Depends if you're talking about a zero sum game or not. We're not talking about a zero sum game which makes it much harder and you can't show that your premise is true. For instance offering more pay might cause people to take jobs that they normally wouldn't. So it's not the same supply.
What exactly is a "Living wage"?
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I'm talking about in a consumer-based free market economy. The price of a product is based on what people are willing to pay for it. If more people are able and willing to pay that price, what happens to that price? Inflated prices offset inflated wages.
That's assuming everyone gets to keep their job with those higher wages. If you're budget allows you to pay 3 employees $10/hr and the wage gets increased to $15/hr, well now you can only afford to employ 2 people OR you have to raise prices to compensate. Neither scenario is good for the general public.
Unlike you, I'm living the higher minimum wage that's only a theory to you. Minimum wage here is $14.25. Going to $15 in January. Been going up 75 cents a year for the last several years til it hits 15. And yes, unemployment is pretty low in this state too, down to 3.7%. And yes, prices are generally higher, like you'd be hard pressed to buy a lunch for $5 even at a cheap place, more like $10-$15. The flip side is that you do make more money.
I've only taken some general education economic courses in college, so if I make some bad assumption please correct me:
1) There will never be a one-sided only effect, any increase or decrease in price or cost will lead to increase or decrease in demand and supply.
2) There will never be a "good for" only policy, you can lower tax to zero, drop price to near zero, increase wage to near million, etc etc and it will still have a consequence. Everything has a consequence and a benefit. Your customer is also your employee and your employer in the general economy, what is good for your customer and bad for your employee will also be bad for your customer indirectly and good for your employee indirectly, because the whole economy is linked.
3) Everything is about money supply, indirectly controlled by interest rate, and result in inflation. Your "wage" argument, your "cost" argument, your supply constrain argument, are all just a side effect of money supply via interest rate and debt (money supply is debt if you look deep enough).
4) The only thing that has proven to be harmful to the overall economy is monopoly, and that's why every company / nation want it and every other companies / nations want to prevent others from getting it.
Are the people making $15/hr previously, the lower middle class, getting raises proportionate to the minimum wage increase? The last minimum wage increase around here, they didn't. The prices increased and those not working for minimum wage got the shaft.
There are lots of ways "around" minimum wages. Contract work that pays by the gig, self employed, customer self service, out sourcing with remote work, whole company moving out to cheaper area, etc. Even back in Soviet time they have black markets too.
If with all those "hacks" and people are not showing up for those min wage work, then it is below the real market rate and the "min wage" is irrelevant like your example said.
If you have min wage job and people are fighting tooth and nail to get it, accepting under the table pay to lie about actually getting that much, and still take those jobs, then it is artificially too high.
This is the reality of being a business owner. If you can only afford to hire a min wage worker for something and nobody shows up, and your customer is not willing to pay more, then you either have to be the guy taking those jobs yourself (by paying yourself min wage), or you have to tell the customer you are not taking those jobs. It is not always a win to be the boss.
Don't know. But if they weren't unemployment would probably be higher. The end result is probably those that didn't get the raises they want would either quit or find other jobs that offered more.
There's still a few things where prices have stayed the same. Costco chickens are still $5 and so are the $1.50 hot dog and drink. Car prices fluctuate on a national level but you can still go out of state and buy a used car cheaper in other states and it's not like because the minimum wage here is almost double that cost of used cars are double. And the cost of oil is about same nationally.
People need to wake up, the government is the only ones who benefit from rebasing the bottom mandated wage. The government gets the increased tax base that the increased wage produces, everyone else pays for it in the cost of the goods or services and everyone is STILL equally poor.
While I agree with you, let's keep the "G" and "T" words out of it. This is a good discussion and don't want it to get locked.
"The price of a product is based on what people are willing to pay for it." Basically true, but some products, like gasoline, are inelastic. We have to have the gas and there are no viable alternatives. Regardless of economic conditions, a prices will rise until consumption drops below an acceptable level.
"f you're budget allows you to pay 3 employees $10/hr" In this case, you have a lousy business plan. You will lose people to better paying jobs and will have to constantly retrain new employees which is costly, if you can even find them.
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Not false
https://nypost.com/2018/12/06/one-in-six-children-throughout-america-live-in-fear-of-hunger/
Here is a little more detail on the metrics used, data specific to TN
https://www.tennessean.com/story/sp...1/hunger-real-issue-1-6-tennesseans/71482498/
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There is no such thing as free market economy. It's a myth.
Yeah b/c if there was, there would be 3 places to buy goods in the U.S....Walmart, Amazon, and Costco ahahahha
This is my answer. Too broad to say $15 or $20. If you live in LA for example, 90k/year isn't a living wage.
This is not true.
The disconnect is many but by no means all of the young. BTW - there are boatloads and boatloads of successful young people. My kids are doing great, one college, one no college, the college one paid off her loans in 5 years, worked while she was in college too, no spring break for her, she worked.
