RoyalOrleans Posted July 26, 2009 Posted July 26, 2009 Friday, the federal minimum wage was set to increase to $7.25. Just what our economy needs to get things moving again, right? Wrong. Even people educated in government schools can figure out how this one is going to turn out. Wages increase. Employers have to figure out ways to get the extra funds. The first way would be to increase the amount of cash coming in. That's easier said than done .. especially considering this economy. Another way could be to scale back employee hours. Suddenly that increase doesn't seem to matter much, because your employer needs you less --- or you could simply fire people! Get rid of them! Less employees in the work force means longer lines at the unemployed office. I'm not just blowing smoke here. When I was in high school I got a job bagging groceries at the Winn Dixie on Washington Ave. in Gainesville, Georgia. I was being paid the minimum wage. After a few months on the job the minimum wage went up by 25 cents. The manager of the store fired me. He said that the increase in the minimum wage increased his bag boy budget over the limit, and since I was the last hired I would be the one who had to go. My first real brush with the idiocy of government intervention in the marketplace. I was willing to work for the hourly rate I was getting, and the manager was willing to pay me that rate ... but the government said no. Back then I just couldn't understand what role the government had in the wage negotiations between me and my employer. I thought that the government's responsibility would be to provide the means of forcing compliance with whatever agreement we made .... But did I ever have a lot to learn. Basically what you can expect is for this to prolong the economic recovery. But it could get even worse. Did you know that one of Barack Obama's campaign promises was to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2011? Yeah, that'll really work wonders for our economy. But advocates for the minimum wage increases love to use this phrase "the working poor." I'm sorry, folks but nobody in their right mind should expect for you to raise a family earning minimum wage. If you do, you are a low-life. You are a failure. "The working poor" is just a fancy way of masking that reality. But with this minimum wage increase, it looks like we are going to have less "working poor" people to worry about and more plain 'po people. Probably good news for the Democrats. 1 Quote To be the Man, you've got to beat the Man. - Ric Flair Everybody knows I'm known for dropping science.
hugo Posted July 26, 2009 Posted July 26, 2009 Oh, Obama, won't you give me a Mercedes-Benz. Quote The power to do good is also the power to do harm. - Milton Friedman "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." - James Madison
RoyalOrleans Posted July 26, 2009 Author Posted July 26, 2009 I can't remember what the minimum wage was back in 1985, but I do remember being close to a ladies only gym. Hot bodied women would come and go, in their little "go to the gym" clothes. It was more than a fifteen year old boy could handle. I would've worked for free. Quote To be the Man, you've got to beat the Man. - Ric Flair Everybody knows I'm known for dropping science.
ImWithStupid Posted July 26, 2009 Posted July 26, 2009 Minimum wage is a tool that politicians, from both sides, use to say, "look at us, we care for the little guy". It was never meant to set a living wage. If it wasn't a political tool, they would peg minimum wage rates to inflation, like they did social(ist) security. Quote
phreakwars Posted July 26, 2009 Posted July 26, 2009 Obama raised minimum wage? Since when? . . Quote https://www.facebook.com/phreakwars
ImWithStupid Posted July 26, 2009 Posted July 26, 2009 Obama raised minimum wage? Since when? . . Who said that? Quote
phreakwars Posted July 26, 2009 Posted July 26, 2009 That's what Hugo was implying. . . Quote https://www.facebook.com/phreakwars
ImWithStupid Posted July 26, 2009 Posted July 26, 2009 That's what Hugo was implying. . . I took it as an exaggerated reference to his campaign promise. Quote
hugo Posted July 26, 2009 Posted July 26, 2009 My comment is just a comment on the general attitude on many Americans who want to gain from government what they will not achieve on their own. The minimum wage needs to be abolished. Of course, from the article: A further wage increase could eventually become a reality: One of President Barack Obama's campaign promises included raising the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour by 2011. Can you imagine paying a bunch of zit faced kids in a pizza parlor $9.50 an hour. Quote The power to do good is also the power to do harm. - Milton Friedman "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." - James Madison
phreakwars Posted July 26, 2009 Posted July 26, 2009 Actually, no I couldn't. In fact, the last raise from last year kinda killed us a bit and was part of the reason we closed down. I know the owner really really wasn't looking forward to having to pay $7.25 an hour. $9.50 an hour would be a disaster, but then again, alot of places like Burger King & McDonalds actually do start at somewhere around $9.00 an hour, doesn't do any good for the smaller franchise owners who aren't getting corporate backing to run. I guess it would be OK if your sales were decent, you could absorb the cost, but right now the way things are, people don't go out to eat as much, it's gonna hit alot of places, not just fast food. I also believe minimum wage should be abolished, but then shiit, at $7.25 an hour, your looking at $15,080 gross before taxes. Before that it was $6.90 which gave you $14,352 gross. Not very easy to live off that if your NOT a pimple faced teen living at home. It's a rough deal any way you look at it. . . Quote https://www.facebook.com/phreakwars
