People trying to increase the minimum wage

[Stocking]

[Ad Bot]

[DrenDran]

You linked me to stock option charts. Do you even know what a stock option is? Low level workers aren't paid in company stock, they're paid in cash. Stock options are a benefit management receives. They're completely irrelevant to minimum wage.

"options granted" cmpensation series includes salary, bonus, restrited stock grants, options granted, and long-term incentive payouts

I'm not dumb, I know what a stock option is.
I guess the graph is just mislabled.

[Kearn]

I'm not really into politics or economics at all. So excuse me if i sound pretty loving stupid, but why is it so hard to just tax the rich more and the poorer less? Unless we are already doing that?

for some awful reason we have a progressive tax rate in different income brackets instead of a flat tax

with a flat tax, everyone pays the same percentage (e.g. 10% of 20k = $2,000, 10% of 250k = $25,000, 10% of 10m = $1,000,000)

with progressive taxes you almost always tax the higher brackets more than the lower (e.g. 5% of 20k = $1,000, 20% of 250k = $50,000, 40% of 10m = $4,000,000)

the problem with progressive taxes is the reward for succeeding in the business world is forfeiting a larger and larger percentage of your money to the government

if progressives/communists could the tax rates for the rich would be so high that they would be earning only a marginal amount more than the poor relative to their income (e.g. 95% takehome of 20K = $19000, 50% takehome of 250k = $125,000, 25% takehome of 10m = $2,500,000)

if you start taking a larger percentage of people's money as they become more successful, it gets to the point where it's pointless to add risk for lower and lower profit margins by expanding, so the money automatically goes into the wallet of the ceo or corporation until conditions are favorable for expansion

progressive income is especially bad because it basically breaks down small businesses that aren't incorporated and are filed under individual income, so the people running mom and pop stores are potentially taxed heavily even though they're risking their livelihoods on their businesses remaining profitable

[Georges]

thats where most stuff is produced.

but how would more stuff help fix the econemy/minimal wage problem? That's taking jobs away from an ever increasing population, were jobs are already scarce.

[Harm94]

People shouldn't have to make a living off low paying jobs, just set some money aside and go to school. if not then try getting fasa or a grant/bog fee waiver. It's not that hard to get them.

[$trinick]

People shouldn't have to make a living off low paying jobs, just set some money aside and go to school. if not then try getting fasa or a grant/bog fee waiver. It's not that hard to get them.

School isn't for everyone. Already we're running into this problem where too many people are seeking higher education and it's diluting the importance of it. 40% of college graduates don't even work a job that requires a college degree. College shouldn't be a goal for every college student, in fact if those 40% of college graduates had skipped the 4 years of college in turn for 4 years of actual working experience, I'm willing to bet that they'd be making even more money. There's no substitute for experience.

Explain it like im five for me here.

I'm not really into politics or economics at all. So excuse me if i sound pretty loving stupid, but why is it so hard to just tax the rich more and the poorer less? Unless we are already doing that? I dont know. So if this does happen, they'll be more of a tax raise for richer people than for poorer people. That doesn't sound so bad, right? unless theres something horrible that could happen that im missing.

We already do this. It's called a progressive tax system (as already explained, so I'll skip the details) and it's actually ridiculous as it is. As I pointed out earlier, approximately 50% of people don't pay any taxes. So that's 50% of Americans who sit in the 0% tax bracket. With the remaining 50%, the more you make the higher the percentage of income you have taxed. So, while a flat tax already scales (since it's a percentage), a bracket system makes it exponential. For example (and this will degrade my credibility, but it's good for a point), my household pays more than 50% of our income in tax. Of every two dollars we make, we make approximately ninety cents into our bank account. The rest goes to the government. Compare that to someone who makes minimum wage, they get more like $2.15 per two dollars made on the job. Doesn't seem very fair, but since my household income is much higher than minimum wage it makes some sense. I'm a fan of the idea of a flat tax, but I recognize that in this society a flat tax will not work, so I don't advocate it. I just think that, I don't know, maybe the government shouldn't repossess more than half of my household income.

[Funkadelic]

As a democrat I oppose this. Weeelll, but then again, living costs are going through the roof right now. I'm in the middle on this

[Funkadelic]

Inflation is also pretty high, I can see why they want more money, but I don't think it can be done or it will raise taxes for everyone.

and inflation is not high

[$trinick]

As a democrat I oppose this

Huh? Democrats are the ones trying to raise minimum wage. Also, setting up your beliefs based on how your associated party views things defeats the purpose of democracy. You shouldn't believe something because the party you align with does, you should believe something because that's what you think is right.

[Funkadelic]

Huh? Democrats are the ones trying to raise minimum wage.

uh yeah lol
i can oppose my own party. and also read what i edited

As a democrat I oppose this. Weeelll, but then again, living costs are going through the roof right now. I'm in the middle on this

[$trinick]

uh yeah lol
i can oppose my own party. and also read what i edited

Ah, I misunderstood. I thought you were saying "Because I am a democrat, I oppose this." not "Even though I am a democrat, I oppose this."

[Funkadelic]

Ah, I misunderstood. I thought you were saying "Because I am a democrat, I oppose this." not "Even though I am a democrat, I oppose this."

Oh okay, understood

[Harm94]

School isn't for everyone. Already we're running into this problem where too many people are seeking higher education and it's diluting the importance of it. 40% of college graduates don't even work a job that requires a college degree. College shouldn't be a goal for every college student, in fact if those 40% of college graduates had skipped the 4 years of college in turn for 4 years of actual working experience, I'm willing to bet that they'd be making even more money. There's no substitute for experience.

most of the people who go to four year schools usually end up partying all the time. Sure school isn't for every one, but it doesn't hurt to go to JC and take courses that can lead to a new career. There are also trade schools out there, heck even JC's have classes that teach a certain trade. The HS diploma has degraded in value and now a College degree is the equivalent of a HS diploma.

[Planr]

Some people seem to believe that rich people and most businesses are evil and/or stuffing their pockets with tons of money at the suffering of their own workers. Maybe if you roll back the clock 120 years to when Rockefeller's Standard Oil monopoly practically controlled the entire country, this is definitely true, but not now.
Of course, I recognize that people want minimum wages raised not because they believe businesses are cheating them out but because they can't survive on that mimimum wage job. I personally believe that minimum wages aren't something that should be viewed as "just enough" to survive on.

I'll make this point with the assumption that the majority of businesses are running honestly. Raising minimum wages is counter-productive in the current US economy. Unskilled labor jobs do not deserve to have prices raised. With higher forced salaries, employers usually won't be able to pay their employees the higher wages (while still affording all their other costs, including utilities, land payments, maintenance, supply orders, worker insurance and benefits, etc.), and will have to lay off more workers to afford to stay in business. Raise the minimum wage, and there are less jobs available because employers simply can't afford to hire as many people and still make enough to live by. Then of course, such an influx of "freshly-unemployed" people are most of the time going to go on welfare and food stamps because they can't find a job (most of the other workplaces were either hiring and now aren't because they can't afford it with the higher min. wages or have already had to fire some of the workers they did have) and drag the economy down even further.

That's not to say that only lazy people run on food stamps. It's not true. My US History teacher Mr. Windle (He looks like Nero from Star Trek) grew up in a very poor family that was only able to survive on food stamps, and they worked their behinds off every day to be able to survive without welfare. And they succeeded. And now he's my US History teacher.

[Electro]

We need more novels like The Jungle.