Latest posts

Forum Statistics

Threads
27,575
Posts
541,621
Members
28,555
Latest Member
pbtom
What's New?

Economics: minimum wage

Swiper

Swiper

VIP Member
Jan 8, 2011
1,588
1,539

besides the fact that the federal government has no authority to establish a minimum wage, this guy is out of his mind.

there should be no federal minimum wage. The free market should set wages. the fed government has no authority and shouldn’t be in the business of deciding peoples wages. I believe your wages should be negotiated between you and your employer.

what say you?
 
matthewk04

matthewk04

VIP Member
Jul 21, 2013
727
277
We don’t have anything resembling a free market so that renders the other points of the argument moot. They literally closed the stock market a few weeks ago because the wrong people were buying stocks. The free-market is a fantasy.
 
tommyguns2

tommyguns2

Senior Moderators
Staff Member
Dec 25, 2010
6,311
4,997
The real minimum wage is $0. That's when you don't have a job, and with no job skills your ability to enter the job market and be sufficiently productive to justify $15/hour is minimal.

While a raise in the minimum wage has an emotional draw to it, it really hurts entry level workers looking to land their first job. Those people don't have any job skills yet, but that first job is often the kid to them developing those skills and moving up the ladder.

As the minimum wage continues to increase, you'll see the rate of automation of those entry level jobs increase as well. It's entirely possible that we'll see a fully automated fast food restaurant manned solely by IT/robot repair people within 10 years if the minimum wage gets out of hand.
 
matthewk04

matthewk04

VIP Member
Jul 21, 2013
727
277
The real minimum wage is $0. That's when you don't have a job, and with no job skills your ability to enter the job market and be sufficiently productive to justify $15/hour is minimal.

While a raise in the minimum wage has an emotional draw to it, it really hurts entry level workers looking to land their first job. Those people don't have any job skills yet, but that first job is often the kid to them developing those skills and moving up the ladder.

As the minimum wage continues to increase, you'll see the rate of automation of those entry level jobs increase as well. It's entirely possible that we'll see a fully automated fast food restaurant manned solely by IT/robot repair people within 10 years if the minimum wage gets out of hand.

Continue to increase the federal minimum wage has been the same for going on 13 years.
 
DungeonDweller

DungeonDweller

VIP Member
Mar 21, 2017
1,533
1,332
It's entirely possible that we'll see a fully automated fast food restaurant manned solely by IT/robot repair people within 10 years if the minimum wage gets out of hand.
If fast food burger joints are forced to pay $15/hr robots may just become a cheaper alternative. Besides the fact robots won't call in sick every time their girlfriend dumps them or a buddy invites them to a kegger.

I was explaining profit margins of fast food restaurants to some fartknocker on FB and how they can't afford to pay more than they pay and he told me "we don't need fast food anyway, its bad for you". So... we are raising minimum wage to improve our diets? Or just to control people in general? I didn't ask what he was really getting at. We've already lost so much freedom this last year it makes me ill.
 
Bigtex

Bigtex

VIP Member
Aug 14, 2012
1,107
1,636
All of the big corporate stores here are already preparing for the $15 minimum wage. WalMart for instance got rid of all of their cashiers and have totally gone self checkout. Burger places have kiosks. Home Depot and Lowers are transitioning to self checkout. What is going to happen is all of these no skilled entry level jobs will be no more. Lots of young people will have a hard time getting jobs.
 
B

Bilter

VIP Member
Jun 7, 2011
241
317
the giants, Walmart, Amazon others are pushing an increase in min wage.. why? to completely destroy the competition that they have from small local vendors. As stated above, automation will replace many first job opportunities that currently exist, they will also replace more repetitive jobs that occur in industry. One robot can perform the work of 10 employees without a need to pay benefits, overtime, covering for call ins etc. All you need is a few techs to service and program.. The majority of Americans are too dumb to know what it coming.
 
midevil

midevil

TID Board Of Directors
Jan 20, 2011
1,575
1,243
Also, 15 an hour would increase costs for goods and services. What good is it to double low paying jobs wages when inflation will nullify the income gained?
 
woodswise

woodswise

TID Board Of Directors
Apr 29, 2012
4,334
1,340
Like most issues, there are good arguments on both sides of whether to raise the minimum wage. I worry about mom and pop businesses. But I'd like to see workers able to make enough money to live.

The federal government has authority under the commerce clause of the constitution and has set the minimum wage for a long time. If that were unconstitutional, we would have known that a long time ago.

Robots are coming regardless of the minimum wage, and as pointed out, maybe faster due to increases in the minimum wage. But robots will take more than just minimum wage jobs. In another 10 years you'll see automation of almost every profession, and in 40 years, robots will do most of the work. A much bigger problem than whether to raise the minimum wage. If you want to rebell about something, that's something that will probably be worth rebelling over.
 
Who is viewing this thread?

There are currently 0 members watching this topic

Top