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Top Three Myths Conservatives Use To Oppose Increasing The Minimum Wage By Pat Garofalo on Jul 26, 2012 at 2:00 pm
House Democrats have introduced a bill in the House — bound to go nowhere due to the Republican majority — that would increase the minimum wage to $10. This would give the wage the purchasing power that it had in the 1960s.
Republicans have publicly met the idea of raising the minimum wage with contempt, with Rep. Bill Young (R-FL) even nonsensically telling one constituent who asked about the Democrats’ bill to “get a job.” Meanwhile, thousands of working Americans this week rallied in favor a higher minimum wage.
Conservative opposition to a higher minimum wage hinges on a few tired arguments that ultimately protect big businesses and hurt low-income workers. Here are the favorite conservative myths when it comes to the minimum wage and why there’s really nothing to them:
1) The minimum wage kills jobs. “It’s a classic election-year ploy to make the Democrats look like they’re protecting low-income workers. I think it’s well understood that raising the minimum wage hurts workers on the lower end of the pay scale in that it does kill jobs,” said a recent statement from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. However, several academic studies have shown that raising the minimum wage does not have a negative effect on employment. In fact, an analysis of state minimum wage increases showed that those state boosting their wage “had job growth slightly above the national average.”
2) Increasing the minimum wage hurts small businesses. Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) reacted to a proposal to raise the minimum wage by saying that small business owners are “going to have to lay people off.” However, two-thirds of low-wage workers actually work for big corporations, most of which have largely recovered from the recession and could therefore afford to increase wages. The three largest employers of low-wage workers have all seen large profit increases in the last few years.
3) Increasing the minimum wage only benefits teenagers. Many Republicans argue that raising the minimum wage just hurts teenagers’ ability to gain work experience. But as a new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows, nearly 90 percent of minimum wage workers are 20 years old or older. Plus, “more than a third (35.8 percent) [of minimum wage workers] are married, and over a quarter (28.0 percent) are parents.”
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
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quote:Originally posted by raybond: Top Three Myths Conservatives Use To Oppose Increasing The Minimum Wage By Pat Garofalo on Jul 26, 2012 at 2:00 pm
House Democrats have introduced a bill in the House — bound to go nowhere due to the Republican majority — that would increase the minimum wage to $10. This would give the wage the purchasing power that it had in the 1960s.
Republicans have publicly met the idea of raising the minimum wage with contempt, with Rep. Bill Young (R-FL) even nonsensically telling one constituent who asked about the Democrats’ bill to “get a job.” Meanwhile, thousands of working Americans this week rallied in favor a higher minimum wage.
Conservative opposition to a higher minimum wage hinges on a few tired arguments that ultimately protect big businesses and hurt low-income workers. Here are the favorite conservative myths when it comes to the minimum wage and why there’s really nothing to them:
1) The minimum wage kills jobs. “It’s a classic election-year ploy to make the Democrats look like they’re protecting low-income workers. I think it’s well understood that raising the minimum wage hurts workers on the lower end of the pay scale in that it does kill jobs,” said a recent statement from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. However, several academic studies have shown that raising the minimum wage does not have a negative effect on employment. In fact, an analysis of state minimum wage increases showed that those state boosting their wage “had job growth slightly above the national average.”
2) Increasing the minimum wage hurts small businesses. Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) reacted to a proposal to raise the minimum wage by saying that small business owners are “going to have to lay people off.” However, two-thirds of low-wage workers actually work for big corporations, most of which have largely recovered from the recession and could therefore afford to increase wages. The three largest employers of low-wage workers have all seen large profit increases in the last few years.
3) Increasing the minimum wage only benefits teenagers. Many Republicans argue that raising the minimum wage just hurts teenagers’ ability to gain work experience. But as a new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows, nearly 90 percent of minimum wage workers are 20 years old or older. Plus, “more than a third (35.8 percent) [of minimum wage workers] are married, and over a quarter (28.0 percent) are parents.”
Raise the minimum wage to whatever you want, wont stop companies from moving manufacturing to China to pay far less.
Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
and it won't change the way the economy works.
this issue really is about walking in others shoes for mile or twenty.
i recently cacklacked up my energy and basic supplies, clear glass made in America (highfuel costs again)! and the colors i have to buy form the germans cuz we don't make 'em here...
it costs me almost 10$ per hour to actaully work...
this i what i pay for the "right to work" by myself at my chosen work...
this doesnot include sales marketing or paying myself.
when i look at the chinese stuff coming they are selling their stuff here wholesale for about what i pay to be able to work....
their stuff is crappy for the most part, that isn't my issue, my issue is that by putting the Chinese stuff on shelves, i have to answer questions that i find insulting, like why is mine more? forget the quality, that's bad enough to 'splain, i literally have to 'splain that i am not charging for any of my time to match their "deliverd to this country weight" prices... forget buying equipment and nice tools.....
it is the fuels costs alone that i cannot beat.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
I think $9.50 is fair an hour to raise it to. Its what Obama said he would do a few years ago.
-------------------- It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant. It's just that they know so many things that aren't so. Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
9.50 per hour is a real living wage here in the boonies...
on the other end? i knew a single mothe of two working full time in Riverside Ca (not high or low in So cali) making 18$hr was not able to get housing when i left there in 2001 and that was before the housing boom and bust... 18$ full time is about 24K to 28K per yr take home, and cash that is without paying income tax, or insurance...... HALF that would not get her a decent 2 bedroom then... it still won't now... that's the problem...
here, i could rent a 3 BR house for about 900$ and it would be nasty, and if i wanted to slum it i can get a 3 bR house for 550$ but it would be a shack.... i dunno what teh kids get paid at walmart or the fast food joints here, but it will be around 7.50$ is my guess.. that;s 12K take home,
a small lot and trailer are the cheap way to go here, you can do the whole thing for about 60,000 so at 5% you pay about 500 per month with PITI... th eproblem is trailers depreciate fast (fall apart) and i am not sure you actually can get 5% for 3oyrs on a trailer - 15yrs seems more likely to cover depreciation and the payments usually go up about 20% or so when you do that...
the scheme to make some dough her is a trailer park, much smaller lots and more trailers. i think the cost goes down to 45-50K per unit (new) and the rent you can charge is 800 per mo or so... that is usually section8 money at 800$ and these parks here get run down fast, but the rent keeps rolling in cuz taxpayers pick it up...
in some places? section 8 can go to over 2 grand a month... but that mother of two that i knew? she made too much money working as an ER Tech fulltime (18$) to qualify.. some chit huh? the 2 kids dad was known to send money on odd years maybe...
so they are still in the same boat... forget health insurance
minimum wages are not the answer....
cheap housing doesn't really work very well either...
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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"9.50 per hour is a real living wage here in the boonies...
on the other end? i knew a single mothe of two working full time in Riverside Ca (not high or low in So cali) making 18$hr was not able to get housing when i left there in 2001 and that was before the housing boom and bust... 18$ full time is about 24K to 28K per yr take home, and cash that is without paying income tax, or insurance...... HALF that would not get her a decent 2 bedroom then... it still won't now... that's the problem...
here, i could rent a 3 BR house for about 900$ and it would be nasty, and if i wanted to slum it i can get a 3 bR house for 550$ but it would be a shack.... i dunno what teh kids get paid at walmart or the fast food joints here, but it will be around 7.50$ is my guess.. that;s 12K take home,
a small lot and trailer are the cheap way to go here, you can do the whole thing for about 60,000 so at 5% you pay about 500 per month with PITI... th eproblem is trailers depreciate fast (fall apart) and i am not sure you actually can get 5% for 3oyrs on a trailer - 15yrs seems more likely to cover depreciation and the payments usually go up about 20% or so when you do that...
the scheme to make some dough her is a trailer park, much smaller lots and more trailers. i think the cost goes down to 45-50K per unit (new) and the rent you can charge is 800 per mo or so... that is usually section8 money at 800$ and these parks here get run down fast, but the rent keeps rolling in cuz taxpayers pick it up...
in some places? section 8 can go to over 2 grand a month... but that mother of two that i knew? she made too much money working as an ER Tech fulltime (18$) to qualify.. some chit huh? the 2 kids dad was known to send money on odd years maybe...
so they are still in the same boat... forget health insurance
minimum wages are not the answer....
cheap housing doesn't really work very well either..." --------------------------------------------
That's the scary part, what can fix the mess were in?
$30,000 a year should get us by but it doesn't touch much of anything anymore, unless you live in an area where everything is close and cheap... maybe China
What do we do?
Not enough jobs and not enough jobs that pay enough... bad reality
Glassman hit the nail right on the button, but it's something most do not want to admit.
