Re: Oh my Gawd! Carly!

On Apr 28, 6:59 am, John Larkin
<jjlar...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:19:08 -0700 (PDT), MooseFET

<kensm...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
James Arthur wrote:
Hmm, so the existence of any minmum wage--natural or enforced--means
that all wages are driven to that minimum, and we're all working for
it as we speak.

No that is not what I said. I suggested that the reason to have a
minimum wage was to prevent the majority of people from being force
into poverty.

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.

If someone makes min wage, they are inherently being paid more than
their market value. So pressures exist to replace them: with
automation, by contracting out to foreign countries, by using
illegals.

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

Right. The premise is that all companies are evil and bent on
starving people into poverty, that they have the wage-setting power to
do it, and that only minimum wage laws prevent them from raping the
planet.

And, it follows, with their absolute wage-setting power, evil, and
generally sniveling, drooling, sinister nature, companies drive us all
down to that minimum, because they can.

Except they don't, and can't.

Companies have no such pricing power nor intention, nor is it in their
best interest to underpay. A low-paid worker is easily lost to
another employer offering more, and all the time and expense training
him is lost in the bargain. Only fools underpay.

The demographics of minimum-wage workers tell us that these are
overwhelmingly starter jobs, entry positions for untrained workers
which they quickly outgrow, then move to higher positions doing more
valuable work, for more pay. As employees acquire more skills and
become more productive, employers respond with raises because that's
in the *employer's* interest. Everyone wins.

Too often would-be "liberals" are simply cynical, not liberal at all--
they see and assume the worst in all, trust no one, suspect everyone.

James Arthur
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Cameron - Immigration
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  • Re: Bait and Switch by Barbara Ehrenreich
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  • Re: [OT] Iraq
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