Re: Oh my Gawd! Carly!

Joel Koltner wrote:
Hi James,

"James Arthur" <bogusabdsqy@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:XEoQj.42$TS5.4@xxxxxxxxxxx
When he did get a minimum wage job, local "living wage" rules meant the kid earned enough to raise a small family, for bagging groceries. No wonder they can't afford to hire many workers!

Rather than eliminating minimum wage laws, a better approach might be to expand the "farm worker" laws to encompass more people? It's a hard question -- while obviously most teens are living with their parents who are supported by them, there certainly are older teens out there supporting themselves largely or completely independently from their parents and as just as "deserving" of the minimum wage as, e.g., some 40-year-old is.

Or maybe we just need to make it easier for teens to declare themselves as independents: In college a few kids did that because they didn't qualify for student loans or grants based on the buckets of money their parents had, yet said parents weren't volunteering any of it to help the kid put himself through school either.

Too many exceptions. Why not just let people work for whatever it is
they're willing to work for? Why not encourage retirees to get out
and make some pocket change, and contribute to their health & society even if they don't need the money? Ditto for teens, or well-kept housemates.

Mr. Adam Smith assured us long ago that it's quite impossible to work long for less than a living wage.

[And it is, unless you introduce subsidies. Subsidized people
are willing to work for less because they can--it then makes
sense for them, with taxpayers footing the balance. Subsidies
drive down wages. But, then, they're still living wages.]

So I don't really see the need for a minimum wage--it just restricts employment, the training of future generations, and many who would otherwise contribute.

Oh, and, of course, results in the export of low-valued work that could be done here.

Cheers,
James Arthur
.

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