Technology isn't that great especially for the workforce, but i like some of the things it's brought us.
posted
backi n 2005 when the housing boom was fulltilt forward and picking up more speed?
i was running analyses on household income versus housing prices and i could not make the numbers work.
we priced ourselves right out of homeownership.
you can't blame the govt for that, even tho the govt was strongly encouraging homeownership even among lower income people.
you should realistically be spending 25% of your available income (takehome plus whatever you makeon th eside) on your home.
i was told back in the 80's that aproval for a homeloan that cost you over 1/3 of your total income would not happen.
ARMs were available then, but if you took ARM? you did it because you expected to be in a new income bracket by the time it matured....
the CDS swaps were a form of insurance agianst loan failures, so the Loan originators began to stop worrying about the 1/3 rule... somehow the CDS "servicers' (th epeople getting paid the insurance fee to back the loans) didn't get eh message that this had happened...
what we did was create a false market for real estate. you literally cannot afford to pay more than 1/3 of your gross income on housing and live, esp when gasoline prices are not a fixed cost and are rising fast.....
we built a great nation and then we gutted it by borrwing more agaisnt it han it was really worht.
the lenders who 'dsipnse themoeny have ALWAYS been obligated to verify that they have proper collateral - that is what failed here. Housing prices were artifically inflated and the value was just no there. people can only pay what they have fo rwhat they need, and 1/3 is the top amount one can pay toward housing in htis world.
no matter how hard we try? there is nothing to be done to quickly fix that. somebody somewhere has to eat the losses acrued when we overpriced housing and then borrowed all the money we could against the false pricing..... Capitalism dictates that
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
The great progressive Republican Theodore Roosevelt said, "The monetary equivalent of a living wage varies according to local conditions, but must include enough to secure the elements of a normal standard of living--a standard high enough to make morality possible, to provide for education and recreation, to care for immature members of the family, to maintain the family during periods of sickness, and to permit of reasonable saving for old age."
-------------------- Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise. Posts: 3827 | From: beautiful California | Registered: Sep 2008
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quote:Originally posted by raybond: The great progressive Republican Theodore Roosevelt said, "The monetary equivalent of a living wage varies according to local conditions, but must include enough to secure the elements of a normal standard of living--a standard high enough to make morality possible, to provide for education and recreation, to care for immature members of the family, to maintain the family during periods of sickness, and to permit of reasonable saving for old age."
uncle teddy bear... they made a movie in the 80's about him with Brian Keith playing teddy. brian keith was an itnersting choice, he played (good caring) parent roles in a huge Disney Movie and then there was that show with him parenting his "orphaned" neice and nephew "Buffie and Jodie" that i can't remeber the name of..
Teddy was basically a decent guy- that GOP of those days is long gone... Today's GOP is more geared to lure in Archie Bunker-. sad really sad.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by raybond: The great progressive Republican Theodore Roosevelt said, "The monetary equivalent of a living wage varies according to local conditions, but must include enough to secure the elements of a normal standard of living--a standard high enough to make morality possible, to provide for education and recreation, to care for immature members of the family, to maintain the family during periods of sickness, and to permit of reasonable saving for old age."
uncle teddy bear... they made a movie in the 80's about him with Brian Keith playing teddy. brian keith was an itnersting choice, he played (good caring) parent roles in a huge Disney Movie and then there was that show with him parenting his "orphaned" neice and nephew "Buffie and Jodie" that i can't remeber the name of..
Teddy was basically a decent guy- that GOP of those days is long gone... Today's GOP is more geared to lure in Archie Bunker-. sad really sad.
Would be nice to have fiscal accountability in government right now. You know, someone who pounds the podium demanding an end to tax loopholes so everyone truly does pay their fair share.
Posts: 6949 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
cash, why don't you write a letter or two, i have written alot more than two. when you keep repeating all the slogans and propaganda all you do is reaffirm their resolve to keep doing what they've been doing. the tax laws weren't even written by congresspersons, they were written by lobbyists and then voted on by congress.
there is plenty of stuff that Obama has not done, and then there's plenty he's not done well, but most of the stuff you and the GOP have complained about isn't even "that stuff"- like projecting unemployment would not go over 8% when the whole unemployment thing was not his fault and did not happen under his policy and then the stimulus was done by him and the states used their money mostly to keep from firing their own work force (until it ran out) and 40% of the stimulus was direct tax cuts too... i mean that's not from democratic policy, or a screwup by Obama. that's just how bad it was when he got in.
but when everybody "just goes along" with the "party line"? nothing gets fixed.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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and the colors i have to buy form the germans cuz we don't make 'em here...![[Wink]](wink.gif)
