Minimum Wage, good or bad?

[Issaiah1332]

I have heard much debate on this...I was wondering why it is so bad? What does it do to the economy?

[Sam_b]

It's only 'bad' for the neo-liberals who want to pay their workers slave wages, falsely claiming that there will be a 'trickle down' affect.

*EDIT* Though thats not to say that most minimum wages are pathetically low anyway.

[spartan]

Its funny how there is a minimum wage but not a maximum wage.

Well there is Capitalism all in one for you: There is no limit to how much the boss can make, whilst the workers are stuck with bloody shit all an hour.

[Atrus]

I think on the whole it is a good thing, meaning that everyone who is legally employed get [arguably] enough to live on, but I agree with spartan, it does somewhat underline inequality.

[jake williams]

I think it's probably a necessary band-aid, the usual with a lot of broadly "reformist" measures.


ed: About "what it does to the economy"... there're some market ideologues out there who think that if you get paid 8 cents for making several thousand pairs of $120 shoes, then you deserve 8 cents, and any distortion of that price, which because it arose out of the "market" is of course divinely anointed, is blasphemy. These people are insane. Disregard them.

[Issaiah1332]

Correct me if I am wrong, for I cannot remember where I read this...I dont believe it was marx, but it was def. a pro-communist writer. I read that it was necessary for the proletarian to get paid a certain amount, because otherwise he/she would not have the money to buy anything, except the necessities (If even that) and therefore could not perpetuate the capitalist system.

Is that a valid observation?

[Demogorgon]

Neo-Liberals will often claim it distorts the market and is inefficient. Of course the trouble with this as always is they are basing this on theoretical perfect markets. In most real world markets a minimum wage will not have much of a distorting effect so opposition is simply based on an ideological dislike of the freedom of the capitalist to impose conditions on the workforce being curtailed.

[Zurdito]

Correct me if I am wrong, for I cannot remember where I read this...I dont believe it was marx, but it was def. a pro-communist writer. I read that it was necessary for the proletarian to get paid a certain amount, because otherwise he/she would not have the money to buy anything, except the necessities (If even that) and therefore could not perpetuate the capitalist system.

Is that a valid observation?

Marx identified that as a contradiction within capitalism. Low wages and hgih prices=profits, but if that logic is followed through to its natural conclusion, no-one can afford to buy anything.

[Issaiah1332]

Marx identified that as a contradiction within capitalism. Low wages and hgih prices=profits, but if that logic is followed through to its natural conclusion, no-one can afford to buy anything.

Okay thanks. I thought that Marx said something similar, but I wasn't sure.

So, with that logic...is it, technically, in the capitalists' best interest to have a minimum wage of some sort?

[thehardestpart]

What does it matter what Marx said? "Minimum" and "maximum" wages should not exist. Minimum wage reflects how truly weak economic polices are. The trickle-down economic theories are total bullshit, they only help the rich. leaving the rest of us to fend for ourselves.

[Red_or_Dead]

Minimum wages are bullshit. Sure, they do protect the lowest classes from starving from death, but its actualy just another "gift" from the higher classes, to make the lower classes less likely to rebel.


What does it matter what Marx said? "Minimum" and "maximum" wages should not exist. Minimum wage reflects how truly weak economic polices are. The trickle-down economic theories are total bullshit, they only help the rich. leaving the rest of us to fend for ourselves.

I agree 100%. In a good system, there wouldnt be a minimum wage, because everybody who works would get what he/she deserves. I mean, today, some people work their asses off whole day long, really hard labour, stresfull, possibly dangerous... And they get just enough to survive. While somebody who spends all day on the golf course gets enough money to buy a new car every month. Crapitalism.

[Xiao Banfa]

I have heard much debate on this...I was wondering why it is so bad? What does it do to the economy?


You've got a lot to learn if you question whether the min wage is bad for the economy.

This question is not a mainstream issue in any first world country, it's news to me that they're talking about it the US.

This is looney far right shit to even contemplate getting rid of the minimum wage.

It's a line in the sand issue.

The minimum wage is a cornerstone of any developed nation wishing to have a shred of civilised decency about it.

Whenever you hear people putting forward ideas like that, you should ask them "why do your solutions only ever involve making it harder for those who are at the bottom? Why is it their responsibility?"