[Vision2020] Raising Minimum Wage Was Jerry Brady

[Donovan Arnold]

Raising the minimum wage causes inflation. That is an indisputable  fact. Raising minimum wage does not help the poor insofar as it  generating higher wages. Raising minimum wage removes many poor people  from welfare programs and low income housing qualifications, reducing  their quality of life. It hurts the elderly living on fixed incomes. It  hurts banks which then raise interest loans rates which makes it  impossible for young couples and low income to afford a mortgage on a  house, that hurts construction, and that hurts construction workers,  and all related jobs. Higher minimum wages hurts small businesses to a  greater degree than larger businesses.  
  
 Inflation does  help current home owners, farmers,  and those in debt.   Raising the minimum  wage so that it decreases a  greater  portion of poor is a myth. It doesn't magically create more money or  wealth. The only way for a person to increase his or her wealth is to  work more, develop a better skill, or invest their capital into  something that will generate wealth for them, like property or a  business that fills a public or private need. 
  
 If raising  the minimum wage decreased poverty we would just raise the minimum wage  to $50 an hour and wipe out poverty altogether. 
  
 That being  said, I am for raising the minimum wage, providing that they also lower  the qualifications for public assistance programs and low income  housing. I not for raising the minimum wage because I think it will  lift all the poor out of poverty, it won't and that is just silly  nonsense to believe that.  I am for it because I personally want  inflation. Inflation reduces my college debt. If my college debt  increases only by 2% a year, and inflation increases at a rate of 3% or  higher, my debt goes down as time goes by--thanks to inflation. The  more you raise minimum wage, the better off I am going to be on a  personal level, as will anyone in debt. But you won't raise them out of  poverty.
  
 People are better off then they were in 1959. They  just have less land and properties because there are more people and  greater demand on space. Are electronics, availability of food, medical  technology, workforce training, and inventions have made life for US  citizens much cushier then any other society in history. We got it  good. They only thing we have to complain about is traffic and the  utility companies, and that is what I going to do. 
  
  Best,
  
  _DJA
  
  
  
  
  
Andreas Schou <ophite at gmail.com> wrote:  On 8/4/06, g. crabtree  wrote:
> I'm sure this won't be the answer of our next second place governor, not to
> mention  making me no friends on this list, but the fact is no one is
> supposed to live on minimum wage. It's a starting point for youth, folks who
> desire part time employment, and people just starting up the job ladder. As
> skills and experience increase so do the wages. If a person has been working
> for an extended period someplace and is still making $5.15 they are being
> sent a very unsubtle message. Can you guess what it is? I knew you could. If
> they're incapable of rising above minimum wage on their day job, they should
> consider getting a second. It'll be doing the community a favor by keeping
> them off the streets and out of mischief. If this seems a wee bit cauld (a
> tip O' the tam o' shanter to "J. Ford") consider that it's the exact model
> used by many family's right up to and through the late 1950's.

While I hate to rain on your Ozzie and Harriet tea-party here, I'd
just like to note that, in 1959, the inflation-adjusted minimum wage
had .35 more cents per hour in purchasing power than the 2006 minium
wage. This assumes the quite conservative proposition that minimum
wage should be pegged to inflation and not, say, productivity growth.

-- ACS

=======================================================
 List services made available by First Step Internet, 
 serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.   
               http://www.fsr.net                       
          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
=======================================================


 		
---------------------------------
Why keep checking for Mail? The all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta shows you when there are new messages.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20060804/cb3e340b/attachment-0001.htm