Cache Landing
Registered: Dec 2005
Posts: 2531 |
07-10-06 11:23 PM
Quote from Traden4Alpha:
Four reasons:
1. The number of potential voters who earn minimum wage vastly exceeds the number of business owners who might have to pay minimum wage -- for every voter that owns a McDonalds, there are 20 voters that work there. (And the 1,000 consumers that eat at that McDonalds aren't likely to get off their supersized butts to vote down the measure).
2. Many people believe profit is evil and businesses are too greedy. So forcing companies to pay a "decent" wage and benefits is the "right thing to do."
3. Most people understand very little about business and economics in terms of how costs flow through businesses to consumers and how businesses don't have to hire people whose labor is not worth minimum wage.
4. Democrats are learning the Republican's tactic of putting an issue campaign on the ballot that draws party loyalists to the polls.
Bottom line is that a higher minimum wage is great in the short-term for one large bunch of people but very few people think about or understand the long-term consequences.
Although I do agree that living on $5.15/hr would be extremely difficult, I'm not sure how society can address the core problem that some peoples' labor simply isn't worth more than $5.15/hr.
But if the minimum wage laws didn't exist, do you think the competetive market wage would drop below $5.15?
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