Effects of the new minimum wage

[wopphil]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasdelbeccaro/2016/04/06/california-farmers-minimum-wage/#161975f87f9e

This is a great article. It briefly explains just how terrible leftist policies are for the economy (and the low class worker the left purports to want to help). There can be no doubt that the left is the party responsible for the growing divide between rich and poor.

The right might be evil, but the left is just downright brain dead. I honestly don't know which is worse. And I am not convinced the left isn't every bit as evil as the right - everything the left does is just as much for the votes.

Do any of you intelligent lefties on here (Red, Kurt, and I am sure there are one or two others) take exception with your party's position on minimum wage, environmental regulations, taxes, etc?

[Blarg]

What it really does is devaulate the dollar for fixed income elderly.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

The author lost me when he wrote the phrase "rakes its havoc on jobs" when he meant "wreaks its havoc on jobs". People who use a wrong like-sounding word drive me nuts.

 

Increasing the minimum wage is not a panacea. It threatens to drive some small businesses out of the marketplace. Probably not an insignificant number of medium-sized ones, either.

 

For the record, I was once a member of SEIU, and I left it because I did not agree with many of their policies, nor with their approach to negotiations. It seemed that our union leaders wanted to go in with guns blazing and immediately start making threats to agency leaders who were willing to listen - at least before the threatening started. There is a time to go on the offensive, but at the onset of talks isn't it. It also seemed lost on these people that as public employees, we don't have the right to strike, so one of their biggest hammers in other negotiations was completely neutralized in this setting. They didn't let this prevent them from failing to adjust.

Edited April 8, 2016 by Vegas Halo Fan

[Tank]

all the people clamoring for a raise in the minimum are getting what they want, but how effective is this going to be given that it's being spaced out over 5 or 6 years? next year it goes up to 11, then a year later it's 12, then a year later . . . that's not exactly what they were hoping for, i'd guess.

 

and also this: will prices creep upward incrementally to keep pace with the wage increase, stay stagnant, or go down? i think there's going to be a zero sum gain on this one.

[DowningRules]

I don't understand why people with minimum wage jobs have an expectation that they should be able to raise families or live in expensive cities with minimum wage jobs. This is a fairly new concept and became inevitable when we turned a blind eye to the import of the mostly uneducated or those who arrived without a trade. Now, we are raising the minimum wage to, in effect, subsidize jobs which will at some point be priced to extinction and taken over by robots and scanners.

[Brandon]

Just to play devils advocate, they said the same thing about Obamacare and that businesses would close, people lose jobs, costs would rise, etc.

[ABC]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasdelbeccaro/2016/04/06/california-farmers-minimum-wage/#161975f87f9e

This is a great article. It briefly explains just how terrible leftist policies are for the economy (and the low class worker the left purports to want to help). There can be no doubt that the left is the party responsible for the growing divide between rich and poor.

The right might be evil, but the left is just downright brain dead. I honestly don't know which is worse. And I am not convinced the left isn't every bit as evil as the right - everything the left does is just as much for the votes.

Do any of you intelligent lefties on here (Red, Kurt, and I am sure there are one or two others) take exception with your party's position on minimum wage, environmental regulations, taxes, etc?

 

Min wage - not sure

Enviro regs - no

Taxes - yes

[Rico]

Wasn't there a post the other day about middle eastern companies buying up farmland in California for millions?  Somehow I think these farms will be ok.  Meanwhile the guys actually working the fields get a little more spending power.

[Angelsjunky]

I guess great articles trump excellent ones.

[Adam]

Phil, you forgot the most important effect:

 

 

Progress

[Angelsjunky]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasdelbeccaro/2016/04/06/california-farmers-minimum-wage/#161975f87f9e

This is a great article. It briefly explains just how terrible leftist policies are for the economy (and the low class worker the left purports to want to help). There can be no doubt that the left is the party responsible for the growing divide between rich and poor.

The right might be evil, but the left is just downright brain dead. I honestly don't know which is worse. And I am not convinced the left isn't every bit as evil as the right - everything the left does is just as much for the votes.

Do any of you intelligent lefties on here (Red, Kurt, and I am sure there are one or two others) take exception with your party's position on minimum wage, environmental regulations, taxes, etc?

