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I wasn't blaming the unions, I blamed the corporations.
You turning around and accusing me of blaming the unions is why I did not understand your post.
I mean I even talk about the corporations exploiting a new source of cheap labor in illegals....I have no idea how you came away thinking I was blaming unions.
The unions are definitely partly to blame, with ridiculous work rules and pricing themselves out of jobs.
Yes, minimum wage should be pegged to either inflation, productivity, or some combination of the two. That's how you KEEP people from suffering as they are today.
If you disagree, please tell me your plan to prevent the wage gap between the wealthiest and lowest income earners from growing.
“Wage gap” is nothing but a fancy name for envy. Nobody, literally nobody, is forced to remain a “lowest income earner.”
How about focusing on teaching young people trades rather than convincing them that college is the only path to success? How about requiring colleges to inform applicants of the median wage and the unemployment rate for each major so that aspiring Fine Arts and Theatre majors realize that their career choice will likely lead to unemployment and borderline poverty? How about not making our public schools “equitable” by removing rewards for high achievers the way that Boston is doing? How about requiring colleges to keep their tuitions at a reasonable percentage of median wage rather than putting people into the workforce that owe enough money to purchase a nice house? How about capping the interest rate on all student loans at the prime interest rate rather than treating them like credit cards?
There are a whole bunch of ways to address the so-called wage gap without allowing the Democrats to once again break the economy. Every single time the Democrats muck with the labor market they merely slap a bandaid on something and create 3 more problems to deal with later. The minimum wage is merely one example. The incestuous marriage of employment and health insurance is a direct result of Democrats mucking around with the labor market. The loss of manufacturing jobs is a direct result of Democrats mucking around with the labor market. The Democrats have never mucked about with the labor market successfully and a $15 minimum wage will be just as much of an abject failure as everything else they have ever done.
People who sit at home on various types of government benefits get a "cost of living" raise almost every single year, but the minimum wage for people who work hasn't been raised in well over a decade. Is that what we as a society should be striving for?
I'm just curious how conservatives are thinking that keeping the minimum wage completely flat, indefinitely, is going to incentivize working and being productive members of society?
Especially when you have some people who have difficulty dealing with a complex, higher paying job despite their best efforts, but would be good workers at a simple but essential job if they didn't end up better off not working. Think tanks ranging from Cato Institute to Brookings are finding that.
In the end, there will be a modest compromise - like an increase to $9 or $10/hr over the next few years (but not starting until 2022, when businesses are back on their feet after the pandemic). In today's dollars, that's actually better than minimum wage was back in the late 70s, when I was in college.
People who sit at home on various types of government benefits get a "cost of living" raise almost every single year, but the minimum wage for people who work hasn't been raised in well over a decade.
I'm just curious how conservatives are thinking that keeping the minimum wage completely flat, indefinitely, is going to incentivize working and being productive members of society?
Especially when you have some people who have difficulty dealing with a complex, higher paying job, but would work if they didn't end up better off not working. Everyone from Cato to Brookings is finding that.
There's a lot between a "complex," high-paying job and a no-skills job at McDonalds. Let them go to a one-year vocational program (for which taxpayers cover the tuition) and increase their value in the marketplace.
Yes, minimum wage should be pegged to either inflation, productivity, or some combination of the two. That's how you KEEP people from suffering as they are today.
If you disagree, please tell me your plan to prevent the wage gap between the wealthiest and lowest income earners from growing.
the wage gap is increasing in EVERY first world nation.... including the so-called "socialist" or social-democracy nations like France, Sweden, Norway, etc
In the end, there will be a modest compromise - like an increase to $9 or $10/hr over the next few years (but not starting until 2022, when businesses are back on their feet after the pandemic). In today's dollars, that's actually better than minimum wage was back in the late 70s, when I was in college.
I'm not sure where it will end up but $9 or $10 an hour is better than nothing. Hopefully it doesn't take 12 more years to get to even that modest bump up.
There's a lot between a "complex," high-paying job and a no-skills job at McDonalds. Let them go to a one-year vocational program (for which taxpayers cover the tuition) and increase their value in the marketplace.
I'm not opposed to that at all. I'm just saying that even for the simplest job, today's $7.25 is incomparable to $7.25 in 2009, especially with some expenses like housing and health care rising far beyond the rate of inflation.
By never raising the minimum, do we want to encourage people to game the system because they can do better not working?
I'm not opposed to that at all. I'm just saying that even for the simplest job, today's $7.25 is incomparable to $7.25 in 2009, especially with some expenses like housing and health care rising far beyond the rate of inflation.
By never raising the minimum, do we want to encourage people to game the system because they can do better not working?
Only 2% of workers make the federal minimum wage and half are under 25 years old. I'm not seeing the problem.
I'm not opposed to that at all. I'm just saying that even for the simplest job, today's $7.25 is incomparable to $7.25 in 2009, especially with some expenses like housing and health care.
By never raising the minimum, do we want to encourage people to game the system because they can do better not working?
I agree with that. The minimum hasn't kept pace. But raising it to $15 is ridiculous and will be a job-killer.
As far as "doing better not working," part of the problem is that we are currently paying people too much not to work in comparison to what they earned while working. Case in point: the regular unemployment PLUS an extra $300 is an incentive not to work even for those had been earning $9 or $10 an hour.
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