Raise The Minuimum Wage So People Can Eat!

And whomever wants the minimum wage to stay at the present level--should try to live on that level voluntarily.Otherwise shut the hell up about it.

 

It would depend on your definition of serious economists. Neumark and Wascher, using payroll data initially supplied to them by the Employment Policies Institute have tried to discredit the Card/Kruger report basing their counter argument on the fact that CK used the Bureau of Labor's statistics and did not account for total hours worked.

But even their attempt at discrediting CK, doesn't hold up to close scrutiny.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3620/is_200007/ai_n8890161/pg_1

 

There are few Americans who can say that they display as much pride in their state as Texans do. Yet, pride is not what will be on display this Election Day. A shamefully low percentage of eligible Texans will turnout to vote for their state and national representatives. According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research, Texas ranks 48th in the nation in percentage of eligible men who vote (39.4 percent), and 49th in percentage of eligible women who vote (41.7 percent). There are many reasons why so few people turn out to vote, but one reason is very easy to spot -- most Texans have to work on weekdays. If the U.S. made Election Day a national holiday, or simply set the vote on a weekend, voter turnout could see a dramatic increase.


In the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, some 85 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots on Election Day. This outstanding level of voter turnout can be attributed to a culture that values political involvement, but more simply, Puerto Ricans do not have to work or attend school on Election Day. In Puerto Rico, Election Day is a holiday, and people turn out in droves to elect their leaders.

Having Election Day off is not a rare occurrence that only progressive Puerto Ricans are blessed with. Elections on a national holiday or weekend are the norm across most of the world's democracies. The United States is one of the few countries where people still work before they go to the polls. Countries across the Middle East and Europe, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran, see dramatically higher voter turnouts and have elections on a weekend or national holiday.

Making Election Day a national holiday could have other important benefits as well. With the day off from work, people would have a chance to come together as a community to elect their leaders. Americans would have a better sense of involvement with the political process, because they could see that their leaders value the votes being cast. The U.S. celebrates Columbus Day and Presidents Day as national holidays, and though these days are important historical dates, they have almost no practical significance. An Election Day holiday, on the other hand, could be a significant step toward encouraging voter turnout and community involvement.

Some critics of an Election Day holiday argue that voter apathy is the root cause of low-voter turnout and that a holiday would do little to address this. While it may be true that an unfortunate number of Americans do not care about the political process, a holiday would not make these people any less likely to vote. Some people will simply never care about elections, but making it easier for people to vote can only be a positive move. On the tree of boosting voter turnout, there is definitely some low-hanging fruit. Making Election Day a national holiday is one of the easiest, low-risk ways of encouraging people to get out and vote. This nation needs to reform its election laws so people do not have to go to the polls after a long day of work.

 

Perhaps the powerful monied interests don't want the average man to vote. Voter apathy has worked so well for them in the past.

 

So true. Preach on brother.

 

Last night, the Senate rejected a bill that combined the “Paris Hilton tax cut” with an increase in the minimum wage, dealing a blow to conservatives who thought they had “outfoxed” their opponents.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) continued to resist calls for a straight vote on the minimum wage. “These issues must be addressed as a package, all or nothing,” he said. Unsurprisingly, conservative Senate leaders pushing hardest for further cuts in the estate tax are multimillionaires themselves.

For example, Frist boasts assets between $10,584,000 and $39,260,000 in blind trusts. If one were to work a normal 40-hour week for 52 weeks a year for minimum wage, it would take between 988 and 3,665 years to amass Frist’s fortune. While Frist has stringently supported large tax cuts for fellow multimillionaire trust babies and annual $3,300 pay raises for himself and his Senate colleagues, he has thus far refused to give a small raise to the nearly 8 million Americans who live on $5.15 an hour.

 

Dirk---no,I'm a roofing contractor so I make more than that,but I have a habit of staying low profile--comes from leftover paranoia from the 60s I guess.But concern is due for those for whom the "american dream" is just that--a dream.

 

Perhaps it is Apathy, in general, that is the root of the poverty, not the lack of some Wizzard of Oz who can waive a wand and make everything right.

:beatdeadh

 

Oh god. Blaming voter apathy on "monied interests."

 

I worked for a small family business all through college and i agree. I think if everyone did they could see the pitfalls and how hard it is to run a business. Id like to see some of these people own a business, stay competitve, and pay high wages like they advocate others to do.

I promise the business would fold, quickly.

People are too lazy to vote. There is no other reason that hold true to more people. Lets get real man.

 

People are not lazy. In the US they are work longer hours and taking less vacation than other countries. This is a fallacy expanded by corporations that want cheap labor without restrictions.

I have also worked for small enterprises...and guess what they do pay minimum wage or better and they look after their trained workers because they want to keep them. Sure they have to stay market smart. The small employer works at it a lot more than the huge corporation that that gets cuts and tax breaks.

The arguments against workers rights if you follow the money are coming from huge corporations that are trying to shrink their overhead and and maximize their bottom line, not little employers. That's a lame excuse that the public has let slide for years.

Most really small employers are exempt from the minimum wage. Check the law folks it doesn't apply to all. Only the biggest employers are belly aching about it.

 

People aren't too lazy to vote, they've had restrictions and constrictions in place for so many years. and they've been told their vote doesn't count. Some of you would like them to continue to think that.

 

I am going to hope that me and my hip friends can retrain or reframe this.

 

Your right, we had kids working for LESS than that!! Kids, the one who actually make the min. wage most want to raise!

Say what you will, make excuses, most people do not work 7-7 which atleast here is when the polls are open. MOST people that dont vote can blame 1 person, themselves.

 

Even if teenagers are working for less, they are still contributing to their families incomes. Why shgld they be discounted. How many wealthy families have teenagers working?

Time to rethink things through folks. They offer argugments like they have during deregulation, and how many of the deregulation legislastion has workered out in the in the common man's benefit. Stockholders have. rich people have benefitted, but the little man has sen little of the the huge profits. It's time to look at a living wage for the average worker, and allow them to receive a cost of living increase when utilitities go up.

 

Let's discount the minimum wage because it only effects students and teenagers, but know what those teenagers and students contribute to households. But even if it doesn't there are also many adults that draw minimum wage. Let's talk about the small percentage effected but the the CK report demonstrates that the corporations aren't that directly effected, that employement and wages haven't been affect by minimum wage increases. But let the little man suck it up again, hey they won't fight back.

What's the loss? We can always manufacture in China or elsewhere. Who cares where it was made our poor folks will buy it for the lowest cost. Guess what at some point our poor folks will refuse to buy your shit.

 

Once again, no profit it equals no investment, no investment equals no capital, no physical capital equals no efficiency, no efficiency means the job moves to China.

 

Companies do not move to China,Indonesia,Mexico,etc because American workers can't do the jobs or are too lazy to work.The companies move to these countries because they don't give a shit about America.They can use what amounts to slave labor in those countries,with the attendant problems that have been well documented.Also,for some capitalists,there is not enough money in the world to satisfy their lust for power,to the detriment of those here that have been thrown out of their jobs,downsized,or had their pay reduced.Or fucked out -right like the Enron workers.Witness the oil companies--making the largest profits in the history of the world while simultaniously raising prices to the highest levels ever.So ---called economics is bullshit.It's rigged to benefit the few,while the rest of the workers suck hind tit.

 

No, Oil Companies are a cartel-like perversion of an actual marketplace.

Thus, they aren't synonomous with corporations on the whole.

Honestly, name one other way to as effectively invest money/create capital.

 

Star a war.