I want to get the general consensus of Zig Forums on the $15/hr minimum wage initiatives on many ballots in the US.
I've always been against the notion, feeling that it would lead to business closures, more incentives for businesses to automate jobs, and massive layoffs for minimum wage workers.
I was shocked when I spoke with my dad last weekend, a diehard Republican, and he said that working a retail job in retirement has changes his outlook: he's voting FOR the $15/hr minimum wage. He said the owner of his store is making $200k a year and paying the employees $9/hr. Paying employees an extra $6/hr would still leave the owner at a six figure income. He made the point that while jobs will be automated, there will always be minimum wage workers (to work on these new machines). He said that in the seventies and eighties, you could work in a hardware store and make enough money to afford a modest home on a single income, which is impossible today.
This initiative wouldn't affect my income in any way, but I want a strong middle class in the US, not be surrounded by high-rise beehives like Europe.
Much of the internet is filled with bullshit, so I'm turning to the consensus of the autistic hivemind that is Zig Forums for answers.
I think you are right that it will lead to massive layoffs, and the unemployment gibs paid to those former min-wagies will come from the rest of the taxpayers, such that $40/hr gross will net you $15/hr after taxes, just like in Europe.
Benjamin Campbell
minimum wages are a price floor and lead to inefficiency in the form of labor surpluses. your dad sounds like a fucking faggot commie who didnt work hard enough when he was young. all communists deserve the rope.
Hudson Evans
it's not about the owner making $200k while footing all the risk. It's more about inflation for people that make $15/hr If you were to make the minimum wage at 15 you are putting everyone from $8-14.99 on the same level as the $15 person. The only way this would be beneficial is if they pass a law stating "prices of goods and services cannot increase for ten years". But, there are always going to be people that maximize their revenue streams. Instead of selling goods and services the money will go to assests and properties. Rent is already high. If you want to combat rent or home prices you need to forbid foriegn ownership of domestic property. Canada has a real issue when it comes to property inflation. Chinese "investors" lockup their wealth in nations where the communist regime of China cannot touch their assests. With housing already being limited you observe higher cost of living (where rent makes up 30% of your cost).
My system of rules and regulations planly stated are guaranteed to increase quality of life for all peoples of a certain country. >1 limited immigration >2 no foriegn ownership of residential property >investing highspeed internet to rural areas >removing the minimum wage >auditing businesses of 10 or more employees for performance/dollar paid annual review
Have that system run for 6 years then see where government assistance could benefit the individual without stifling incentives for performing better. The country can do alot to combat inflation, cost of living, and opportunity. A big part of it isn't controlling the people within it's nation, but controlling what people from outside their nation can do.
Wyatt Martin
If rent and housing has gone up like 10x in the last 20 years, don't you think wages should somehow rise too? Leave your political affiliation aside for a minute. Just do 2 plus 2 real quick. What do you think.
Lincoln Bell
I live in a place that has instituted 15 minimum and can say that it has only had a positive effect, but this is coupled with a better tax system that redistributes money from wealthy for tax credits to businesses. The US is a mess It might not even work there its so fucked.
Caleb Thompson
The UK started with a minimum wage of £5 and covered less than 10% of workers. Now its £9+ and covers 20% of the workers. You still can't afford anything more than a room with a hotplate on it. Everybody sinks to the bottom, not rises to the middle.
Andrew Roberts
here’s an idea, if rent and housing go up, don’t agree to work a job that didn’t raise its wage as much.
Juan Harris
don't get me wrong, i hate poor people and minorities, but putting more money in the hands of lower class people actually helps the economy. I'm barely middle class, i make 18 an hour but min wage in my state is 7.25. most jobs including fast food start at 9 or 10 though
Carson Miller
This is kenysian nonsense thinking. Even modern governments don't think this way anymore. All regular goods are subsidized and held at price ceilings which is why rises in wage won't have any substantial effect, and in fact they haven't. What HAS inflated however is housing and medicinal care which inflated without minimum wage raises and will continue to do so with them. The problem is not in minimum wages for poor fags working at McDonald's. The problem is corporate taxes being too low and foreign entities buying up all the business and property in western countries. Wake up people, Tyrone earning 15 dollars is not the problem. The problem is our president paying less income tax than you, and you were brainwashed into thinking that's perfectly fine.
