Topic: Would killing the minimum wage help? - page 11. (Read 10732 times)

There's two reasons we should get rid of minimum wage. One is moral, the other is economic.

Moral:

If two consenting adults want to have sex, beat each other with whips or pour candle wax on each other, that's their business. If it's a voluntary act between two consenting adults, we should allow it to happen and no third parties have the right to interfere with them. This applies to minimum wage too. If one person wants to pay another person less than minimum wage, that's between them and we have no right to interfere as long as it's voluntary.

Economic:

Let's say that all I can do is make widgets. I can make 1 widget per hour and these widgets can be sold for $5. Therefore, my labor is worth $5 an hour. What happens when there's a law that says I can't be paid less than $7 an hour? I can't get a job. No one is going to hire me and take a loss of $2 an hour. Minimum wage laws aren't going to raise my wages. Minimum wage laws are going to keep me unemployed. If I want to work for $5 an hour and I'm forced by law not to then the law is making me worse off because I preferred to work rather than get nothing, or welfare. A family of three on welfare receives the equivalent of about a $3 an hour job. I could earn more money and be a productive member of society without minimum wage laws.

I guess I should had been more clear. If the more 'skilled' workers applied for a job which normally people with GED would apply for, who would you hire? One with a degree or a GED? Now the only way they would get hired is if they where paid less then the minimum, but mainly, it may help bring back business that has been sent overseas.

It sounds like you're saying that a reduction or elimination of the minimum wage is what is keeping skilled workers unemployed. Last time I checked, skilled workers who are typically paid anywhere between $20 and $100 an hour are not affected by the minimum wage.

Republican Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann quoted "Literally, if we took away the minimum wage-if conceivably it was gone-we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level."

We hear about and see in our own personal lives where people who once high paying and respectable jobs are now working in at fast food restaurants and retail clothing stores.

I do like having a minimum wage, since it helps protect the lower income class. However, considering how the economy is now and seeing many jobs being offered offshore, removing the min. wage law may actually help keep jobs within the states.

And wasn't one of the top causes of The Great Depression had to do with Herbert Hoover keeping wages from decreasing which ultimately lead to extremely high unemployment rate?

What are your thoughts on this?