Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 355 posts

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#181

Post by anigbrowl »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #165
wcarron wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a completely separate discussion. I originally refuted your (completely asinine) quip about people who "do the minimum and be rewarded". The rest of your comment is social-darwinistic horseshit based on nothing but prejudice and ignorance. Good day.

I was poking at the fact that a lot of people want to give $8/hr workers $15/hr minimum wage. What does that mean for all of the $12/hr workers now? What about the $16-$17/hr workers? Do they get raises too? Do we just flat out raise all wages 50% overnight? Society values X jobs at $8/hr. Bleeding hearts value them at $15/hr. Where's the middle ground?

Please don't be a sealion. It doesn't make for productive discussion. Disagreement is one thing, but aggressively peppering people with questions until they get annoyed with you is not conducive to mutual understanding.

http://wondermark.com/1k62/

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#182

Post by luckydata »

pkaye wrote: post #93
gremlinsinc wrote: post #2

I wonder what would happen to the suicide rate with medicare for all, and creating a max-wage that is (avg of contractors + employees * 150), or something similar, w/ additional 'bonus' multipliers for increasing # of U.S. hired. UBI would also probably help. As a freelancer I've had some really slim months and depression hits hard when money is tight. There's a very direct correlation between income security, insecu…

There is nearly a 2x difference in rate between white and native americans vs blacks, asians and hispanics. I'm wondering if there is a good understanding of that difference. I don't think it is just economic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_the_United_States#/...

Because if you're told you're supposed to "make it" since birth, and you don't, you feel like a piece of shit. Marginalized communities have been told the other story, every little thing is a win. Difference in expectations is huge, and source of all sort of bad things (like racial resentment etc...).

Solution: make this country slightly less "dog eat dog" and you'll solve a LOT of social issues almost overnight.

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#183

Post by earlINmeyerkeg »

_qwfv wrote: post #51
MuffinFlavored wrote: post #19

What would increased minimum wage due to small business (<$50m/yr in revenue)? Wouldn't it force them to cut shifts/hours/consolidate positions?

Or raise prices, or accept less pay at the top.

>accept less pay at the top.

For a second there I thought you we're being serious!

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#184

Post by cjlars »

sp332 wrote: post #168
tunesmith wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting because... right now we have a system that examines income and taxes income. The "wealth tax" is a system that examines wealth and taxes wealth (not income). It's theorized that it's unconstitutional, and even if it isn't, the conservative US court might cause it problems anyway. But if instead you examine wealth and tax income , maybe that gets around the issue. Higher income tax brackets for thos…

-

Seeing as wealth is rarely in the form of cash, and you need to pay taxes in cash. You would need to sell the wealth, creating income, which in turn is used to pay the taxes. So it seems right.

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#185

Post by Kiro »

ixwt wrote: post #166
eplanit wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no statistical support of these ideas, though. Suicide rates in countries with Socialist economies are higher than in the U.S. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_r...

This is disingenuous. It doesn't classify by Socialist, but by country. Russia is #3 on global suicides, and when I think of socialist healthcare, my first thought isn't Russia. Many of the countries I think of as socialist healthcare (UK, Denmark, Canada, to name a few), they all come up below the US in suicides.

The minimum wage in Denmark is 0.

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#186

Post by ok_coo »

Domenic_S wrote: post #117
hanniabu wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The economy is only doing great for businesses. Common folk are barely recovered from the recession. So yes, I would say it's definitely due to inequality and a breakdown of indicators.

> Common folk are barely recovered from the recession. By what measure?

(Unless you've switched jobs for a pay bump)

Meager pay increases outpaced by housing, medical and insurance increases?

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#187

Post by ceejayoz »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #97
ceejayoz wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really think minimum wage always corresponds to minimum effort ?

No. I know that there are a few barriers keeping people near the "minimum worth" level: 1. education 2. language 3. physical/mental inability What are some other ones?

Ready availability of competing labor.

Minimum wage jobs are frequently difficult and labor-intensive, but the individual workers are replaceable. The idea that pay rate and effort required are perfectly linked is what I'm contesting.

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#188

Post by thebean11 »

gremlinsinc wrote: post #2

I wonder what would happen to the suicide rate with medicare for all, and creating a max-wage that is (avg of contractors + employees * 150), or something similar, w/ additional 'bonus' multipliers for increasing # of U.S. hired. UBI would also probably help. As a freelancer I've had some really slim months and depression hits hard when money is tight. There's a very direct correlation between income security, insecu…

> (avg of contractors + employees * 150)

Hmm, this seems suspiciously biased towards certain types of business (for example, tech CEOs would make way more than retail CEOs)

Re: For suicide prevention, try raising the minimum wage, research suggests

#189

Post by dmwallin »

14 wrote: post #169
emptybits wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re/ medicare for all ... Canada has universal health care yet a very similar suicide rate to the USA.[1] Canada doesn't have a livable minimum wage either. Each province sets its own. There is talk of UBI experiments. [1] https://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2011/02/us-vs-can...

I really hope we do not get a UBI in any current forms. I know the second the stores realize that every person now has 'x' amount of dollars to spend, they will raise the prices to match the most they can extract. What I wish Canada would do instead is establish some sort of Universal Basic Rights like every man woman and child is entitled to 5lbs of potatoes a week, 1 gallon of milk, 1 pound of carrots, ect. I as a…

> I know the second the stores realize that every person now has 'x' amount of dollars to spend, they will raise the prices to match the most they can extract.

That's not how economics works. The prices most stores charge is limited by competition. The only areas you might see an effect are in ones where supply is highly, and likely artificially, constrained.

Post reply on HN