How do you know what I'm saying when I haven't even said anything yet?
Because I'm a dragon.
Though it is nice to see you be honest and admit you weren't actually saying anything with your posts, before. Therefor it is quite asinine of you to adjust the tone of your posts to imply there was some kind of meaning to be missed.
I'm concerned with the 4% because those are the people going to college(Ages 16-25). They're earning minimum wage when college tuition prices are raising. See the problem? We're creating a bigger problem than just we can't afford to live. People can't afford their education.
The reason people go to college is to become certified in knowledge and procedures that typically make higher earnings.
That said, much of this is also due to poor choices on behalf of students due to an improper social focus upon college education. Most of the people in college have absolutely no business being there. More on that in a minute.
People don't get jobs right out of college. People fall deeper into debt still working those bs minimum wage jobs. People then fall into the same category as the 20.6 million who aren't quite making the federal minimum wage(Which is where the 4% comes from), but are making near their state minimum wage.
4% is a small number and your scenario would logically lead to a far higher percentage.
Further, what you describe is a
job opportunity problem more so than it is a
wage problem.
The problem is that different jobs have different values to society. Just about anyone who can physically work a shovel can dig a ditch. I can, also, train just about anyone to put together sandwiches on a fast food line. Now - some people may not have the motivation or the personality to work that kind of job to the degree I need that job worked - but virtually anyone can do those jobs provided they are willing to follow a few simple instructions and put some pep in their step and truffle to their shuffle.
So, how much do you think that position is worth?
Obviously, if I'm someone who works on that line - I'd be more than happy to agree that it's worth a trillion dollars a second. I should have to wear a hard hat because of all the gold falling out of the ceiling because I'm there and I washed a dish or put together a sandwich.
But let's get back to reality. I don't get to set the prices. Not even the company truly gets to set the prices. The company would love it if people simply hurled chunks of gold over the counter in exchange for food. Hell - they'd love it if people paid just to come in and sit down at the tables to chat with each other. Come in and order food... what do they think it is - a restaurant?
But customers aren't going to do that.
The reason people order food at a restaurant, or the reason they get fast food, is because they do not want to mess with preparing the food, themselves. They see the convenience of having someone else prepare the food and clean up the mess, afterward, as being worth a certain price or another. They are willing to exchange some of the earnings of their day to save time or frustration.
The source of the company's profits and the workers' incomes is derived directly from that cost appraisal by the customer in relation to their own incomes. Someone who is being paid $20 an hour is going to be far more likely to part with $10 for a meal as compared to someone who is only making $10 an hour.
Ultimately, it is a rare situation where a service industry can pay its people more than what the customers make.
So as it stands we're pumping in millions of people who are supposed to go into the middle class, right down into the lower class because they come out of college working minimum wage or near it and in debt.
The idea that people are going to come out of college and enter the middle class is and was ridiculous to begin with. When the average person is college educated, college educated jobs become worth an average value. Labor is a contract service - including every employee. When you increase the supply relative to demand, then you get a decrease in cost.
SO when slimreaper offers to get rid of the minimum wage, what would that help? Will the price of every industry instantly drop? Will college tuition drop at the same time? How long would the deflation last? How long will we be paying these millions of people welfare(According to slimreaper) waiting for them to get jobs?
Problem number one is that you have welfare to begin with. Get rid of that and people will get off their ass in a ****ing hurry.
Problem number two is that the government effectively engaged in predatory lending with its college tuition programs. The price of college tuition radically increased after the government effectively made the minimum cost of any college coursework the going federal rate of reimbursement. If a person could not afford the tuition through private means - the colleges set up counselors to make sure the government was billed for every penny they could scrounge up.
Had there never been government subsidies of college tuition, then the rates would have been forced to contend with both the capability and willingness of individuals to pay for college education. As this would have contracted the supply of college graduates, the inflation of the college educated labor force would never have occurred.
Worse, still, is that the government virtually guaranteed any form of college education. A degree in arts was the same bill as a degree in horticulture, engineering, or physics. The prospects for getting a job in any of those categories is radically different between them, as is the prospect of what one can expect in terms of pay. When the government, basically, allows any individual to say "I want to go to college to learn to weave baskets" - then pays the colleges for the maximum amount of the reimbursement... it should come as no surprise that college tuition prices rose while job opportunities worth a college graduate's attention depreciated in value.
The fact of the matter is that those loans would have never been issued by companies that had to be able to collect on those loans for its own continued existence. The government does not have such restrictions (per se). It can loan a few billion dollars and then get stiffed.
My problem isn't with getting rid of the minimum wage, my problem was and still is what we will do after it. You can't just get rid of it and expect everything to be A-Okay. There needs to be something to fill the gap.
Gold and Silver.
Get rid of minimum wage. Get rid of the income tax. Gold and Silver are the only legal monies. Get rid of the EPA. Get rid of social security. Get rid of licensing requirements for businesses and tradesmen.
Basically - delete everything written after 1912 as it pertains to business and economics.
Will there be a few years of "OMGWTF!?" - Yes. But there will be this with any substantive change to any system - right, wrong, or otherwise.
However, I can almost guarantee you that if we did that, we'd be humming right along in a few years.
The error in your thinking is assuming that there is anything the government can do about a problem that exists solely because it has tried to do things in the past. Trying to use the government to solve this problem will not fix it. It will only make it worse.
