also, many union contracts are tied to minimum wage. Politicians don't fight over it because they care if poor people make 20 cents more an hour, they fight over it because it can be a big payback to the unions who bribed them.
I think that what would happen is that there would be a hiring frenzy if there was no minimum wage. Also, I think that after a few years, we would have alot more innovators. Someone who earns $300 per week for min wage that suddenly only gets $50 per week, is going to no longer be satisfied making minimum wage. He will be desperate to make more money, so he will start thinking up ways to do it. And since he has no money to buy an ipod, or computer or TV, he will not be distracted by these things and actually get together with his friends and make plans to create something that will make them more money. As that happens and their are less workers, the big companies will be forced to start paying higher wages to get more workers in. The market will balance itself out, in other words.
that's so stupid it sounds like a Fox News commentary. Have you ever been to a McDonalds? They hire exactly as many workers as they need. it doesn't matter if it's at $3 an hour ar $30 an hour. They can't operate without that many workers and they don't need one more. So in the meantime, with no minimum wage they just lower wages and find more and more desperate workers and pocket the difference. And yes eventually we get back to right where we are, but at whose expense and at whose great profit?
What would happen is that there would be alot more crack/weed dealers on the corner, and the bags would get smaller. Plus, you would need to be fluent in Spanish to communicate with the dealer: "Por favor, yo quiero un dime bag." Either that, or WAYYY many more illegals at the McD drive thru than there are already. If $300/week is already poverty level, imagine what less than that would inspire. Desperate measures for desperate times...:eek:
otherwise, I'm against all government price controls from the minimum wage all the way up to the Feds price control on rates. It's just nobody wants to go through the agony if the Fed lets rates find their true value because so many people with money would be hurt in the process. Yet when it comes to letting wages find their true value there doesn't seem to be the same concern that those with no money will be hurt in the process.
Minimum wage should be a "living wage", plain and simple. Determine the minimum amount necessary to provide food, clothing, and shelter, otherwise, who is the minimum wage helping?? Answer: those who live in squalid conditions and send whatever is left to the third-world country that they originate from.