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The people arguing that folks shouldn't make a living wage, are also the same people that will be all shocked when the people not making a living wage while working hard get upset about it.
I advise you to read my previous post. I don't think there's anybody that's against people being able to financially take care of themselves, but the way liberals want to go about it is all wrong. Their way isn't helping poor people, in fact it's making it harder for them to live.
We need to use free market based solutions to solve this problem. Raising the minimum wage is one of the worst economic "solutions" in the world, and all respectable economists are against it for a reason. It doesn't work. Never has, never will.
A living wage is hard to define because it varies from place to place. A person living in California must make more money to live well than someone living in Texas, which is why there's more poor people in California (and why there's more people moving out of California and moving to Texas). It also depends on how one defines "living," do you define it as just scraping by and paying the bills? Or living a luxurious lifestyle?
Here's the thing, these forced wage increases do not work. When the Government forces businesses to raise their wages they are forced to compensate and raise their prices, this in turn leads to a higher Cost of Living because EVERYTHING goes up along with it. The prices on food, the prices on gas, the prices on medicine, the prices on electricity, even the price of rent because raising the wage is artificial and decreases the value of money, leading to inflation. You cannot help poor people by making it more expensive for poor people to live, let alone making it harder for them to find better paying jobs because the forced wage increase forces many business to close or lay people off. Not to mention the man who is making more than minimum wage already is not getting a pay increase, therefore he is now making less and he will find it harder to live.
The way to counter this is to lower taxes, allowing people to keep more of their money so they can afford to buy things, which also allows businesses to thrive and hire more people, and to stop forcing a wage increase and let the free market handle it's value. This will cause the value of money to increase, making it worth more, and through competition force businesses to lower their prices on goods and services, making them cheaper for more to afford. This also applies to homes and rents, allowing them to become cheaper and more affordable. It's not necessarily about the higher number of the wage, it's about how much market value that wage has. A wage of $10 an hour will buy you a lot more in Texas than a wage of $10 in California.
Of course certain factors in the Cost of Living have nothing to do with taxes or raising the wages, factors such as location will make rentals more, and even sometimes prices on goods and services. Choosing to rent a home in a beach town will cost more because the location is prime real estate as opposed to living out in the middle of the desert. Choosing to live in say Alaska or Hawaii will cost more because of their isolation, and in the case of Hawaii it's great weather and scenery. But by and large the cause of a high Cost of Living is due to having a high tax burden and raising the minimum wage.
I don't know why I have to explain all this though, it's simple economics. Liberals don't understand economics, they are all about emotion, not logic. The economy does not care about how you feel, it only cares about what works. It's basically like understanding a math equation, 1+1=2. It doesn't matter if you disagree with it, it doesn't matter if you want to change the numbers, 1+1=2 and it always will be. Liberals want to do 1+5=100 and that doesn't make any sense, it's completely illogical, but they just don't get it.
You do realize that most of the "poor," heck, most of the middle and working classes are already not making enough to pay federal income taxes, don't you? The real question should be why don't people make enough to pay the minimum of federal income taxes.
And taxes are at historically low rates. Seriously, if income taxes was the one thing to spur reinvestment by the wealthy and new jobs (cough. Supply side. cough) we should be at full employment. But that hasn't happened now has it?
Anything older than 7.5 years can't be reported. I'm not sure about your judgements though.
Right. The judgments were renewed and thus stay on my credit report. I could dispute all else and get them removed but that would update my credit report address which would wake up the judgment holders and thereby impair my ability to pay current bills like rent (because I am collectable).
I'd like to be in a position with some negotiating room for a discounted lump sum payoff instead of having an ongoing garnishment so I don't want to wake up the judgment holders until I'm in a position to make a realistic offer.
I advise you to read my previous post. I don't think there's anybody that's against people being able to financially take care of themselves, but the way liberals want to go about it is all wrong. Their way isn't helping poor people, in fact it's making it harder for them to live.
We need to use free market based solutions to solve this problem. Raising the minimum wage is one of the worst economic "solutions" in the world, and all respectable economists are against it for a reason. It doesn't work. Never has, never will.
Sorry but no. "free market based solutions" always work in a perfect world where everyone has perfect information. Its a horrifically poor thing to depend upon for equitable results, or even optimal results in the real world.
Can they work? Oh heck yes! And when they are effective they are my preferred solution! But they are failing us increasingly. Not raising the minimum wage, and allowing unchecked wealth inequality is one of the worst economic "solutions" in the world, and pretty much every serious historian will tell you the result, as well as most serious economist will tell you its actually not the best result.
