Fox News: cutting minimum wage ‘better for workers’

reply to post by EsSeeEye


Succeeding on hard labor and effort is one thing and is applaud for, but when you have the people in this nation been leech to keep the wealth of those on the top intact because the bad decisions that they made while leaving the rest of the nation in chaos, unemployment and destitution they deserve not sympathy because they are actually robbing the tax payer blind.

I guess you have missed the entire point here, I guess go ahead and give away your wages so your boss can make more profits, after all I imagine that he is just a hard working person no affiliated with the dirty fat rats running this nation and our Markets.

reply to post by EsSeeEye


I agree with you entirely.

Minimum wage that is above the market price of labor creates unemployment. This is the very nature of a price floor. The price being the price of the labor. LINK

The minimum wage (price floor) creates a surplus of labor, aka, unemployment. Not to mention, the inflationary response to an increase in minimum wage.

reply to post by whaaa

I just happen to believe these people rather than people that benifit from not paying min. wage or providing benifits to maximize profits and to hell with the people that do the dirty work.

When unemployment rises, guess who does not benefit? The poor and middle class or anyone else without enough liquid assets to sustain themselves without going into more debt. Also, inflation is the hardest tax on the people with less money.

lol are they frigging kidding me?! When you have a stable currency then lowering minimum wage could be a great thing for workers. However, when you inflate the currency, tax the crap out of people, mandate they buy certain insurance that cannot afford, lowering minimum wages only helps stimulate rich peoples wallets.

The Labour party introduced and thereafter increased the minimum wage in the UK, despite righter-wing arguments it would increase unemployment. It didn't. Case closed.

Do away with minimum wage. You are payed what you are worth.

Minimum wage is part of the reason everything is so damned expensive.

reply to post by ExPostFacto


because raising minimum wage doesn't inflate the currency, right? Here's how it works: Businesses do not like to see their bottom line drop, so when the minimum wage goes up the company can either continue to hire at the same rate, but raise prices on their product/service(damn double cheeseburgers at mcdonalds going up in price) or they can freeze hiring and try to keep their prices the same(unemployment rise). Of course, there is a third avenue, in which the company some how manages to sell more of their product/service allowing them to keep hiring and keep prices the same, but that would require more people to be employed, which lead back to the beginning of this loop.

you guys can go ahead and raise minimum wage, but I don't want to hear a single complaint when prices start going up more or unemployment continues to rise. I won't worry about it, I worked hard in my minimum wage job at wendy's to get into management, while going to school so I could leave said management for my software engineer job(in one of the worst cities in michigan unemployment wise).

reply to post by marg6043


Marge you are connecting two different areas. The majority of minimum wage jobs are not provided by the companies that were failing or took government monies.

Most people in a minimum wage earning position also are between the ages of 16-24, usually single and working part-time.

Those that have created....yeah created their situation where they are married and have children and the primary wage earner is in a job that pays minimum wage have made just as poor choices as the bankers and people you very well complain about.

reply to post by numo16


Yes in an ideal world where currency is stable that is exactly how it works. However, after they have already raped us, bent us over, taxed us, spent our money, now they want to cut your pay? Here is a better idea...every makes 10% less money let's do it that way. That will create more jobs. Instead of just socking it to the guy on the bottom, how 'bout doing something really that will create jobs.

reply to post by ExPostFacto


You are you saying gets to dictate the 10% cut? The government?

When you enter into a job, you are entering into an agreement between two private parties. They provide you money for your services. The government cannot step in and decide at whim that you deserve more money or less money because their policies are failing.

reply to post by ownbestenemy


Not anymore. The government is already setting salaries, cancelling promised bonuses, and firing CEOs of private companies (after forcing government assistance so they'd have the ability to do the former).

The times, they are a-changin'. It's a shame that so many people seem to think that "The Government" is made up of a different kind of human than anyone else, and actually has our best interests in mind. Seems to me they're the same type of greedy power-mongers as all the corporate fat-cats everyone seems to despise so much.

Originally posted by numo16
reply to post by ExPostFacto

 

because raising minimum wage doesn't inflate the currency, right? Here's how it works: Businesses do not like to see their bottom line drop, so when the minimum wage goes up the company can either continue to hire at the same rate, but raise prices on their product/service(damn double cheeseburgers at mcdonalds going up in price) or they can freeze hiring and try to keep their prices the same(unemployment rise). Of course, there is a third avenue, in which the company some how manages to sell more of their product/service allowing them to keep hiring and keep prices the same, but that would require more people to be employed, which lead back to the beginning of this loop.

you guys can go ahead and raise minimum wage, but I don't want to hear a single complaint when prices start going up more or unemployment continues to rise. I won't worry about it, I worked hard in my minimum wage job at wendy's to get into management, while going to school so I could leave said management for my software engineer job(in one of the worst cities in michigan unemployment wise).

The problem with your assessment is that minimum wage has not kept up with the cost of living. Prices go up, but minimum wage stays the same. The basic family of four would need an income of around 34 thousand dollars a year (socyberty.com...) to make ends meet. That's over 16 dollars an hour, if you work 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year, not including taxes. This is unreachable even if both parents worked minimum wage jobs, not to mention single parent households.

reply to post by LiquidLight


If you know a family of four with a single income that is minimum wage, I'll eat my hat.

I'm not saying they aren't out there, but there aren't many, and those are extenuating circumstances, not to mention that very same family qualifies for quite a few social programs that would curb the sting of the single minimum-wage income.

Statistics have already been expressed in this thread, but it's pretty obvious that nobody is looking at them because they are so overcome with emotions. We get it, folks, you're compassionate. You can stop telling us now. Can we please get on with fixing the economy now?