Its the media that makes you think otherwise. People who think this world is hard need to turn off mass media, they only report gloom and doom or you wouldnt watch it and they would not survive.
Yes, young people can buy a house like one used to but try telling a young person to give up the iPhone, give up the big screen TV with paid TV programming, give up the air-conditioning, learn to live with a home that only has one bathroom, give up the new cars and drive a $7000 car and most of all live only in a small home with low costs.
Forget about buying furniture too, cheap BR set, Cheap Kit table, no dining room, no living room furniture until the day comes that they can buy it.
This above is EXACTLY what 10s and 10s of thousands of YOUNG people did in the 1950s. Many whom dogged bullets in WWII They had nothing, no one gave them anything, they worked hard. They bought homes with every last dime saved, didnt even have furniture to buy in some cases for years, is now one of the most affluent places in the USA, Long Island NY. From potato fields to small homes in the 1950s. That generation knew hard work or guess what? You starved.
Ahhh .. college, that is a joke and another poor excuse, look up the facts and figures of money wasted by young people who never even finish and many of the ones that do dont even go into the field they took in college. Of course college is expensive, many young have no respect for it and give colleges all the money they ask for instead of shopping around. Its a bad joke, heck listen to some youth when they call into Dave Ramsey. Spending 100k and working a 45k job when they get out.
Just yesterday I received my quarterly 45 page Midlandstech.edu Training guide with all the training and certification courses available for pennies compared to college. Dates, times, classes salaries.\THings like A+ IT techniciation, Network+, Servier+, Security+, Linux+, Cisco Certified Network associate, that in only the first page of 45, every aspect of our lives and the business world covered including entry level into the health care fields as technicians, nurses aid, every time I get this publication I am AMAZED at the fields available and the low costs.
College isnt for everyone and anyone in the USA can advance themselves with a good paying job and a home. ANYONE, its laughable to hear different. Life has never, ever been more easy for mankind than in the USA, one just has to work. Now that is a concept.
Anyone who wants a job where in a few years they can buy their own house, raise a family and not need their spouse to work, all they have to do is want to work and move to where the job is. I have it for them, right here in SC.
All they need is a High School education if that is all they are capable of. Best medical benefits in the USA, best PTO in the USA, great company but guess what? You have to want to work. Ok, this is ONE tiny example but that company is BMW in SC. Never mind Volvo or Boeing or DOZENS and dozens of supporting companies. They are on constant, NON STOP hiring frenzies.
Never mind as mentioned public service like police, fire and sanitation.
If that doesn't work you can stack paper towels in Target ro make Coffee in Starbucks for the outrageous sum of 40k a year.
Oh... and lets not forget about the largest free training/education institution in the free world. So what is the young people you speak of excuse for not taking up that offer? The US Military.
I guess I have been blessed in life, no, maybe just taught right, my parents, my siblings, my niece's, my nephews, my children, every one of them is successful in life, no matter if college or not. They all have homes and families.
The one that was in the military is now a CEO of a company and sold his six figure home, moved to another state and bought another 6 figure home because head hunters are always making him offers and this guy started out with nothing in life, nothing.
Repeat, there are many times more successful young people in this country than not but the ones that are not make the noise because they are too busy doing nothing with their lives. Please dont take my words the wrong way, I am just having a conversation my post in not meant to be argumentative at all.
One reason being is, if anyone wants a job they can message me and I will give them the BMW link or they can google it themselves, while they are at it, can google Volvo, Boeing ect... and the support industries, they are always hiring.
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I am 100% fine with that. Same with self-checkout lines at the grocery store. There is no reason for those jobs to exist when there are more efficient ways to accomplish those tasks.
In most modern societies, it is necessary to continue improving (and expanding) your professional skill-set. You need to operate with the mentality that your job will only be relevant for a few years, not decades. Roles will change or be eliminated as time goes on.
Spot on. You grow or you go; I would guess even more so in high tech.
Minimum wage should be zero dollars. Let the market drive it. Don't like the wage? Work somewhere else, or learn a skill.
I have an associates degree from a defunct college and knock down six figures annually from hard work, reliability, professional certification, and learning an in demand skill.
I have an associates degree from a defunct college and knock down six figures annually from hard work, reliability, professional certification, and learning an in demand skill.
I made a mistake in this post above and wanted to correct it because it’s a huge mistake. The paragraph from my insane long post above that says=
“The one that was in the military is now a CEO of a company and sold his six figure home, moved to another state and bought another 6 figure home because head hunters are always making him offers and this guy started out with nothing in life, nothing.”
That paragraph I need to correct and should read like this =
The one that was in the military is now a CEO of a company and sold his seven figure home, moved to another state and bought another seven figure home because head hunters are always making him offers and this guy started out with nothing in life, nothing.
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