Wyatt earp
Diamond Member
- Apr 21, 2012
- 69,975
- 16,401
- 2,180
- Thread starter
- #21
People making $15 an hour today won't make $30 tomorrow they will lose purchasing power. Instead of making twice the minimum wage they will make a few dollars more, and that's just socialism when 40% of the workers make around minimum wageThe increase proposed is reasonable. It is to be phased in, so it will not reach $15 until 2025, after Covid is gone. It will help a huge section of low paid workers and their families. Workers living partly on tips now have a $2.13 minimum wage and this will also be increased gradually. The big cheap-labor-employing companies like Walmart and McDonalds can easily afford this, but they will not necessarily find it easy to raise prices. Many other companies will also gradually raise wages just to keep their employees (who are now paid at or above a $15 minimum) and to maintain an appropriate “ladder” of wages. There will be some negative features for small businesses and some minimum job losses, as from automation — which is increasing in any case. Everything I’ve studied tells me this sort of increase is overall worthwhile and overdue, though of course not a panacea.
Finally, this is now a popular idea ... even in red states. Working-class populism is likely to help carry this through Congress, or at least make something like it possible. Other more direct government economic assistance to poor and working people is also now called for.