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Illegals would have an easier time finding employment actually, as the people who use illegal immigrant labor are the ones seeking to skirt minimum wage law by violating already existing immigration employment law. The higher you peg the minimum wage nationally, the more you motivate employers at the lower end of the wage scale to use illegal labor or whatever sort, be it hiring illegals or just paying everyone off the books on a piece work basis.
Perhaps, but then again, I think a lot of unemployed people milking unemployment insurance will go back to work, plus college kids can pay their own way vice massive loans etc. The smaller businesses that depend on cheap labor will dry up which is not good, but I don't mind seeing 40 percent of the fast food industry disappear. How many of those places do we actually need?
Our biggest problem is illegal labor keeping wages down and sucking up the social safety net (I hate that term), schools, etc....if we could put a massive hit on that segment of the population so be it.
With conservative logic, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.
If you accept minimum wage, VOILA, that is proof you have chosen to accept it.
If you reject minimum wage, you're a lazy shirker who refuses to work.
Nope, I don't look down on anyone who takes a minimum wage job. I do, however, look down on people who refuse to improve their own situation and instead want the government to force their employer to pay them more.
When I buy an item for $5, is it really worth $5...the seller earned $5?
When I flip it for $20, did it abruptly jump in value? All I really did was arbitrage information about the item - often information I obtained from some other seller's listing - somehow it doesn't really feel like hard work or earning.
haha, I scrapped a long answer because it just seemed too much for a simple question...
When you buy an item for $5, it is worth $5 to you. I don't know what the seller earned because I don't know what his expenses were. Whether he believe it was worth more or less is not an issue. He sold it to you for $5, so when the exchange happened he agreed that it was worth selling for $5.
If you "flip" that item for $20 it means that you found someone who thought it was worth $20 to them. So did it "jump" in value? I don't know about "jumping", but it obviously was worth four times as much to the buyer than what you thought it was worth when you bought it.
"Hard work" and "earning" are a little arbitrary as labels. What you did is in no way immoral though. You paid a fair value to a seller and sold it for a fair price to a buyer. This is possible because there is no "exact" value of anything. Each person has different preferences/needs/desires/wealth from which to view something and that individual assigns his/her own value to products/services.
In large, well run, businesses price is set so that it maximizes profit. There is a price point which if exceeded or not reached decreases profit from the maximum point.
Ideally, you would be able to haggle with every customer and get the maximum value that they are willing to pay. However, this is not practical, and the price must be set according to your target consumer, or the aggregate market.
haha, I scrapped a long answer because it just seemed too much for a simple question...
When you buy an item for $5, it is worth $5 to you. I don't know what the seller earned because I don't know what his expenses were. Whether he believe it was worth more or less is not an issue. He sold it to you for $5, so when the exchange happened he agreed that it was worth selling for $5.
If you "flip" that item for $20 it means that you found someone who thought it was worth $20 to them. So did it "jump" in value? I don't know about "jumping", but it obviously was worth four times as much to the buyer than what you thought it was worth when you bought it.
"Hard work" and "earning" are a little arbitrary as labels. What you did is in no way immoral though. You paid a fair value to a seller and sold it for a fair price to a buyer. This is possible because there is no "exact" value of anything. Each person has different preferences/needs/desires/wealth from which to view something and that individual assigns his/her own value to products/services.
In large, well run, businesses price is set so that it maximizes profit. There is a price point which if exceeded or not reached decreases profit from the maximum point.
Ideally, you would be able to haggle with every customer and get the maximum value that they are willing to pay. However, this is not practical, and the price must be set according to your target consumer, or the aggregate market.
Haha...wish I worded it so easily, as that ties into this whole thread quite nicely. Those who don't like minimum wage are selling the "labor" at wholesale price to a retail outlet. They WOULD be worth more if they sold their "labor" at retail, or directly to the consumer. Obviously they won't be starting their own McDonalds, but it remains true regardless. If they cannot advance their "wholesale" value to the employer, they can in some way earn more by selling their labor at "retail" directly to the consumer.
They sell water because people are completely nuts... Virtually all homes have running water that costs not 1% of the price that people pay for bottled water. Water costs more than gasoline...LOL Such ridiculousness was unimaginable when I was young. I wish that I could market little boxes of air to people who breath.
But the fact that millions and millions of dollars are spent buying water proves a valuable point relevant to the thread. Value is subjective and it is dictated by your fellow man operating in the market. A person can offer almost anything, even water, of value to their fellow man and make substantial sums of money.
Are you planning on taking a shower by dumping water bottles over your head? Buying bottles and jugs of water in order to water your lawn, wash your car, mop your floors, or wash dishes? Yeah, didn't think so....
The counter point with water is that in some cases whether it is hard water or cases off bad waste (storms or contamination,) you do need bottle water or to boil your normal water over which some people would use bottle water for the convenience factor.
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They WOULD be worth more if they sold their "labor" at retail, or directly to the consumer. 