Ahhlee Posted July 26, 2009 Posted July 26, 2009 OMG...this minimum wage hike has been a bitch! Thank God for the oil boom up here that has brought me more business, otherwise I would have been totally screwed. I've had no choice but to increase my prices steadily over the last three years. I'm in a rural area so my delivery companies slap me with an extra "fuel charge". My products are costing me more because my wholesalers are trying to compensate for the bad economy, too. AND to top it all off, I have to pay my employees big bucks to come in and do their summer job. Do you know how disgusting it is to have to pay an unskilled kid $7.25/hr? Then I have to listen to the locals bitch about the prices because the majority of the people here are cheap asses and expect to pay the same now for an ice cream cone as they did in 1955. I also agree with RO....if you are content to raise a family on a minimum wage salary, there is something wrong with you. Personally, I would want better for...and do better by...my children. Quote
ImWithStupid Posted July 26, 2009 Posted July 26, 2009 I've had no choice but to increase my prices steadily over the last three years. I'm in a rural area so my delivery companies slap me with an extra "fuel charge". My products are costing me more because my wholesalers are trying to compensate for the bad economy, too. AND to top it all off, I have to pay my employees big bucks to come in and do their summer job. Wait until you have to provide health care or be penalized, and have to pay the increased energy costs after tax and cap drives up the price of electricity/natural gas and everything else you buy. Might want to sell out fast. Quote
Ahhlee Posted July 26, 2009 Posted July 26, 2009 Wait until you have to provide health care or be penalized, and have to pay the increased energy costs after tax and cap drives up the price of electricity/natural gas and everything else you buy. Might want to sell out fast. I am, honey....I am! Well...I'm trying to, anyway. My house is already a done deal. Now if I could just unload the business, I'd be golden! Quote
Old Salt Posted July 26, 2009 Posted July 26, 2009 Hush, IWS. Don't want to give any prospective purchasers a clue as to what they have in store. Quote
timesjoke Posted July 27, 2009 Posted July 27, 2009 You can't raise the minimum wage, not really. Sure you can change the number being talked about but our economy is based on the lowest common denominator and that is set by the least desirable segment of our workforce. The percentage of their income used for basic survival will still be the same once the prices rebalance. We saw basic goods and services increase in price over the last year to balance the other increase and this will happen again. What really happens when we have a minimum wage increase is the rest of us who do not work for minimum wage all take a pay cut. 1 Quote
RoyalOrleans Posted July 27, 2009 Author Posted July 27, 2009 The biggest issue with minimum wage is the fact that it INCREASES the number of poor people while driving up the costs of goods. Let me explain - Let's say that you have 3 classes of workers, and they make $5, $7.50, and $10 per hour. Let's say that the minimum wage is $5. So, providing for an even distribution 1/3 of the population makes minimum wage, 1/3 makes within $2.50 of minwage and 1/3 makes 2x minimum wage. If poverty is defined as anybody making minimum wage then you have 1/3 of the population in poverty. Now, here comes the genius' in congress. Let's raise the minimum wage by $2.50! Then we won't have anybody in poverty any more! We're here for the little cokksuckers who toil so hard and have little to show for it! We'll be re-elected for sure! However, if poverty is still defined as the number of people making minimum wage - you now have the 1/3 of people that made $5 to begin with and andother 1/3 that made $7.50 before - all making $7.50 now. So now, you have 2/3 of the population making minwage and living in poverty! This is the brilliant math of a career politician at work. Let's also talk about costs. I actually had a professor (who didn't teach economics - thank God) who once said that raising the minimum wage does not cause inflation! That's insane too! Wages are a cost of doing business, just like a raw material. If the cost of anything goes up (buns, lettuce, wages, burgers, special sauce - whatever) McDonalds has to raise the price of the Big Mac to make a profit. That is a base, rudimentary explantion of inflation. 1 Quote To be the Man, you've got to beat the Man. - Ric Flair Everybody knows I'm known for dropping science.
RoyalOrleans Posted July 27, 2009 Author Posted July 27, 2009 Pretty soon a Big Mac Value Meal without an apple fukken pie will be $8-10 each! Ohhh... you want pie with that? Sorry no pie for you! Come back, two year! [attach=full]2448[/attach] Quote To be the Man, you've got to beat the Man. - Ric Flair Everybody knows I'm known for dropping science.
timesjoke Posted July 28, 2009 Posted July 28, 2009 Let's also talk about costs. I actually had a professor (who didn't teach economics - thank God) who once said that raising the minimum wage does not cause inflation! That's insane too! Wages are a cost of doing business, just like a raw material. If the cost of anything goes up (buns, lettuce, wages, burgers, special sauce - whatever) McDonalds has to raise the price of the Big Mac to make a profit. That is a base, rudimentary explantion of inflation. I completely agree, but I just want to be sure we mention taxes in these discussions of late because as we raise taxes, and we raise other costs of doing business like the minimum wage, that means all prices go up and the poor pay those increased prices too, not just the "rich". Quote
hugo Posted July 29, 2009 Posted July 29, 2009 I completely agree, but I just want to be sure we mention taxes in these discussions of late because as we raise taxes, and we raise other costs of doing business like the minimum wage, that means all prices go up and the poor pay those increased prices too, not just the "rich". Yes, under the progressive income tax inflation raises taxes faster than the inflation rate. Quote The power to do good is also the power to do harm. - Milton Friedman "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." - James Madison
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