Screenshots, links not active. I was looking for something else and saw this. [Colorado District 1 representatives] (Denver)
Why is my representative even talking about this?
Oh. That's right. Marching orders from Party.
On the 'what people think' side, omitted: workers with zero skills, workers entering workforce, leisure and hospitality workers that receive tips, and contrary to the graph provided by Economic Policy Institute, most tend to be young; under 25- 50%, teenage 21%, 3% of total workers over 25 yrs old. Let's not mention persons with criminal records that figure would just mess things, and people with disabilities such that simply cannot perform without constant attention. The graph provided is flatly wrong.
6% of minimum wage earners are women, 3% are men.
11% work less than 35 hrs. week
States with most minimum wage workers: Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Idaho. Conversely, the states with lowest % of minimum wage workers: Alaska, Oregon, California, Montana, Washington, all under 2%.
The institute that produced the graph states: Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 would give working families, and the overall economy, a much-needed boost.
Of course it would. It would tend to move minimum wage toward living wage. Insisting on this demonstrates that policies pursued affect job creation so negatively that minimum wage now must be considered living wage for increasing number of workers.
When I worked minimum wage this was an issue then too, apparently a perennial issue as economies grow, and I was all for it. Employers are rich, I'm poor, easy that, just raise it already. But having endured that and grown I can see I really was a crap employee, although I was the best doggone dishwasher that place ever had. I wanted to be cook, and those guys just didn't see my potential. They dismissed all that I had to offer.
From pure economic pov, the correct thing to do is abolish minimum wage altogether. The government has no business in that. But legislators do imagine themselves lords of the economy and by pulling levers this way and that and our allowing it, they make themselves so. Unless stopped. Cries by politicians to raise minimum wage is admission they've messed things so sorely that minimum wage conflates with living wage as must be for the damage they've done. Okay for those who already employed. Not okay for those shut out from employment due directly to this specifically and this type of government meddling.
This subject is a bit boring. Like children arguing over matters long settled, I'd avoid it, but here it is again. Apologies for being so boring, but the subject was delivered from on high, and with no small force. They have to be answered.
12 comments:
Why do Denverites vote for Diana Degette(D)?
I know why.
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I'm glad you tweeted back.
The fact that they do not demand $500 per hour suggests they understand, if however vaguely, a connection between business profit and wages.
But leftism is a religion, and the living wage is one of their foundational beliefs.
The fact that it is impossible and destructive does not deter them, however.
the fact that, taken to its logical egalitarian end, it killed over 100 million people in the 20th century does not deter them.
They are dangerous people.
How much should unskilled labor cost when there are people out of work?
If a person needs a job, and a business has an opening, but can only make a profit if that job cost him $9/hr or less, what do you want to happen?
1) Higher minimum wage = no job = business opportunity goes elsewhere = job lost forever.
2) Lower = person gets hired = learns skills = pays bills = increases associated economic activity
The natural minimum wage is set by people who want to work and those who want to hire. They say what the work is worth. When the government decides, it may increase wages for those lucky enough to be worth that price, but it reduces overall employment, skill development and advancement of people, and hurts the least skilled the most.
We may prefer how having a higher minimum makes us feel about ourselves, but it does have ramifications that are ugly too, and that should not be ignored.
Personally, I think it's better for more people to be working than fewer. The costs of unemployment are just too severe to the economy and to the lives of individuals.
Near my home here in L.A. there are small businesses now closing their doors after employing people and paying taxes for decades in businesses like artwork, supply stores, lumber yards, etc that have been here employing people for decades in the film industry.
CA, and L.A. politicians refuse to control themselves and reduce taxes that have scared away 60% of the film business to other states in just 20 years. That stuff will never return. The skills, the talent, the infrastructure are lost here forever, and those somewhere else will take that prosperity like low hanging fruit.
Stupid is as stupid does. I know how leftists think about this. They mostly just don't. They feel government imposed costs will somehow get absorbed and not really effect anything. That somehow it will just work out. They just feel it, and don't want to hear about any downside.
They actually believe that the loss of the middle class to other nations which occurred at the same time as our government expansion and domination of business decisions have nothing to do with each other.
I have mixed feelings on this - leaning towards to supporting a raise to $8-$9 perhaps. That will remove the issue as a cudgel with which the Dems and the media beat the Repubs day after day. But the Repubs should get something in return like ridding the fed govt of being involved forever in subsidizing unemployment [which should be a state responsibility].
No apologies required. This comment within your post is excellent.
Cries by politicians to raise minimum wage is admission they've messed things so sorely that minimum wage conflates with living wage as must be for the damage they've done.
Add what Bagoh20 has said and it's clarifying. As for the film industry moving to other states...Yup, here is Michigan's deal ... and that is less than last year by about 10% on average.
Say hey, you need ghetto scenes, well we got 'em in Detroit :)
The real effective minimum wage is what people make on unemployment. They won't go back to work until the pay offered is well above that.
Having never studied the issue, I'm left to wonder whether the minimum wage is now obsolete, the problem no longer existing it was originally intended to alleviate.
I thoroughly suspect, however, that the antitrust laws are here to stay.
Social security, too, Lord willing.
What we need to do is get the Chinese minimum wage raised. Get the EPA in there, and OSHA. Can we get Obama elected President of China? He's got that Dear Leader vibe going. I meaN, isn't that a system he would find more to his liking? No damned Republicans, but the Press there might not be as compliant as it is here.
Remember, the left's goal is not more employment. The left's goal is to pat themselves on the back, have the media play soft with the facts, and then get back to what's really important - big donor crony cocktail parties.
Bagoh @ 11:00AM:
No joke. Except I wonder if Obama could actually clean up the Chinese environment. The system is so corrupt, I doubt Obama could resist the temptations that keep China dirty.
Free market bad. Warm embrace of state wage control good. And if you believe that.....
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