 

I've already said that I take issue with minimum wage, or at least question it, although I guess I'm not an "intelligent leftie."

 

That said, I broadly support it, I just think it should be implemented intelligently. Bernie's plan is by 2020. I'd also like to see local adjustments and for small businesses.

[Angelsjunky]

I'd also point out the basic fallacy that just because there are problems in some instances of raising the minimum wage, it doesn't mean it should be written off wholesale. If companies lay people off because the minimum wage is increased, but at the same time protect their profit margins and shareholders, I don't think we've got a larger problem. Maybe some of those profits can be funneled to the bottom. "Trickle down" doesn't mean, or shouldn't mean, "cool, we can hire more people and pay them shit." It should mean, "cool, we can pay our workers a better wage."

 

There are plenty of companies that follow the model of spreading profit around. Take the Alvarado St Bakery, for instance, which in my view is a model business that others should be trying to emulate. The average worker makes $65,000+ a year, including profit sharing.

[Schildog]

What it really does is devaulate the dollar for fixed income elderly.

 

source?

[Amazing Larry]

source?

 

Reality.

[Schildog]

Reality.

 

how? it probably doesn't have much effect on inflation. 

[Amazing Larry]

how? it probably doesn't have much effect on inflation. 

 

You mean to say that adding $5/hour to the base wage in states like California and New York won't add to the costs of production? If I have to pay someone on my widget assembly line 50% more than what I was paying him a couple years ago I'm going to raise the prices of my widgets.

[Amazing Larry]

From the man who brought us the bullet train:

 

"Economically, minimum wages may not make sense. But morally, socially, and politically they make every sense because it binds the community together to make sure parents can take care of their kids." - Jerry Brown

 

[Jay]

Yeah, who cares about economics, let's just make everyone feel good.

[Schildog]

You mean to say that adding $5/hour to the base wage in states like California and New York won't add to the costs of production? If I have to pay someone on my widget assembly line 50% more than what I was paying him a couple years ago I'm going to raise the prices of my widgets.

 

most manufacturing jobs in the united states pay more than $10 an hour. all that raw material shit is outsourced. 

[Amazing Larry]

most manufacturing jobs in the united states pay more than $10 an hour. all that raw material shit is outsourced. 

 

The same concept could apply to any industry. I don't see us outsourcing servers and busboys anytime soon.

[Lou]

Just to play devils advocate, they said the same thing about Obamacare and that businesses would close, people lose jobs, costs would rise, etc.

They have.

[halobob]

I'd also point out the basic fallacy that just because there are problems in some instances of raising the minimum wage, it doesn't mean it should be written off wholesale. If companies lay people off because the minimum wage is increased, but at the same time protect their profit margins and shareholders, I don't think we've got a larger problem. Maybe some of those profits can be funneled to the bottom. "Trickle down" doesn't mean, or shouldn't mean, "cool, we can hire more people and pay them shit." It should mean, "cool, we can pay our workers a better wage."

 

There are plenty of companies that follow the model of spreading profit around. Take the Alvarado St Bakery, for instance, which in my view is a model business that others should be trying to emulate. The average worker makes $65,000+ a year, including profit sharing.

Where do u see that the average worker makes 65K?  Profit sharing is a great way to fund retirement accounts for your employees as well as give them an incentive to work hard for your company.  

[Schildog]

how much of the population is making minimum wage? it can't be that high. it's effect on inflation will be low. inflation is what effects fixed income. 

[ten ocho recon scout]

From the man who brought us the bullet train:

"Economically, minimum wages may not make sense. But morally, socially, and politically they make every sense because it binds the community together to make sure parents can take care of their kids." - Jerry Brown

The simple jack portrait will probably never be used better than right there

[wopphil]

In California, it isn't one thing in particular that hurts, it is all the things combined.

High minimum wage? Check.

Absurd and excessive environmental regulations? Check.

High workers' comp premiums? Check.

Employment laws that are making attorneys rich and killing business? Check.

Viewing business as the enemy to be fought with every step of the way? Check.

No policies that provide for a tip credit toward the minimum wage? Check.

No geographical distinctions for minimum wages? Check.

And brain-dead liberals who think we aren't going far enough with the insanity? Check (in spades, for that matter).