I love this part:
Quote:
Raising the minimum wage is one of the worst economic "solutions" in the world, and all respectable economists are against it for a reason
Which is a pretty transparent way to say "if you disagree you aren't a respectable economist" and disregard what a highly trained and reasonable person has to say. And thats pretty foolish. the answer is that its a large debate within the field.
I advise you to read my previous post. I don't think there's anybody that's against people being able to financially take care of themselves, but the way liberals want to go about it is all wrong. Their way isn't helping poor people, in fact it's making it harder for them to live.
We need to use free market based solutions to solve this problem. Raising the minimum wage is one of the worst economic "solutions" in the world, and all respectable economists are against it for a reason. It doesn't work. Never has, never will.
Economists are actually divided on the issue. The devil is in the details though and economists usually look at the net result, which is why so many were against the original Bush tax cuts. Raising the min wage above what it should be would normally result in job losses, but does not necessarily result in job losses.
For example:
"Of the 13 states that increased their minimum wage in early 2014, all but one (New Jersey) are seeing employment gains. Furthermore, nine of the remaining 12 states are above the median for this period. The average change in employment for the 13 states that increased their minimum wage is +0.99% while the remaining states have an average employment change of +0.68%."
You do realize that most of the "poor," heck, most of the middle and working classes are already not making enough to pay federal income taxes, don't you? The real question should be why don't people make enough to pay the minimum of federal income taxes.
And taxes are at historically low rates. Seriously, if income taxes was the one thing to spur reinvestment by the wealthy and new jobs (cough. Supply side. cough) we should be at full employment. But that hasn't happened now has it?
Supply side is giving tax breaks only to the wealthy, I advocate tax cuts to everybody, also known as a fair or flat tax (though a market based only tax system would also work). They are two completely different tax plans. What the liberals believe in is known as an aggressive tax, though they prefer to call it a "progressive" tax, which is basically the more you make the more they tax you, making it harder for one to get ahead. The main problem with the aggressive tax is that the wealthy do not pay very much in taxes at all, they have numerous loop holes they can exploit from having their money in off shore banks to tying it up in private investments, so whenever you hear a Democrat talk about raising taxes for the wealthiest Americans (something that Hillary Clinton says all the time) they mean raising the taxes for the poor and the middle income earners because they know that the tax increase won't effect them, they'll just use their loopholes and the burden will fall onto everyone else to pay for. Taxes are not at historically low rates, not in every state.
If taxes were no more than 10% of one's income, for everybody, then everyone could pay their fair share in taxes. Furthermore the working and middle class do pay taxes, it's only those in poverty who don't. And the answer to your question about "Why don't people make enough to pay the minimum of federal income taxes?", is already answered in my previous post, the income tax burden is too high, along with all the other taxes that certain states impose on it's citizens. Reduce that and allow the value of wages to be determined by the free market and you'll see a reduction in the cost of living, an increase in the value of money, and a booming economy that creates jobs.
Last edited by West Coast Republican; 08-03-2014 at 09:40 PM..
Is anyone entitled to a living wage? No, of course not. No one is entitled to anything ever.
What is a living wage? Enough to pay for housing and food for your family, as well as some basic utilities. The key part in that is family. A family, despite the rights assertions, is not even remotely easy to define, and it certainly isn't defined by the gender of the parents. In terms of this issue, the definition I'm looking for it more size oriented. A family of 3 and a family of 9 are both considered families, but the necessary funds to provide for them are different. I suppose if you were to put a monetary value on what a 'living wage' is, you could base it on the average family size. But once again, what is a family. Do single mothers/fathers count, or do two parents have to be present? Do kids have to be present? And what constitutes are necessary for a family? What kind of food? McDonalds has got a dollar menu after all. And what utilities are needed? Electricity may be necessary for a refrigerator, but maybe not an air conditioner (what are windows for?). What about transportation? You need to get to work somehow and not everyone lives close by to their place of employment. Do you rely on public transportation or does the living wage account for the price of a vehicle and it's fuel, as well as maintenance?
If my point hasn't been made clear yet, I'll just tell you: a living wage is nearly impossible to define as the needs to everyone are not identical. Some need more money than others. That's just a simple fact.
they are entitled to pay per hour for hours worked
safe work environment
that its bud, that all you are entitled to.
Last edited by brownbagg; 08-03-2014 at 09:41 PM..
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