Minumim wage and repression

I'm an econ major 2 so I think this video was very informative and I liked. For all of those who want to see some change, this is the right direction to take. Minimize government intervention because even though we often think we are doing the right thing with government programs they often leave us with undesirable results. I feel that evnn though this video is 25 years old the general public and almost everyone in power still doesnt understand these principles. The stimulus package is like a modern rise of the social welfare state.

i seriously think sometimes that all minimum wage does is make you THINK you're making more money...

I'm pretty liberal, and stuff.. but minimum wage is always something that makes me scratch my head..

oops i w/e "fail"

Minimum wage, while it obviously increases income, also increases unemployment rates.  Think about it. When minimum wages rise, payroll costs for businesses rise.  When times are tough, the first thing that businesses cut is employees and make layoffs.  Businesses often cannot afford to support the same number of people when it costs more.  Therefore, minimum wage helps some (those that get to keep their jobs) and hurts others.  But when it comes down to it, who would a business lay off first? The lower skilled workers, those who are not as good as what they do. Those people are generally less educated, and already in the lowest class.  So the same people who already weren't doing so well are now doing even worse, since they are the first to lose their jobs when minimum wage goes up. The end.

someones wetarded

don't you think that graph is missing a bit on one's capability to purchase necessary goods with minimum wage... the worker needs to be able to eat/place to live if you want them to continue being a worker.

not when he has no job...

it doesnt need to dumbass

you're talking about a different person, the unemployed,  let's get a quote of what the minimum average cost of living is, and see what repercussions arise from having an insufficient  minimum wage

mainly because minimum wage is based of thoses things, so yes they kind of are included

i understand you're a sr. in highschool, so the thought might not jump to you right away, but such a simplistic graph makes you think OH easy solution, drop minimum wage down, and there'll be no unemployment...

sure $4 an hour makes it easy for a buisness to make money, but if your employees have to work almost 12 hours a day 7 days a week, just to make enough to live on their own, you're going to have exhausted people, and broken families, for sure.

you could also  set up sweatshop standards and afford to employ everyone,  but i thought we all agreed that this is a bad thing back at the begining of the 19th century

First, I'm a junior in college. A college better than yours.

ju, i wasn't saying you're in HS, that was towards the other dick coming in calling me a dumbass and not considering the validity of my point


i'm not going to try and argue with you on the grounds of economic equations, or theory, i don't have the knowledge base to enter such an argument, all i know is that you can make it look like its a good thing to underpay workers, and that having super low wages can be made to look beneficial, but in the end, you've got to consider the lives of the workers just as much as you need to consider unemployment and equilibrium.

im actually a sophmore in college but i realize what your saying, the graph is too simplistic to draw any real conclusions off of, all im saying is minimum wage is based of the cost of living and having enough money for everyday life, i wasnt talking about how the rate will lower due to a flodded job market or anything, i realize your not a dumbass and do have an idea what your talking about but alot of what your saying is an opinion wich i dont necessarily agree with

dude. lets just make the minimum wage $30 an hour. (facepalm) shit i care so much, maybe lets just go all out and make it $35.... ;)

when you take my point, change it completely to make it sound absurd, it only makes me think how stupid you've got to be... and i say that with as much respect for you as you've had for my point.

I am NOT suggesting that people ought to make minimum 60 K a year. All i said was that people need to take into account what the minimum average cost of living is to set a standard. You cannot pay people half what it costs to live and expect things to work out well, nor can you set the minimum standard ridiculously high. 

stop being an idiot, and try and work with what is being said, not changing it to make it seem obviously wrong.

Theres way too many uninformed people in here. You can't just say min wage is bad because it increases unemployment. The average income still increases, theres a small number of people who lose, but thats always the case. 0% unemployment isn't possible. It's about avg living standards being acceptable. 

maybe let the market sort it out?

 if you dont like your job thats only paying $6 an hour, get some education, improve your skills, and get a job that pays $12 an hour...

i really dont find it all that absurd. if i had a nickel for every sob story ive heard about the minimum wage being so low. ide probably be retiered already. besides whos to say what it costs to live.... if you make what my dad makes in my state you are obove middle class average. if you make that much just one state over in SD you can basically live like a king. my grandparents sold a home there that if it were placed in my zip code it would easilly be over a million dollar home. but due to its location and the median wage being something like $12 an hour. i beleive it sold for just 250k. see what im getting at?

i maintain my position that i care so much. more than all of NS and say we should just have a minimum wage at $20 an hour?

think about your first job, did you put in enough work and a high enough quality of work to warrent paying you $10 an hour? or what is your number attached to a "fair" minimum wage? lets hear it, then maybe we can continue.

 by market, you mean business owners right? the ones who tend to think about how to make the most profit, not necessarily how to take care of their employees?

