We are running on economic momentum from the very early 1900's

The problem is when you raise the minimum wage I and everyone else that didn't get a raise will have to spend more to get the same goods and services thus causing hardship on me and others who aren't minimum wage employees. The minimum wage increase only serves to shift the higher expenses onto other people while ensuring that few benefits are given to the people with higher wages due to overall labor costs and subsequent price increases.

Bottom line is it does either nothing (best case) or hurts more people overall.

a reply to: Metallicus

The point is if you read the op that oh nvm... Reread the op and try to focus on the second half.

a reply to: onequestion

We've barely paid off the Spanish American War here in the good old U S of A !

Paid on that for 108 years. Stopped the tax on 3.1.2003. We overpaid it by a mere $46 billion. Refunds of overpayment weren't allowed as a tax credit until 2006 though. Hmm. ..

Will we ever pay off anything from 1900 to date?

Nope.

The prices of everything will increase if they raise minimum wage, making it even harder for the impoverished to survive.

That double cheeseburger that used to be $1.25 will be $3.50 overnight.

a reply to: Ultralight

+1 x's 2 on the 'nope'. The debt, the repayment all in the same sentence? The machine requires phantom instruments. The fed interest rate is now zero. Cant create a negative interest and pay people to borrow money or raise the rate for the country and its debt over all time. Perhaps +3 for the good 'ol USA

So this will happen incrementally over the coming decades, it's not an all at once deal. It's definitely important that we consider the social implications and say enough is enough when the point comes, but it's not here yet. I think this discussion is for perhaps next decade, and even then the policy changes should be incrimental to offset the increase in productivity. So instead of "no jobs" what's more realistic is less man hours for the same social benefit as in decades prior.

The problem with getting this to actually become a reality is that there are assumptions running the system that are no longer evidenced. Supply and demand has been usurped by speculation of the investment class, and yet supply and demand is shoved down our throats as if it's still a reality in the everyday lives of the pl3bians. Supply and demand really rests on yet other assumptions, like scarcity of resources which in the face of increased productivity, and labor as a resource, doesn't hold true anymore. Yet another assumption would be a need for infinite growth to have a healthy economy. This necessity is rooted in monetary policy only, it's an on books reality, and assumption for real life. What holds true is more about demographic shifts and the evolving needs of the people.

It's quite a big web of nonsense that needs to be dealt with. I think we're in for a lot more growth pangs before maturing into this new information/automation/AI age.

..and for the people talking about too much debt nonsense, everyone is treading water. The only rational decision is a global debt jubilee, unless you are okay with grinding away all that potential to satisfy the books. The books haven't made any damned sense for who knows how long. Everyone is making it up as they go now.

a reply to: TinfoilTP

That's an interesting point. Truth be told there is really not much point in instituting a minimum wage unless its a living wage that stays in line with the cost of living.

Here in the U.K we have a minimum wage(£6.50 per hour) but truth be told its simply not enough to get by.

originally posted by: onequestion
We have more technology making it easier for us to meet the needs of the economy with fewer workers creating a situation where we no longer require everyone to be working in order to maintain supply. What this is doing is creating a situation where jobs really are no longer needed. The best part is we are resting on the precipice of a new form of crestive intelligence slowly manifesting into the world through computers known as artificial Intelligence. At this point in time technology will totally replace the need for humans and it will begin to create itself through 3d printing.

Move over people time to start rethinking our culture government and economy and make room for the fast approaching new age of technology.

I suppose this is only somewhat related to your post, but one of my hobbies is 3d modeling, and I like to make use of the schools 3d printers to print out random things I've built.

There is a huge legal hurdle with 3d printing and that's in control over the IP. Most patterns get distributed online for free, a company may be able to sell you access to the pattern or even act like shapeways and only sell you the finished product, but to a person who knows how to 3d model it's trivial to recreate the pattern and distribute it.

The law is not equipped to handle this much as it's not really equipped to handle GNU licensed computer code.

This is going to be the real hurdle to 3d printing because no one can really claim exclusive ownership over any specific model which will relegate it largely to the same domain as open source software today which causes a lot of issues when you try to monetize something using open source.

Early 1900's?

Think it been running since the late 1790's when the industrial revolution started .