Nearly all of those would be horrible. And it's so obviously bad, it's hard to believe you would even post something like this. Worse yet, the damage of most of these would be compounded by the others.
So let's triple the cost of labor, with a insanely high minimum wage.
Then let's eliminate tax deductions, write offs, write-downs, thus drastically increasing cost on business.
Then let's lower prices.
Then let's force the sell off of all off-shore investments, thus eliminating that source of revenue for our companies.
So costs to business go up. Taxes on business go up. Revenue from goods sold goes down. Revenue from off-shore investments go down.
Do you know what happens next? Half the business throughout the country go bankrupt. Hundred million people or so, end up unemployed. The US sinks to 3rd world status in a matter of years.
Bad plan. Stupid plan. Need to learn some economics, and then rethink your entire position.
I agree, however I support an increase in the minimum wage. The better approach to minimum wage is to pass a moderate raise and then index it to inflation. 10 states are doing this now. The advantages should be obvious.
It provides business with a planning a tool. As it is now, businesses are guessing each year what the legislature will do with minimum wage next year and how it will effect them.
Minimum wage is a political football in about 40 state legislatures as well as congress. We waste too much time and effort fighting the same battle over and over. Better to set it to a reasonable amount, index it, and move on.
Back in 2009, Greece was projected by both their own economists, and the World Bank (if I remember right), that their unemployment would go down.
At that time, they also decided to increase their minimum wage, and index it to inflation.
At that time, I predicted openly, on a different forum than this, that not only would unemployment in Greece not go down, but it would actually reverse, and go higher than ever before.
Not only did unemployment go up, but so did inflation, and the entire economy suffered.... so badly that in 2012 they drafted a complete reversal of their policy, cutting the minimum wage.
Greece Draft Cuts Minimum Wage 20% - Bloomberg
The problem with all the minimum wage arguments, goes back to the fundamental basis of all business. The difference between the cost of production, and the value of production.
The value of labor, doesn't generally change. A burger at Wendy's is not worth more to me the customer, just because you want to pay the burger flipper $20/hr. The end result is either that the employee will be replaced with a machine, or the business will close.
Similarly, if I want to have someone mow my lawn, there is some point where the cost of having that done, exceeds the value of having it done. If someone offer's to mow my lawn for $30, that might be worth it. But if the government steps in, and says by decree, that I must pay $100 per mow, that would not be worth it. I could buy my own mower, and a years worth of fuel, for the cost of one mow.
In fact, for a $100 a mow, twice a month, I could instead buy a lawnbot, and have the robot replace the worker, and still not have to mow my lawn myself.
The value of the labor doesn't change. What changes is the price. When the price exceeds the value, you end up with people unemployed, and possibly replaced by machines.
McDonald's France...
McDonald's hires 7,000 touch-screen cashiers | Crave - CNET
over 7,000 cashiers, replaced by kiosks. In a country, that has a 26% unemployment rate.
Plenty of labor. If they could pay a wage comparative to the value of the labor, those 7,000 people would have jobs. But because of government laws and regulations, the cost of labor is too high, and thus they are replaced by machine.
There is a reason that McDonald's built that 100% automated store in California. They can see this coming.
So back to the main point. Raising the minimum wage kills jobs. Always has, always will. There is no economic benefit. Simply does not exist.
