Re: Oh my Gawd! Carly!

"John Larkin" <jjlarkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:polb14p1qv7tsd6j10plthb6ohe8037rib@xxxxxxxxxx
But only a minority of people make the minimum wage, and many of them
are teens or part-timers, people with other sources of family income.

Given that "minority" is anything less than 50%, this is certainly a true
statement.

These folks were against minimum wage hikes in 2006, although the data is
somewhat interesting: http://www.heritage.org/research/economy/wm1186.cfm.
E.g., of minimum wage workers aged 25+, 10.6% has a BS or higher.

So much for telling kids that going to college will assure them of a decent
future.

If someone makes min wage, they are inherently being paid more than
their market value.

This is true enough, although it's not really an argument against the minimum
wage, IMO... since if it were, you'd be on the slipperly slope of perhaps
deciding that, hey, why do we burden companies with the extra expense of
controlling their emissions and discharges anymore than what the "market" asks
for? Those companies are being forced to spend more than (at least today's)
market value of clean air and water, after all!

So pressures exist to replace them: with
automation, by contracting out to foreign countries, by using
illegals.

Yes.

So, instead of working for below what some politician thinks they
deserve, they have no job at all.

It's not a zero sum game, John. Replacing workers with automation also
results in economic growth so the idea is that the jobs transition to simply
requiring more skills but being better paying and more comfortable for the
workers -- which is good for the world as a whole. (Although I'm the first to
admit that this whole idea of "modern society" requiring "highly-skilled
workers" has somehow morphed into, "...so everyone should spend four years in
college!" when, in actuality, most jobs still just don't require that level of
training.)

Illegal workers should of course be eliminated as much as possible.

---Joel


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