I don't believe that raising the minimum wage will trigger businesses to cut jobs significantly. They will probably pass the higher cost onto the consumer. Ultimately, it's a method of wealth redistribution, which is sorely needed in our economy.
Its a form of wealth distribution that's going to have the largest negative impact on the lower and middle class. I agree we need to do something to solve the problem of poverty in this country, but this doesn't seem like it would redistribute wealth from the middle class to the poor, not the rich to the poor.
I don't believe that raising the minimum wage will trigger businesses to cut jobs significantly. They will probably pass the higher cost onto the consumer. Ultimately, it's a method of wealth redistribution, which is sorely needed in our economy.
Passing costs on the client isn't something you can just do. Many products and services have elastic demand. Fast food, for example, has been has found it very hard to raise away from their dollar menu pricing. Businesses don't have to cut jobs either. They just have to move them. Edit2: Costumers can also shift to lower cost alternatives. Online retailers have less overhead and lower labor costs. If you make Walmart…
>15 dollars will put people in most of the country out of work.
So be it. Can't find a job that offers a living wage? We provide a social safety net and increase taxes on the wealthy to pay for it.
Make more than a million dollars a year? 95% marginal tax rate. Tax rates are the lowest they've been in the history of the US, and all we've seen is a disgusting level of income equality.
This is absurd. The results of raising the minimum wage are perfectly known. Learn from the other countries that have done it in the last 10-15-25 years. Australia, Scandinavian countries, etc. etc. Why can't America look outside it's own borders and learn from what other countries have done and are doing? i.e. watch this John Oliver video on gun control [1] where it's stated Australia is not on this planet and Ameri…
Is your contention that there's no difference in raising wages in small countries with largely centralized populations vs. a country of 320M with massive regional differences? Sweden and New York City are roughly the same size. California is quite a bit larger than Australia, so we will soon see how these experiments compare in real life.
Passing costs on the client isn't something you can just do. Many products and services have elastic demand. Fast food, for example, has been has found it very hard to raise away from their dollar menu pricing. Businesses don't have to cut jobs either. They just have to move them. Edit2: Costumers can also shift to lower cost alternatives. Online retailers have less overhead and lower labor costs. If you make Walmart…
>15 dollars will put people in most of the country out of work. So be it. Can't find a job that offers a living wage? We provide a social safety net and increase taxes on the wealthy to pay for it. Make more than a million dollars a year? 95% marginal tax rate. Tax rates are the lowest they've been in the history of the US, and all we've seen is a disgusting level of income equality.
"Make more than a million dollars a year? 95% marginal tax rate."
Great. Then what? Everyone currently making over $1m a year will cut their salary to $1m. Then you gotta start taxing the upper middle class -- what rate do you want to tax people making over $500k? $250k? $100k? Those are the ones that will pay for this program.
As much as you want to tax "the wealthy", there really aren't enough wealthy people to pay for everything, and it comes down to how much you want to tax the moderately successful person who is trying to pay for their 2 kids' college expenses while saving to have a retirement.
This is absurd. The results of raising the minimum wage are perfectly known. Learn from the other countries that have done it in the last 10-15-25 years. Australia, Scandinavian countries, etc. etc. Why can't America look outside it's own borders and learn from what other countries have done and are doing? i.e. watch this John Oliver video on gun control [1] where it's stated Australia is not on this planet and Ameri…
All of the countries you list have huge costs of living. I went to Australia last year and a coke and a small bag of chips at 7-11 was ~$12.
Instead of raising minimum wage (which is a short-term bandaid, because inflation will eventually catch up), we should be focusing on educating those that can only get a minimum wage job.
As a general rule prices in a capitalist society are already as high as they can be. Any higher and they would be undercut. When a company becomes large and therefore able to produce goods for less money, the price doesn't fall, profit margins increase. These large businesses are the ones paying employees the federal minimum wage. Only thing that happens is their profit margin shrinks a tiny amount. As long as the pr…
"As a general rule prices in a capitalist society are already as high as they can be." What you're discounting is that once the minimum wage is raised, the market can bear higher prices, and will move accordingly.
It's not a huge number of people on minimum wage that would be affected by an uplift: in the UK in 2014, there were around 1.5M minimum wage jobs, 50% of which in hospitality, cleaning and retail (so, many not full time). The average wage shift would be virtually imperceptible and the extra spending power of those on the minimum wage does not translate to measurably higher prices (in the UK the minimum wage has rarely followed average earnings, and it's difficult-almost-impossible to measure the spending of minimum wage earners separately).
>15 dollars will put people in most of the country out of work. So be it. Can't find a job that offers a living wage? We provide a social safety net and increase taxes on the wealthy to pay for it. Make more than a million dollars a year? 95% marginal tax rate. Tax rates are the lowest they've been in the history of the US, and all we've seen is a disgusting level of income equality.
"Make more than a million dollars a year? 95% marginal tax rate." Great. Then what? Everyone currently making over $1m a year will cut their salary to $1m. Then you gotta start taxing the upper middle class -- what rate do you want to tax people making over $500k? $250k? $100k? Those are the ones that will pay for this program. As much as you want to tax "the wealthy", there really aren't enough wealthy people to pay…
> Great. Then what? Everyone currently making over $1m a year will cut their salary to $1m.
Do wealthy individuals in other countries with a heavier tax burden (Europe, Scandinavia to be specific) do this? Would be nice to see evidence of this behavior before outright dismissing raising taxes.
This is absurd. The results of raising the minimum wage are perfectly known. Learn from the other countries that have done it in the last 10-15-25 years. Australia, Scandinavian countries, etc. etc. Why can't America look outside it's own borders and learn from what other countries have done and are doing? i.e. watch this John Oliver video on gun control [1] where it's stated Australia is not on this planet and Ameri…
You are wrong. The world isn't as simplistic as you suggest. Just because something works in Australia or in some Scandinavian countries doesn't mean it would work in the US.
I think the minimum wage is a helpful tool or has been historically. But as others have said when you raise the minimum wage, prices increase, and by far the largest groups that consume the same goods/services are also relatively poor themselves (so essentially you increase pay but also costs to the poorest in society). More as a thought experiment than anything: What would happen if, instead of increasing the minimu…
"when you raise the minimum wage, prices increase"
You state that as if it's a fact when it is not. Prices may increase for some goods/services. But many goods/services prices are not set by the costs involved but by what the market will bear. The other option is that profit margins will narrow. Or, as is more typical, a combination of both.
This is absurd. The results of raising the minimum wage are perfectly known. Learn from the other countries that have done it in the last 10-15-25 years. Australia, Scandinavian countries, etc. etc. Why can't America look outside it's own borders and learn from what other countries have done and are doing? i.e. watch this John Oliver video on gun control [1] where it's stated Australia is not on this planet and Ameri…
Is your contention that there's no difference in raising wages in small countries with largely centralized populations vs. a country of 320M with massive regional differences? Sweden and New York City are roughly the same size. California is quite a bit larger than Australia, so we will soon see how these experiments compare in real life.
The size of the country does not matter for microeconomic effects.