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The quote of interest - paraphrased by the author of the article: "Obama says to strengthen the modern middle class, the U.S. must raise its minimum wage."
I am no economist, so I guess someone needs to explain this to me;
How exactly does raising the minimum wage help the MIDDLE class? All data suggests that large boosts in the minimum wage will result in severe inflation - thereby increasing costs.
As far as I know, the middle class does not generally consist of people in minimum wage jobs, so the middle class will not benefit from a minimum wage increase, but will suffer from inflation.
The ONLY way that I can see that this statement is true about "helping" the middle class is by making some members of the lower class closer to the middle class by increasing their income. That way, the Democrats can claim that they "helped the economy" by establishing a falsely-increased measure of the number of people who consider themselves "middle class". But it certainly doesn't help those that are currently in the Middle Class.
Maybe I'm wrong, but this sounds like another Democratic play-on-words to dole out handouts to the poor, while trying to sound like they care about Middle Class America. That way, they hang onto the liberal middle class vote.
Conservatives often say that most minimum wage workers live in non-poor middle class households, so higher MW could offset some of the income erosion of the middle class. (eek)
Raising minimum wage discussions are always amusing. This additional cost to business is simply passed to the consumer. No one gets anything out of it except the government who brings in more tax revenue from the "increased" wages. When minimum wages rises everyone's actual buying power is simply reduced accordingly to the arbitrarily increased market "value" of those of least value to business.
He's right. Raising the minimum wage ultimately increases wages across the spectrum with the largest benefits realized by the middle class, because their wage increases show in the area of disposable income. The middle class standard of living is increased the most. It's a fact .
One could make an argument that a higher minimum wage would force employers to pay the actual middle class (and MW earners are not "middle class" regardless of whether political correctness may cause them to be deemed a part of such) higher wages due to differentiation. At the end of the day, it would only accomplish the following for the middle class:
1) higher prices for products/services at businesses with a significant percentage of low wage employees
2) reducing the reward for pursuing higher education, advanced training, or working hard for promotions, etc., as there will be less of a diference between compensation for low wage and middle class jobs - there might be some increases due to differentiation, but they sure won't be proportionate or across the board
3) forcing middle class business owners (small business owners) out of business as large corporations CAN, in fact, absorb MW increases but small businesses cannot
Last edited by afoigrokerkok; 08-30-2014 at 01:14 PM..
He's right. Raising the minimum wage ultimately increases wages across the spectrum with the largest benefits realized by the middle class, because their wage increases show in the area of disposable income. The middle class standard of living is increased the most. It's a fact .
It's not a fact. Increasing wages doesn't mean that prices stay the same. You just increase the price of everything. It's a dog catching his tail system. It also means that jobs just get eliminated quicker as the cost of labor increases, the cost to buy and automate with technology becomes cheaper.
The problem is these people who whine about the minimum wages should perhaps try to go to college, be responsible, and figure out a way to work up the ladder, not whine about being in a dead-end unskilled job.
Raising minimum wage discussions are always amusing. This additional cost to business is simply passed to the consumer. No one gets anything out of it except the government who brings in more tax revenue from the "increased" wages. When minimum wages rises everyone's actual buying power is simply reduced accordingly to the arbitrarily increased market "value" of those of least value to business.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ponderosa
He's right. Raising the minimum wage ultimately increases wages across the spectrum with the largest benefits realized by the middle class, because their wage increases show in the area of disposable income. The middle class standard of living is increased the most. It's a fact .
You guys' points are only true IF the minimum wage increase is also passed-along linearly to people earning more than minimum wage. In other words, if someone is a auto-mechanic, making $19/hour, then he would have to have a raise to roughly $24/hour to make up for it.
And I don't think that's a given, especially considering the economy and corporate greed.
Do you have any proof/evidence that this would happen?
AND - even if that does happen, then AT THE VERY LEAST, as other posters have noted - then all prices increase, resulting in NO GAIN for anyone.
So, basically:
1) Best case scenario: Everyone's wages increase, followed by the obligatory cost-of-living increase, and nobody is any better in the end.
OR
2) Worst case scenario: Only the poor benefits/middle class wages stay stagnant, and some costs increase, like food (often handled by minimum wage labor), and the Middle Class suffers.
I like how it's corporate greed because they have to increase prices to cover higher costs placed on them.
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