• overflowOP
    link
    12 years ago

    You’re right that minimum wages are sold as putting more money in people’s pockets. I can see why you would focus on that benefit, but the whole point is to make people’s lives better. If someone offered me the same amount of money for working 20% fewer hours, I would take it. Assuming minimum wage doesn’t put more money in workers’ pockets, it improves quality of life by giving back time over the status quo.

    The low income worker wants more money in their pockets not more free time it doesn’t matter if they have more free time if they still don’t have enough funds to pay for their daily needs and have some left over for luxuries that’s what would make their life benefit more money in their pockets and that’s not what minimum wage is sold as that’s literally it’s purpose.

    Again, status quo is what it is. Individuals won’t be making less money. Same money + more free time = huge black market increase?

    Did you even read what I wrote in which I clearly state that cutting hours is just a way one employer may choose to offset the minimum wage increase and that they could lay off workers instead.

    A progressive tax policy was just an example of something other than typical rich people/corporation cuts. My point is that the people publishing this article have an expressed intent to advocate for the reduction of taxes. In the US that means exactly what you’ve said - a reduction of taxes on the rich cloaked in the lie of helping everyday people keep more of their money. I brought it up as a reason to be skeptical of the conclusions they draw.

    Again if you read what I wrote you and if you read the blog posts of the author you would’ve realized that I’m advocating tax cuts for ALL income groups and that progressive taxes are at best a band aid for solving the issue of poverty and that there are much better ways to actually solve poverty.

    • @Slatlun
      link
      12 years ago

      The low income worker wants more money in their pockets not more free time

      All people want is more money? Any other benefit is not worth recognizing? This is not the world that I live in. People around me want to spend time on themselves (like looking for better work). They want to have waking hours with their families and friends. Extra time is a good thing even if it doesn’t also put more money in your pocket.

      literally it’s purpose.

      No its purpose is to make people’s lives better. The mechanism is raising hourly wages at the bottom of the pay scale. You’re conflating how with why.

      Did you even read…clearly stated…

      Yes. I have read the article and each of your replies at least twice before responding and clearly stating something doesn’t make it true or worth responding to. You (and the article) make the leap from a population study to individual consequences. It is a common problem with the interpretation of studies. I pointed my response at the the actual issue instead of rehashing how research works when applied to the real world.

      Again if you read what I wrote…

      Again, I read, waited, and re-read before responding. I want to think you’re better than resorting to making your point by claiming someone else’s ignorance, but I have two instances in the same response to tell me otherwise. I’m out.

      • overflowOP
        link
        12 years ago

        They want to have enough money to pay for their necessities and maybe even some left over for luxuries why is that so hard for you to comprehend. Look into why minimum wage was created or why anyone campaigns for it the purpose of minimum wage is to provide an amount that low income people can afford their daily needs not to give them more time off you can ask literally anyone why they want a minimum wage increase and they’ll tell you it’s that they can have more money to live a decent life and not more time off. You clearly didn’t read the part of the article where it stated because of the numerous amount of variables affecting employment there’s no sure way to accurately predict the effects of minimum wage but even in the best case scenario where there’s little to no change in the unemployment rate it still does a terrible job of it’s intended goal of poverty alleviation and that you could actually fix poverty with lowering taxes for low income earners and reducing red tape so that more businesses can easily set up shop in the state leading to job mobility, more money in low income earner pockets and lower costs of goods and costs in the state.