Bill to raise Fed minimum wage to $10 hr

Now you are quarreling with yourself. It's sad, really.

There is no topic on which I have no opinion. You are far too easily controlled, junior.

The guys who make my phone live in China. You really don't grok the minimum wage discussion at all, do you? Did you think were were talking about Chinese wages? Pray tell, who are these people that you know that work for nothing. Do they work at Taco Bell? Or are they trust-funded debutants who volunteer at the Guggenheim? If they aren't working free in the fast food or custodial fields, then they just ain't relevant to the issue at hand--minimum wage.

Yes, I know you'd like me to stop having opinions that shred your arguments. But it ain't happening. The truth hurts, doesn't it.

Oh, good comeback. You've lost, amigo. Just go and have a cocktail with the debs.

Hell, in the real world people work all the time as interns and would prefer a million dollars a year, a private jet, and dancing girls. So the fuck what?

WTF would you know about ramen noodles or struggling for a living? Come up with something new or be ignored, you are simply repeating yourself ad nauseum.

 

By hiring a skilled worker perhaps? You must do as you see fit. And your competition must face the same regulations.

And if you have read the whole thread, I have said from my first post that I think a 36% jump is too big. But smaller increases from time to time as other costs and salaries also rise is altogether reasonable. martin's argument that the unskilled should have the right to negotiate a lower salary than you can live on in America is so absurd as to be laughable.

 

I'm advocating for the right to run my business as I see fit. I could not care less about what the government thinks is the equilibrium wage. I have a balance sheet and a profit/loss statement that tells me what I can afford to pay people. If expenses were not an issue, I'd pay every person who works for me $30.00 an hour. Sadly, that's not an option.

The government has not clue one about what the business community needs to operate. A business here is required by the government to maintain a public file. Recently, they got an unannounced inspection, and sadly, the three people in the office who know where the public file is kept were not in. The inspector was asked to come back the next day. He did so, and was immediately given the public file, which was in proper order. But because the inspector didn't get it the moment he asked for it, the business was fined $10k. This business has been in operation nearly 50 years. In all that time, 2 people have asked to see the public file. Both were from the government. It is a useless process that they have nonetheless performed for the government, and they are still out 10 grand.

This is the government you want regulating business.

An industrial company in town got fined by OSHA not too long ago. Seems they had an open trash can full of dirty rags in the mechanics shop. Problem was, the can wasn't labeled "dirty rags", it was labeled "oily rags." Even though the rags weren't oily, the word "oily" on the can made it an environmental waste container, and was therefore not allowed to be left open. Pure bureaucratic insanity, but the company still got fined.

This is the goverment you want regulating business.

 

Now you know as well as I do that Martin will always take the opposing viewpoint and run 12 miles past extreme with it. Let's talk reality. The gov't did enact a small series of increases over about two years last decade. It didn't hurt that bad because it was gradual. But look, I don't know what happens in the world of big corporations, but here in small town, small business-world, most business owners/managers know they have to keep salaries in line with cost-of-living. And in my experience, the people around here do their best to do just that, partly because competition makes them do it, but also because they know its the right thing to do. When I became mgr. of my place (hand-on-the-Bible true story here), I accepted the job and told the owner, but there's some things that have to happen. Number 2 was a pay raise for the minimum wagers, but we just couldn't afford it. Its not the ivory tower big corporate CEO's who are going to get hurt by $10 an hour, its the small business owners who actually are wide-eyed and naive enough to do what they do because it benefits their community.

 

Equilibrium wage is set by the market, not the government. This is the reason that McDonalds and Taco Bell pay more than minimum wage. They have to to fill their shifts with workers because 97% of the jobs out there pay more than minimum wage.

I understand. But today your balance sheet tells you that you have some positions that can be filled by minimum wage employees. I bet those employees turn over often when they get better jobs. Do you ever have trouble filling a minimum wage position? Theoretically you could hire twice as many people by paying them half as much, but if you get half the applicants and those move on to higher wages in a few months, what does that do to your productivity. Sometimes the balance sheets says that you need to hire a better-paid, better-motivated employee that sticks around a while, doesn't it?

There are horror stories on the other end as well. Unregulated investment banking let to unbridled greed in investment banking and caused a huge recession and a $4.5 Trillion bailout. As always, I advocate balance between over-regulation and under-regulation.

 

Repeating yourself. Nothing new here.

 

See my previous post to get that I realize all of this. The current economy is not letting me operate in that manner right now. My point all along (which I think you understand), is that its to no one's benefit if I have to lay off people because the government puts me in a position where I can no longer afford them.