State of the Union

[Ecguy]

Why $10.10? Let's just make it $50.

[Hailto]

you didnt even put health care on the list?

[Ecguy]

Originally Posted by Hailto [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

you didnt even put health care on the list?

Can't imagine he would want to talk about it too much. It hasn't exactly been a raging success. Wait until employees find out what the rate increase is for businesses in NOV of 2014. That cost will be passed on.

[hatelore]

Originally Posted by Ecguy [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Can't imagine he would want to talk about it too much. It hasn't exactly been a raging success. Wait until employees find out what the rate increase is for businesses in NOV of 2014. That cost will be passed on.

To the employer and taxpayer... Sorry, had to finish that sentence for you. Obamacare was basically geared to crash the healthcare industry anyways from what it looks like, so it can be totally nationalized. Either that or people write laws in the dark and sign them into law while sleeping.

[HeallunRumblebelly]

Originally Posted by hatelore [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

To the employer and taxpayer... Sorry, had to finish that sentence for you. Obamacare was basically geared to crash the healthcare industry anyways from what it looks like, so it can be totally nationalized. Either that or people write laws in the dark and sign them into law while sleeping.

Forcing people to buy insurance, that's gonna crash the health insurance industry? Yeah you'll have to cover sick people, but those people get insane premiums / deductibles (not really limited in ACA) which they can't pay anyway! And Medicaid is fucking awful for chronic conditions, literally worst then the VA.

[Lemiddar]

Originally Posted by Ecguy [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Why $10.10? Let's just make it $50.

I really thought I'd see this on the FIRST page. RNF is slacking. There are a lot of reasons I don't agree with Republicans, even though I am one myself. Some I can see the party point of view and just happen to disagree. Stupid talking points like this don't fall into that category. The proposed wage might be rounded up (as usual) to the nearest 5 or 0, but it isn't at all arbitrary.

[Ecguy]

Originally Posted by Lemiddar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I really thought I'd see this on the FIRST page. RNF is slacking. There are a lot of reasons I don't agree with Republicans, even though I am one myself. Some I can see the party point of view and just happen to disagree. Stupid talking points like this don't fall into that category. The proposed wage might be rounded up (as usual) to the nearest 5 or 0, but it isn't at all arbitrary.

The point isn't that it's arbitrary. The point is that when a wage is mandated it has other consequences besides simply increasing the amount of money some people make.

[Raavak]

Originally Posted by Ecguy [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The point isn't that it's arbitrary. The point is that when a wage is mandated it has other consequences besides simply increasing the amount of money some people make.

Increasing minimum wage doesn't increase the amount of money available to pay people, so the whole concept sucks. And Econ 101 shows us that minimum wage causes a surplus in available labor. Its nothing more than a political ploy... it works because most people don't understand the concept in my first sentence. All money comes from Obama's stash, amirite?

[Lune]

Originally Posted by Raavak [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Increasing minimum wage doesn't increase the amount of money available to pay people, so the whole concept sucks. And Econ 101 shows us that minimum wage causes a surplus in available labor. Its nothing more than a political ploy... it works because most people don't understand the concept in my first sentence. All money comes from Obama's stash, amirite?

As much as economics loves to pretend it's a real science up there with physics and chemistry, in reality it's just a filthy fucking mongrel somewhere between the other social sciences and real ones. So I wouldn't put much stock in some symbolic assessment of how they think minimum wage interacts with pure, hypothetical, or historical systems that are muddled with variables and complexities they are wholly incapable of properly accounting for.

Many of the economies who do far better than us (Not larger, better: Less inequality and poverty, more happiness and social mobility, higher per capita wealth) have dramatically higher wages for even their most unskilled workers, along with lower unemployment.

Part of the idea is to put cash back in the hands of perennially cash-strapped Americans who, in the last decade, have watched wages shrink and economic opportunity decline. People without money can't buy homes, or any of the other innumerable horseshit that drives our pig economy. (Note that one of the factors leading up to the bursting of the housing bubble in 2007 was the sustained, astronomical increase in the price of petroleum that sucked absurd amounts of cash out of every family and business in the United States, and catalyzed the crash like a needle popping a bubble).

This is one of the reasons the Obama and Bush administrations have pushed (ineffectually) to reduce oil consumption. It's because the moment our economy starts booming again, we will see a commensurate increase in the price and consumption of petroleum that will temper economic growth and act as a 'soft cap' on the extent to which our economy can thrive. We're lucky domestic production has increased so much, but it won't do much good in the long run.