Senate fails the country again.

[Millburn]

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

I understand you studied sociology but did you happen to take an economics class? You do know what inflation is correct? Raising minimum wage is a poverty pimps solution. If you want to end social inequality through raising the standard of living then bring back jobs, create real currency not debt based ponzi schemes and get out of all of the international trade agreements that are strangling the country like NAFTA,GATT, etc , promote real education, de-privatize the prison system and create a reform system and repudiate the debt that has been incurred through currency manipulations. End lobbying, set term limits, create more representatives and end the consolidation of power.

Raising minimum wage [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] - as if people should be forced in to minimum wage jobs to earn a living.

Hey man I agree with pretty much everything you just said, thank you for posting this.

[SamwiseRed]

people make more leeching off the govt than they do working a full time job making minimum wage. i think there is a problem.

[Millburn]

Could you explain to me how raising minimum wage eliminates low skill labor opportunities? I'm not an economist and don't understand how those correlate. What I do know is that with the affordable health care act, all part time workers in low skill jobs will not be getting more than 25 hours a week. There needs to be some change in wages or this will be another nail in the coffin of our work force.

[Lojik]

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

Could you explain to me how raising minimum wage eliminates low skill labor opportunities? I'm not an economist and don't understand how those correlate. What I do know is that with the affordable health care act, all part time workers in low skill jobs will not be getting more than 25 hours a week. There needs to be some change in wages or this will be another nail in the coffin of our work force.

Best to give an example. Guy owns a restaurant. He finds if he hires one person, he can improve business, makes $20 more dollars/hour with the first hire. With the next hire, he makes $10 more dollars an hour. He's going to keep hiring people until the net benefit from hiring a new person = cost to employ said person. Someones productivity and their pay are directly correlated. So, essentially someone who is worth $10/hour will get $10/hour. If you raise minimum wage to $15/hour, the manager/owner isn't gonna just bite the bullet and lose money on an employee, that person is going to get fired. Also, the owner will make less money, and fewer people will be able to enjoy his goods, and likely the cost of these services will increase.

[SamwiseRed]

private E-1s in the military make more money than minimum wage

[Nihilist_santa]

If you increase the minimum wage then you increase the bottom line which affects price. What happens then is your prices go up. Your solution just causes you to keep raising minimum wage and producers to keep raising prices. The reason people will be dropped to 25 hours is because the "affordable" healthcare act is affecting the bottom line.

**sorry if this came across as snide or condescending not meant to be that way.

[Millburn]

Thank you for explaining that.

So with that in mind, how does the fact that productivity has been going up and up but wages haven't. Shouldn't wages keep in alignment with productivity, does that not translate to what you were talking about?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/su...nate.html?_r=0

I mean obviously there's a difference between corporations and small businesses, but the majority of minimum wage jobs at least in my area of the world come from these large retailers where a raise in minimum wage seems justified due to the disparity between productivity and their paycheck.

[Lojik]

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

Thank you for explaining that.

So with that in mind, how does the fact that productivity has been going up and up but wages haven't. Shouldn't wages keep in alignment with productivity, does that not translate to what you were talking about?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/su...nate.html?_r=0

I mean obviously there's a difference between corporations and small businesses, but the majority of minimum wage jobs at least in my area of the world come from these large retailers where a raise in minimum wage seems justified due to the disparity between productivity and their paycheck.

Hmm, I don't think I can sufficiently answer this question, as there are a lot of variables to examine. However, note the article mentioned increased outsourcing of jobs as a problem, and I doubt they are including wages paid to outsourced jobs, even though the outsourced jobs would contribute to the productivity increases. If minimum wage is raised even higher, this would be an even bigger problem.

To your example of the retailer, is it the menial employee who is greatly contributing to the increased productivity? Most likely not, as I'd wager that they are getting paid close to what they're worth. If minimum wage were raised, you might only have 50 employees at the stores as opposed to 55 or 60.

A welfare state doesn't help the situation either, as the opportunity cost of not working to someone who is receiving welfare (assuming they'll even make more working than just being on welfare) is considerably reduced, so they are essentially working for pennies an hour as opposed to the $10/hour or whatever minimum wage is.

[Ahldagor]

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr...e-data-table-8

why has no one commented on the murder stat going down every listed year?

also, the whole idea of freedom for humanity is a new thing that came up in the 1700's with that whole enlightenment period of western civilization. so has it been universal if it's just a relatively recent thought by western thinkers? this is something I think about and am curious of other's responses.

as for guns, they've gone from a necessity for living in terms of providing food and protection from threats to something that's under gone massive commodification. this nation is the best at commodification and people keep buying it up bit by bit. having a gun or not doesn't prevent anything from happening to an individual. gun's sold as a protective device that's bought and sold, and now the protection of the protective device must be bought (NRA donations). we all keep getting suckered hard. sucks, and a .45 is just damn fun to shoot.

[liveitup1216]

If anything it should be made easier to buy guns. Give them out to everybody. Let the crazies thin out the herd a bit, its not like there's a shortage of humans.

Imagine the world with 1 billion less people, there's your miracle world economy fix.