You know how cities like Los Angeles have hundreds of apartment buildings that have dozens of Mexicans crammed into a one bedroom, like literally 12 people sleeping all over the place, because theyre willing to work below minimum wage? If you think thats a good way for Americans to be living then lets get rid of minomum wage. Because thats what happens.
The Market, left totally unchecked, filters all the money to a very select group of people (that doesnt include you or me either). This isnt a mystery either. In england, france, rome, everywhere thats had this system the result is a massive peasant class and a small aristocracy. No thank you.
The idea of the US as a meritocracy is also a myth. I type this sitting at one of my best friends houses, who lives off money that was earned by a relative in the 1800s whose name he doesnt ever remember without calling his grandmother and asking. No one in his family has worked in over 5 generations.
Then let's make the minimum wage $50/hour. That will make everyone rich!
Won't raising the minimum wage simply cause more businesses to hire people and pay them under the table for less? If Mexicans are working for less than $7.35/hr, won't they continue to work for less than $15/hr? Not sure how the minimum wage helps that.
Meritocracy works pretty well in the U.S., IMO. Trust fund babies exist, but they aren't causing the plight of the poor people. In the poor neighborhoods in my area, they are wracked with dysfunction. My wife taught second grade in the hood. In her class of 22 students, 2 of them had fathers who were in the picture. Whether you're black, white, yellow, or whatever, growing up without your mom and dad screws you over. Get rid of racism, sexism, and every other kind of "ism", and if people continue to live destructive lifestyles, they're screwed.
Take the trust fund baby's money away, and he'll be screwed, but it won't help the poor. The poor will continue to live destructively, and the trust fund baby will no longer be spending or investing his money, which at least made capital available for new businesses or kept people employed at the businesses he frequented.
Here's my biggest problem with the minimum wage. Young people (ages 14-19) have very few job skills (yet). Consequently, paying them a decent wage makes little sense because initially they're adding very little value. However, after 3-6 months on the job, they've learned quite a bit, and can actually contribute to whatever business they're at. Typically, these employees slowly get pay increases. More importantly, they now have job skills that allow them to leave the low pay jobs and take a position that utilizes their skills at a higher wage. Consequently, the minimum wage jobs shouldn't be "career" jobs, but instead jobs that give low skill workers a chance to enter the job market.
If we raise the minimum wage too much, we've created a massive incentive for businesses to automate the low wage positions, thus greatly diminishing the ability of young people to enter the job market. I think we're going to see, over time, a gradual increase in youth unemployment, which cascades further into their careers. I understand the "good intentions" of the minimum wage, but it's consequences are not very compassionate in helping the people they're intended to help.