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Is making a living and trying to raise a family in a major metropolitan area like Seattle, really realistic? Things are expensive for a reason. When you want to live close to things that everybody else wants, you have to pay for it. It's called demand. I think it's stupid to think that we are enabling so many people to try to make a living without going out getting skills, and education that would put them in a better position to earn even more.
It's going to push many of the 'worth less than $15/hr' workers out to the suburbs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thegreenflute334
Are you saying that Seattle is looking forward to rid themselves of lower wage workers by this proposal?
I don't believe this was the intent of 15NOW backers, but it's a likely outcome. One of the "interesting" side effects is going to be around industrial and light industrial zoned land. There's quite a bit of it areas where the highest and best use is no longer industrial. Land around the ship canal is a prime example. Getting these business out and building offices in the space would benefit both the developers and the city council.
Seattle has experienced a big boom in the last 30 years, and this will have little effect on it's economy. Just like San Francisco's minimum wage a few years ago didn't stop the boom there. The East, and West coast will still prosper and grow, because people can make a decent living in these area's. Mr, and Mrs Yuppie will still go out to lunch, and buy their morning coffee.
The problem isn't McDonalds paying their employees $7 an hour. The problem is - the only employer is McDonalds, who is paying their employees $7 an hour.
The powers that be don't allow real jobs any more.
That's one of the problems, but the other is too many people in the labor pool. Notice real wages have gone down ever since women entered the labor force in large masses. Now the baby boomers are retiring, but unfortunately more and more labor is being automated and we're letting hundreds of thousands of immigrants flood this country to add to the labor pool and further drive down wages.
If the government doesn't institute some sort of large tax on companies for using automation rather than people, there won't be that many people making this "living wage."
Is making a living and trying to raise a family in a major metropolitan area like Seattle, really realistic? Things are expensive for a reason. When you want to live close to things that everybody else wants, you have to pay for it. It's called demand. I think it's stupid to think that we are enabling so many people to try to make a living without going out getting skills, and education that would put them in a better position to earn even more.
Maybe you haven't noticed, but they've been pushing more and more people to go to college for years and now some of those degrees are about as worthwhile as a high school diploma. Not everybody is cut out for college so they end up going for easy majors that don't end up getting them jobs later.
As the implementation date for Seattle’s strict $15 per hour minimum wage law approaches, the city is experiencing a rising trend in restaurant closures. The tough new law goes into effect April 1st. The closings have occurred across the city, from Grub in the upscale Queen Anne Hill neighborhood, to Little Uncle in gritty Pioneer Square, to the Boat Street Cafe on Western Avenue near the waterfront.
The shut-downs have idled dozens of low-wage workers, the very people advocates say the wage law is supposed to help. Instead of delivering the promised “living wage” of $15 an hour, economic realities created by the new law have dropped the hourly wage for these workers to zero.
Advocates of a high minimum wage said businesses would simply pay the mandated wage out of profits, raising earnings for workers. Restaurants operate on thin margins, though, with average profits of 4% or less, and the business is highly competitive.
Human labor really is an economic good like pretty much all of the others. Raise the price and the demand for it will drop (another way of putting this is that human labor is not a Giffen Good). Please do note though what is the prediction. Not that there’s going to be a wiping out of employment opportunities, nor that the economy of Seattle is going to become a howling wasteland. Rather, that less human labor will be employed at $15 an hour than would have been employed if the minimum wage had not risen to that amount. And for people who would like to have a job but now cannot find one that’s bad news.
The shut-downs have idled dozens of low-wage workers, the very people advocates say the wage law is supposed to help. Instead of delivering the promised “living wage” of $15 an hour, economic realities created by the new law have dropped the hourly wage for these workers to zero.
I wonder if this fact will change anyone's mind. Unfortunately, the true believers will find some fault with the above and insist it isn't true.
The shut-downs have idled dozens of low-wage workers, the very people advocates say the wage law is supposed to help. Instead of delivering the promised “living wage” of $15 an hour, economic realities created by the new law have dropped the hourly wage for these workers to zero.
I wonder if this fact will change anyone's mind. Unfortunately, the true believers will find some fault with the above and insist it isn't true.
No doubt that it won't change their minds. Socialists have an enormous capacity for believing anything but the truth and what their own eyes tell them.
It's simple economics. Increase costs to a business, then business either has to pass on said cost, find ways to cut the cost increase (layoff), or shutdown.
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