Without a republican form of government most of you would be indentured servants. Thank Thomas Jefferson et al for not living in squalor & eating rats & shoe leather, not Henry Ford.
You cannot subsidize people out of the lowest social class. It will always exist. You can raise the standard of living for them, but the better the standard is - the larger their membership, which causes exponential costs to the rest of society.
Thank you martin! The poor in our country live better than the middle class of our past. IMO, they have it way too good.
Minimum wage simply makes things more expensive and makes money worth less. I can't think of a good argument for it that couldn't be achieved in different, better ways. The argument is that the poor can't live on less than minimum wage, but instead of having private business subsidize the poor, why not put that responsibility on government? Ultimately, I believe in the value of aid to the poor that comes from private entities such as churches (voluntary aid rather than forced taxation), but I can see an argument made that the poorest of us living very poorly is bad for society across the board. If businesses were freed from their subsidation of the poor, they would be free to hire more people, and the government could help those that fall through the cracks of capitalism and voluntary aid. Having more jobs gets more people involved and in turn makes more of us productive. And if welfare is truly not sufficient, then we could consider bumping it up. But before we did that I think we'd want to consider the cost of too much welfare both on all of our pocketbooks and on the psyche of its recipients. Realizing that we don't need all the modern conveniences to live a happy life can be painful but liberating. I was continuing a thought of the poster I was responding to. But hey, I pretty much agree with you. Except that I think all of you capitalists need to realize that capitalism in its ideal state would be wonderful, as would communism. In the real world, capitalism has its flaws, and big ones, and some of those flaws are quite bad for the poor. Which is why we have welfare, I imagine. The idea was to get rid of the minimum wage. Welfare is a different discussion, and I have already pointed out that I believe it is in serious need of reform. Would you care to educate me rather than simply sling insults? I never made the statement that I believed I was the preeminant voice in the field of economics. I, like most of America, have less knowledge of economics than those who are degreed in it. I think the basic premise I've presented is pretty solid and I haven't had one educated soul convince me otherwise yet. It is something I am genuinely interested in, so if you have precious knowledge that would change my mind, please share it. I'm not above hearing you out. I'm a Republican and I tend to agree. Capitalism is pure and idyllic. :insane:
any individual but not every single person. this country would collapse without all those workers. where would you put 30 million min wage workers [yes martin i made the # up]? where would you get 30 million workers to replace them? yes it should. i already does a decent job of it. ok. id rather raise the standard of living for the poor than pay for everyone else to get a new lexus every 3 years. bs. not even close. they work harder for less money and a worse life.
It's not nice to call people stupid. That's why they created the word...Democrat. :grin: Anybody punched a chad lately? :hihi: Minimum wage shouldn't be enough to give you a quality life. It should be enough to encourage you to EARN your way to a quality life. I'll never understand the selfish mentality of someone believing they deserve to have the same things everyone else has without putting forth any effort to obtain it. There are far too many able-bodied people in this country who don't contribute anything good to society.
Not me. I worked and earned my Lexus. If Joe Poor Guy doesn't like it, too bad. You F'in do-gooders piss me off.
this should be your sig----"Get off my land!" we're not discussing welfare. im talking about working and earning too. ive done nothing exceptional in my life but it is, and will likely continue to be, very comfortable. the same is probably true for each of you. the country would be better off if people from the bottom didnt have to be exceptional to have a decent life.
Well let's all give 'em a nickel so they can at least have a nickel. Boo freakin Hoo. I'll help those that can't help themselves. Everybody else? You're on your own. Don't look to the top from the bottom for help. Move up to the top on your own.
