Yeah, I've draw an arbitrary line, I admit. A lean first world standard of living in exchange for 40 worked hours. You could just as easily draw the line just this side of starvation, or a living that the milkman in the 50s enjoyed. It seemed like as good a place as any. I don't believe that someone can have my arbitrarily set quality of life on 300/wk, however.
But from a purely practical perspective, I'm not convinced that raising the min wage is bad for those earning more. If your earnings stay the same in relation to living costs then you're no worse off, so why care. Some argue that a better off lower class would spur the economy to everyone's benefit. I'm not economist enough to do it, but there are countries where no one seems to be suffering ill effects of a more generous minimum wage, so I struggle to take seriously cut-n-dried economic opinions about dumbells sucking the place dry. If anything, it would get more people off welfare and out of quick dollar crime.
Who knows. Ask 3 economists, get 3 opinions. In the absence of a definitive answer, I'm inclined to lean toward "Be nice." See the kind of world you want to live in and don't do things that destroy it unless there's absolute proof they are necessary.
yeah, I agree for the most part. Its just, where do we draw the line? I myself think 10 dollars is the absolute max for 99% of the US (maybe more in the LA area), obviously less in the mid west or places like Texas.
I personally feel that it should be left up to the individual states to decide and not for the Fed to try and draw an arbitrary line in the sand for the whole country, as different states have different costs of living and 10/hour would be a nice living in indiana, or abject poverty in SoCal.
I also dont feel a person necessarily deserves a wage just because he is present for 40 hours/week. I remember working fast food and those emoyees literally did just enough to not get fired, they literally were not worth the minimum wage +1.50 they were making. They got that simply because you got mandatory raises every 6 months and yet they werent worth pissing on to out out the fire.
this was at an arbys. My personal experience is why I dont believ.everyone is owed a decent living wage just because they roll out of bed.