... and wages have stayed flat for working people because of it. The easiest thing the federal government can do to improve the lives of every American that gets a paycheck is increase the minimum wage (then cut payroll taxes). When Seattle increased its minimum wage to $15 an hour the right wing lost its mind and promised Seattle would become a ghost town and an employment desert but in fact the opposite has happened:
I was talking to someone about minimum wage increases and he said "get ready to pay $11 for a whopper" The stupidity hurt my brain.
In a true laissez-faire free market system this makes sense. Companies who offer too little won't succeed because there are other companies offering more. Unfortunately this assumes companies are rational actors which based on the sociopathic behavior of your average CEO this is a dubious assumption at best. The reality is people receiving minimum wage are a vulnerable population of people who are either no longer capable, or fundamentally incapable of skilled work. A minimum wage acts to protect these people from being taken advantage of by the aforementioned sociopaths. Walmart is subsidized by the tax payer (Amazon as well - but in a marginally different way). Instead of simply pegging minimum wage to inflation (which is the rational thing to do but still not sufficient), the government is saying "you successful tax payers can pay more so these companies can pay less for workers who require subsidy". A minimum wage of $15 might be too much given the current CPI, but $12 is probably closer to correct. It's a marginal change, will not effect the "mom and pops" who typically employee 1-2 of these workers, and get people off of welfare and off of our tax money. Unfortunately Republicans and Democrats alike who are bedfellows with the Musks, Waltons, and Bezoses will never allow this to happen. Bonus points for all the paste eating idiots who say "food prices will go up", because if they do people will stop buying and we've successfully demonstrated the companies were not innovative but were powered instead by virtual slave labor and their business model lacked any actual successful qualities. In not supporting a minimum wage increase, Republicans are indirectly supporting the thing they allegedly hate most: taxes. Taxes have to increase to fund social programs that shouldn't be needed except for the case here in America you can be "working poor" - trying to make an honest living but still need welfare. If you want workers off the taxpayer teet raise the minimum wage and let the marginally profitable and unprofitable companies fall apart instead of supporting them with virtual slave labor.
Very good points. I agree that the fifteen dollar an hour wage is too high to actually be the “minimum wage” and I see it as actually in that $12 and hour range, too. To your point about slave labor, indeed! We have work requirements attached to federal assistance. In order to get assistance you must have a job, which is good in theory but actually more like indentured servitude to private businesses. So there is a steady supply of unskilled worker that have to work for slave wages and the churning of these poor people to is grueling. They have to keep these low paying jobs, that are actually killing a lot of them, in order to get food stamps, etc. It’s hellish in many case, while profits are at record highs for businesses.
The confederate south has the most minimum wage workers,but vote to not increase it.Conservatives have got to be the dumbest people in human history.Unbelievable how fucking stupid these people are.
The "confederate south" was democrat a lot longer than its been republican. I'm guessing you live in the confederate south and make minimum wage which is why you're so angry. My advice is to find a better job. Learn to code.
Middle-Class Incomes Surging – Thanks to Trump Policies https://www.heritage.org/markets-an...e-class-incomes-surging-thanks-trump-policies The latest Census Bureau Current Population Survey data now show that middle-class incomes, after adjusting for inflation, have surged by $5,003 since Donald Trump became president in January 2017. Median household income has now reached $65,976 – an all-time high and up more than 8 percent in 2019 dollars under the Trump presidency. This data was compiled by the statisticians at Sentier Research, an economic research group whose founders have more than 30 years of experience at the Census Bureau in analyzing the monthly income numbers. I reported last week in the Wall Street Journal that real median family income had soared by $4,146 under Trump through July 2019. The just-released August numbers from Sentier show a huge monthly gain of $857 in income per household.