RE: Minimum Wage Economics and the Debate for Humanity
How about inflation...the hidden tax?! We have a currency created out of thin air by the Federal Reserve (nothing federal about them) that the government borrows on interest. Each year the inflation eats into your purchasing power causing prices to increase all around. Look at the value of the dollar today compared to 1913 when the Federal Reserve was put into power. On top of that add wasteful spending by the government and wars (pure rackets for powerful individuals) to further weaken the dollar. We live in a society that encourages spending and debt, and punishes the saver via inflation and low interest earned on safe investments. We are left with no choice but to increase minimum wage just to help people get by, instead we should be examining the root of the problem causing all of this.
This is very true! I agree that people should be paid a fair wage for a hard days work. I am a small business owner who has employed people in the past. It's a very tough environment. I have never paid anyone other than myself the minimum wage always better. However the mandated inflation caused by government policy is what is making the minimum wage so useless. If you force a minimum wage increase the government is gaurenteeing themselves more tax revenue as well. Employers have many things tied to the wage they pay. FICA taxes are a hefty 6.23% of the wage workers compensation is a percentage of the wage. In my case it is almost 3% and then things like 401k and other business insurance is tied as percentages of wages. That means a simple minimum wage increase also costs employers much more than the actual wage increase.
If we fired the politicians and forced the monetary supply to be fixed so that the people closest to the inflation don't get an unfair advantage over Main Street that would be a good thing for everyday workers.
That being said I do believe there are jobs that shouldn't exist if they can't pay at least a fair wage. I don't know what that wage floor should be. I don't believe in the supposed free market principle of eliminating the minimum wage entirely because then there would be too many people in society that would be forced to work for ever diminishing wages as business owners pocket more and more at the expense of their workers. That leads to more crime and civil unrest as @calaber24p pointed out in the post.