Quote (NetflixAdaptationWidow @ May 2 2023 02:26pm)

You definitely can raise the minimum wage too quickly, but we could raise it by 10% a year for a long ass time before we hit that point because we are so insanely low on the scale right now.

Quote (Malignanttumor666 @ May 3 2023 12:12am)

Terrible. Big business always finds a way to maximize profits. Big Daddy government is only screwing over the little guys.

Cost of living goes up and that minimum wage doesn’t mean anything.
Rich people keep winning.
Low income people keep losing.

Quote (bogie160 @ May 3 2023 07:00am)

The minimum wage is a price floor for labor, so by definition it results in less labor at a higher price compared with an unregulated market. Where labor is absolutely required, businesses will simultaneously try and push those costs onto consumers while investing capital in automation. Everyone can relate to the wave of automation that has taken place in the fast food industry over the past 20 years or so, and the rapid growth of self-checkout.

Whether or not we want a minimum wage comes down to whether or not we think a higher wage for a smaller pool of workers is more important than more labor at slightly lower wages and a slightly larger economy overall. The main challenge with a federal minimum wage is that it must be as low as appropriate for the poorest district or state. A "living" wage in Boston is a world apart from a living wage in Alabama, and a $15 minimum wage in Alabama would clearly be disastrous for the local economy.

Quote (h0w @ May 3 2023 07:40am)

Where are you from that it's $70 to mow a lawn lol?

Quote (JessiWan @ May 2 2023 11:18am)

Hello. Just wondering what your thoughts are about raising the minimum wage. Are you for or against it? Is it good or bad for the economy?

I had thought that it would drive small businesses, like mom and pop shops, out of business, due to higher costs. However, someone said that this was actually a myth. That it has been dispelled in Nobel prize economics. Do you think this really is the case?

As for my personal experience: I work minimum wage jobs, so whenever they raise the minimum wage, I am initially happy. Now I have more money to spend on things. However, once the honeymoon period is over, everything starts to go up in price. The initial increase in purchasing power erodes very quickly and I am back where I started.

Anyways lets share our thoughts. Is raising the minimum wage good or bad?

Quote (bogie160 @ 3 May 2023 16:00)

The minimum wage is a price floor for labor, so by definition it results in less labor at a higher price compared with an unregulated market.

Quote (Black XistenZ @ May 3 2023 12:24pm)

Sorry for the polemic argument, but it should be mentioned that a truly unregulated market will lead to the highest amount of labor at the lowest price... by reintroducing child labor and slavery.

I think the quantity we as a society should try to maximize is the per capita purchasing power of the populace, rather than the GDP or the average wages of those who actually do have a job. A minimum wage which sets a price floor for labor at a living wage is a good thing in my book. But as you correctly point out, the massive variations in cost of living across the country mean that at least parts of such a minimum wage should be indexed. A federal minimum wage of $15 would indeed be a disaster in many places.

Quote (thesnipa @ 3 May 2023 19:28)

the pure capitalists are mostly hypocrites. corporations have been increasing efficiency through automation by elimination of labor and writing off the costs using the RND loophole. this has been going on for decades.

they're literally tax subsidizing job loss, in the name of the free market.

Quote (Black XistenZ @ May 3 2023 02:49pm)

Automation is challenge for our usual economic policy paradigm. In the era from 1850 up until some point in the 70s or 80s, productivity gains came from technological innovation and yielded better products or a more efficient production. Simply put, we were producing more and/or better shit per working hour, which directly benefitted workers. Suddenly, a fridge, a TV or a car were affordable, or better than the previous models. But over the past 50 years, technological innovation has slowed down in most sectors and productivity gains are increasingly achieved by cost cutting on the worker side (outsourcing, automation).

Globalization at least produces an aspiring middle class in developing countries, but automation by default sees all the productivity gains go to the capital side. To balance this out and spread the gains across all of society, the state would have to directly intervene by imposing a machine tax or tariffs.

Quote (Black XistenZ @ May 3 2023 03:49pm)

Automation is challenge for our usual economic policy paradigm. In the era from 1850 up until some point in the 70s or 80s, productivity gains came from technological innovation and yielded better products or a more efficient production. Simply put, we were producing more and/or better shit per working hour, which directly benefitted workers. Suddenly, a fridge, a TV or a car were affordable, or better than the previous models. But over the past 50 years, technological innovation has slowed down in most sectors and productivity gains are increasingly achieved by cost cutting on the worker side (outsourcing, automation).

Globalization at least produces an aspiring middle class in developing countries, but automation by default sees all the productivity gains go to the capital side. To balance this out and spread the gains across all of society, the state would have to directly intervene by imposing a machine tax or tariffs.