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I don't think the cost of living has much to do with it. The entire Vancouver-Eugene corridor is expensive because it is one of the best regions to live within the US.
No, mostly it has to do with restictive development policies that limit housing supply and drive up rents/home prices.
If they take out loans to go to school to increase their skills, it's their fault for racking up huge loans to go to school. If they get a degree in a "useless" industry and can't find jobs, it's their fault for getting the "useless" degree, even though they were told four years ago it was a good career to get into.
They can't really pick up skills at work to get to the next position up the chain because in most companies simply don't have such positions any more. It's not like you can go from Burger Flipper Level 1 to Burger Flipper Level 3 and expect a raise in each position.
Of course if people try to work and go to school at the same time, then they're being called irresponsible on both sides for not concentrating on either the job, or on school.
There is no middle level manufacturing jobs or skilled labor jobs any more.
It's a pretty much no-win situation for most people.
Some good points raised here. We have several big problems related to education:
1. Our K-12 system sucks. We have only ourselves to blame for this.
2. The cost of education has skyrocketed. Retraining is time consuming and expensive....and the specialty you train for may go obsolete in a few short years.
All this breezy talk about people having multiple careers throughout their lifetimes sounds great, but it's a heck of a lot harder than it's made out to be.
related to education:
1. Our K-12 system sucks. We have only ourselves to blame for this.
2. The cost of education has skyrocketed.
1. No, we have the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT to blame for this. If you graph test performance versus federal spending, the inverse relationship is evident.
2. And we can blame the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT for this, too.
Why? Because the FEDS are the source of administrative overhead, bureaucracy, inflation, increased taxes, and all those costs have to be paid by someone.
I live in Seattle. Know the result of our minimum wage being so high? Everything costs more, and the "working poor" still complain that they don't make enough.
There are very few working poor. Most of the poor don't work or don't work full time.
1. No, we have the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT to blame for this. If you graph test performance versus federal spending, the inverse relationship is evident.
2. And we can blame the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT for this, too.
Why? Because the FEDS are the source of administrative overhead, bureaucracy, inflation, increased taxes, and all those costs have to be paid by someone.
Correct! Federally funded programs always cost much more because nobody cares what they cost..... it's other people's money.
Then they collect more money. What part of, "It's not the job of the government to take money away from those who work, and give it to anyone else", don't you understand?
Actually--it is. That's what taxes are.
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Originally Posted by pghquest
Since minimum wage earners are a very small percentage of the nation, I prefer to focus on everyone else who had to have lower pay increases in order to pay for those increases.
Yes, those poor executives couldn't have 301x the pay of their employees. They could only have 300x it. The upper echelon in this country is way overpaid. Hiring people at the bare minimum (and less) so you can buy a third yacht is a bit....extreme.
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But if you care to look at just the minimum wage earners, no.. they dont get more disposable income because the cost of everything goes up to pay the expenses..
First and foremost, the minimum wage has failed repeatedly to keep up with inflation. I think we may be the only western nation with a minimum wage that isn't tied to inflation.
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Who blamed minimum wage increases on Greece losing its marbles? What the hell you talking about?
You stated that the EPI was predicting what would happen, and what it said would happen, didn't.
They never made such predictions in the first place.
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Your link made things up as well, you just dont realize it..
Yes, those well sourced arguments are such hokey pokey.
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Not really. your link didnt look at the complete picture and ignores reality. Hey, why stop at $12, lets go to $100, where will we be then?
Oh my, where did all this straw come from.
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And other countries who cut spending is also reaping benefits.
And how do you increase demand by removing money from the economy to fund federal spending?
Federal spending doesn't remove money from the economy. It increases it. That's what spending does.
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Where does funding come to grow businesses if nothing is left? How does increasing taxes increase spending? There are so many problems with your thought process that you should be embarassed.
When a company is forced to reinvest their profits into the economy, or lose it to taxes, the money is reinvested--expansion, R&D, wages, etc. If it isn't, the money is stockpiled--usually in shareholder and executive pockets--where it doesn't do much but look fantastic on paper.
When taxes are high on high-income\profit companies and persons, that money must be put back into the demand base, the 90% of people who are spending money. If it is taken "out" of the economy by taxes, its put back in--distributed--through social programs.
Feel free to point out those "embarrassing" thoughts.
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Nothing else needs to be said
Quote:
Originally Posted by Little-Acorn
Fast-food manager talking to his crew:
"I have good news, and I have bad news.
"The good news is, the new minimum-wage law says I have to pay you more.
"The bad news is, I can't afford that, so two of you are fired."
Only if you work at a single Burger King in Jersey. (http://www.krueger.princeton.edu/90051397.pdf - broken link)
the minimum wage is only for the unskill ENTRYLEVEL workers anyhow...about 1% of the workers
and should not be set at the FEDERAL level....because the cost of living is different around the country
while you could probably live quite comfortable on 8/hr in mississippi..you would need 25/hr to do that same living in new york
example:
if the min wage was still 5/hr
as an owner of a mechanic shop; I employ:
1 shop foreman----$30/hr
1 lead mechanic----$26/hr
3 mechanics------$23/hr
1 parts manager----25/hr
1 parts clerk/driver---$15
1 laborer----------$7
so we raise the minimum wage from 5+ to 7+ or 12.....now I have to give the laborer (unskilled) a raise...guess what now my parts driver want more because he has a skill...then my mechanics want more....etc...so everyone is going to have to get something, and then my prices I charge will have to go up.....or I will have to let someone(s) go
see the engima(consequenses) of raising the minimum
Taxes are to cover the expenses of government, and the protection of the nation. Welfare, section 8 and food stamps, are nothing more than federally subsidized charity, and needs to be cancelled immediately.
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