are not "kept at the bottom" in this country. They choose to stay at the bottom because it's easy. You can rise as high up the ladder to success as you want. Bill Gates started in a garage with a couple buddies and an idea. He didn't get there overnight. They saw a niche and filled it. That's how you get rich. You don't get rich with sitting on your butt. This country became great through capitalism because that's what works. Socialism doesn't work because it doesn't address the biggest fundamental trait in humans...to be better off than the next person.

[PR3D4TOR]

There it is in a nutshell.

I don't think it means what you think it means...

[Skuzzy]

Uh, Bill Gates did not start in a garage.  Steve Wozniak did.

I do know how Bill got started, but it would not serve your interests to talk about that.

[PR3D4TOR]

Gates is a private schooled Harvard graduate. He met Paul Allen, Ric Weiland and Steve Ballmer during his school years. They were like the geek club of rich kids.

[Delirium]

My only problem wih raising minimum wage is the folks that currently make $12-$15 an hour. As one EMT told me, "If they do that (increasing minimum wage), I will flip burgers. I don't need to get exposed to bodily fluids and make less than the McDonalds french fry guy."

The alternative is raising everyone at the same rate but that is recipe for inflation. Damned if you, damned if you don't.

[Skuzzy]

Gates is a private schooled Harvard graduate. He met Paul Allen, Ric Weiland and Steve Ballmer during his school years. They were like the geek club of rich kids.

Bill got an honorary degree from Harvard.  He originally dropped out.