One thing I've always thought was pretty funny: The people creating all these things, minimum wage, welfare, and so on, are never judged on how well those things actually work. They're only judged on how many people they tried to help. The reason that it's funny is because if those same people had been doing the same thing in the real world, they'd be fired for lack of results (or in some cases, opposite results).

Im sorry but the idea that wage is based upon productivity is completely flawed. The GDP of our country has DOUBLED since 1970, and yet the average workers buying power has stayed mostly the same, until now when it is starting to drop. That means that while our country doubled its profit and produce, all that extra profit went to the top wealthy executives and owners, while the workers shared in none of the gain.

Added to all of this, the corporate model we work under now means that companies must constantly try to increase profit for shareholders while at the same time reducing cost. This reduced cost comes almost completely from the lowest level workers. This is not about maintaining enough money to keep a business running, its about cutting the throats of your lowest workers just so you can make MORE profit than the year before. Its the difference, in hospitals where i work in a bachelor degreed position, between just making massive profit, or making OBSCENE profit, and we, the entry level bachelor only workers bear the weight of it, with each year getting less raises, less bonuses, less benefits, etc.

Its how the corporate system is set up, and from when a company becomes corporate, all the bottom rung workers start a gradual decline in pay and benefits.

Now i dont make minimum, but its close to it, where i live now, and thats another point. It differs from state to state, but the difference is clear. In states with union representation, which brings the wages for all workers up, even if you are not in a union you benefit from it, proving that when the minimum is up for one group in an area its raised across the board. And yet many of those cities have much better and cheaper economies, even WITH the higher wages, than in New Orleans where i now reside, and make almost nothing. AND MORE JOBS AVAILABLE!!

reply to post by ownbestenemy


I have never worked for minimum wages and neither my husband we have worked on set salaries.

I always saw the minimum wages as something like slavery, you want work OK I give you a work on a wage that will never make you get off the poverty level but will keep you out of welfare status.

My only problem is how salary jobs are becoming stagnate, how our nation no longer can offer a hard working alternative to get off a live of deprivation.

To tell you the truth this the way that is been done to keep the ones on the top as far away as the one on the bottom.

minimum wage won't keep you off the social aide programs....
some day when you have the time, check out the income guidelines for the various programs through google, most of the states have their income guidelines online, just type in your state, the program, like food stamps, whatever, and income guideline...and you more than likely will find it..
what has been happening for awhile now is that the wages for many have been falling, the cost of living has been rising, and well, the gov't has been the one to decide if you should be helped or not, as well as what you should have or don't have....through these programs. basically slave labor that is government subsidized at that.

so, ya, do away with the minimum wage, force the wages down lower and give the gov't more power over the people, and yourself more reason to gripe about your high taxes!!!

if a company can't provide a living wage for their employees and still run a profitable company, they they should be looking for a new business plan, not expecting the taxpayer to keep their employees alive for them, not to mention their customer's remaining to be customers!

reply to post by dawnstar


Exactly, my friend, but guess what, companies are the ones that are shipping their jobs oversea for better profits on slave wages.

Then actually that is exactly what they want to happen in the US, lower wages just like those in developing countries.

Then we as a nation are going backward.

Originally posted by Lemon.Fresh
Do away with minimum wage. You are payed what you are worth.

Minimum wage is part of the reason everything is so damned expensive.

So are you saying the PROFIT MOTIVE should be ignored and plays no part in wages and costs of goods and services?

Were not in Kansas anymore L.F..............

[edit on 15-12-2009 by whaaa]

Originally posted by EsSeeEye
reply to post by whaaa

 

A number would be outstanding. While you're at it, how much is too much for a bonus? How about a salary? How much can one person have in their bank account before they become slime?

An exact dollar amount would be preferred, please. I need to know where to stop succeeding.

Until the world has no starving children, no one deserves multiple mansions, super-cars and the power to make others slaves.

We need to level the playing field. There is nothing wrong with success. Nothing wrong with being rich. There is something wrong with having so much that anything else is to wiled power over others.

You want to know why the super-rich want to stay that way?

So they stay untouchable.

When was the last time you heard of any of them getting arrested?

I am not talking about the wealthy....I am talking about the ones that are untouchable rich. The private jets so they can have sex with children in 3rd world countries. Having women and men as sex slaves. They never get caught.

Its time.

It is time to take them down and make them pay for the crimes they have done against humanity.

Its time they pay for the wars they create, the economies they crash just so they become more powerful.

Its time to awaken and have a better existence for mankind don't you think?

Please people Minimum wage is a shame and Sham.

If I own a grocery store and make 100.00 from my sells. (for #s and giggles I own the building) Lets say my taxes and merchandise and Misc bills (utilities phones water) cost me 60 (cheapest stuff I can sell). I have three employees working for me at 5.25 and there total bill comes to 15.75 adding to my total of 75.75. That leaves me the owner of the company 24.75. I put 14.75 into the bank in case something needs fixing that leaves me with roughly 10 dollars.

Now Congress passes a law saying I have to pay my employees 7.25. So can the class tell me what I am going to do?

Fire two of them or raise my prices on everything to adjust to this new law. If I have to do it everyone has to do it. Guess what now the person who was making 5.25 may have more money on his check but still doesn’t see where it helps because everyone else has raised their prices....

Get my drift, I made this a simple as possible... When you raise the minimum wage prices also raise with them. So who wins if that occurs ? The teenager bagging grocers with no bills, Not the family who was barely making it before nor the business owner who is barely making it after.... But I think after I dumb this down to much some of you will still see the need for it…

No need for Fox to promote that, though. It WILL come whether Americans like it or not. It is simply the result of market forces (if there's still any.)