When you say for those who don't like making $6 an hour, get an education, exactly when would they be able to find the time? I mean we're assuming that the individual in question probably isn't living with their parents any more, and still needs a place to live and food to eat... you can't always afford to go back to school while working 10 hours a day to cover all those expenses... Even after all that, you might still end up getting that $6/hr job, it's really up to the market to determine your worth

You bring up a great point, that there are different standards of living -- how can you dictate what should be the minimum across the board? Considering that each state is able to set their own minimum wage, I don't see the argument you're trying to make here. If the standards are lower in SD, then SD state government can keep their mandated minimum wage at the federal level. If however the costs in MN are a butt-load higher, obviously the state would need to mandate a higher minimum wage.

In terms of what you're getting at with your grandparents house, I'm not sure what you're trying to use it to prove -- yes it's common knowledge that a house's value is contingent on the area that it is in.

who has been saying minimum wage needs to be 35K a year? That's still not my argument; I want the minimum wage to take the cost of living into account, I'd like you to care a little bit about the people who want to better themselves but cant. If you're not going to raise minimum wage, atleast put support out there for health care expenses, or child care expenses -- its not just to get them a better job, but to make the place you live a bit better. Think, if your Grandparents house had a bunch of social programs surrounding it, making the minimum standard of living a little higher, the value of their house would also be up.

The jobs i've worked have all paid around the state minimum 7.25 - 7.75, some of the people i worked with were around my age, and had kids of their own, and other family they were trying to take care of. It was pretty obvious to me that, if they could get out of the situation they were in, they would, but come on, it's much easier said than done.

first. my point at different costs of living. earlier you were making broad sweeping statements about making the minimum wage a liveable wage. so i naturally assumed you meant a federal minimum wage increase... (i think we actually might agree on states rights for this one)

second bettering yourself does not necessarily mean school. get better at what you are doing? i know NS just hates personal success stories, but my grandpa graduated highschool and was thrust right into the working world. and by the time he retiered he is now on the board of directors for a telephone company, the 7 or 8 person in the last 100 years to be named an honorary member of some iowa telephone assosiation. and was making over 200k a year. maybe you dont go become a lawyer, maybe you become the best you can be inside your own field...


ide still love to know what a liveable "fair" minimum wage is.

i also love how it seems as though businesses are only concerned about their bottom line as if its a bad thing. if they dont make money, than guess what? they cant pay ANYONE. (get to know some business owners, its not a big lucious bed of roses all the time)

last i dont mean to be a cold hearted bastard. (110% dead honest) so dont take it that way. but what were you doing if you were making 7.25$? and as mean as it sounds your job probably just wasnt skilled enough, needed, something to warrant paying you more. its just the way the world works. every day you trade your employer your time for money. if you dont like the return you get for your time, go find a better one. or try for a raise.. suprisingly enough though some businesses just cant afford to pay their employees more than $6 or 7 an hour. a local coffe shop one of my friends parents owned was a good example of this. it was one of those things that the money just WAS NOT there. and a minimum wage increase would have done them in...

Now you're talking about a bunch of mumbo jumbo that i dont really quite understand........but aren't you the guy who said that Wal Mart is a horrible horrible place even though they are regarded as being the best in employee compensation

That is the point of a business isn't it?

no, no that wasn't me

You guys all watched the video's right? Minimum wage does not only unquestionable increase unemployment. A low paying job is better than no job, or being able to take a temporary pay cut is much better than losing your job, but if you were making at minimum wage your employer wouldn't have that choice so you would lose your job. The videos also make the case that minimum wage keeps minorities out of the labor market, especially those that need job skills the most.

ps.Jumiester why are you always such a douche.

You make a good argument, but the quoted statement makes you sound like a pretentious douche bag.