Comments on: Full Steam Ahead On "100 Hours" Express

House Approves Minimum Wage Hike; Thursday Vote On Stem Cells

[bellal-2009]

Here's a better experiment, saxonmor, how about he gets laid off and spends the next few months waiting in line for foodstamps, homeless shelter, and welfare.

[bellal-2009]

If you can't afford to do that then you are a lousy business person who should go out of business because of incompetence.
Posted by RandalDS at 04:14 PM : Jan 10, 2007

Well,(yawn) again you miss the point. Before businesses go under they will strip down lean and mean. And again (yawn) they will cut workers or benefits.

[davidlar2]

nikosk1:

Does America have salaries that are too low or a cost of living that is too high in comparison with most other countries in the world? Make sure you are attacking the right problem.

[davidlar2]

What is the proof that heavily redistributionist economies ("trickle up economics") perform better than freer ones? Take a look at http://www.heritage.org/index/.

Seems to me Sweden tried this in the 1960s and 1970s and is still paying the price for it. Take a look at http://www.timbro.se/bokhandel/books.asp?isbn=9175665891

Seems to me that it is the poor who suffer the most in economies that stagnate.

We live in a globalized world. When we make the cost of labor artificially more expensive than other countries, we lose. When we place H1B visa caps on importing the labor the economy needs (because we spend our money on higher salaries for the uneducated instead of on education), we lose.

Want another reason for not raising the minimum wage: Its bad economics and America will pay a price for it.

[randalds]

Posted by saxonmor at 04:03 PM : Jan 10, 2007


Bravo! Well stated!

[randalds]

And that's exactly what's going to happen Randal, small business will just close up and you'll be left with Walmart, Starbucks,McDonalds, and whatever airline survives the acquisitions. Done deal. Corporate America wins the world.
Posted by bellaL at 03:35 PM : Jan 10, 2007

(Yawn) That's they same song and dance we've been hearing for decades from business owners. get over it. There's nothing immoral about paying people enough to live on. If you can't afford to do that then you are a lousy business person who should go out of business because of incompetence.

[saxonmor]

And by the way, I think Mike Flynn is full of *** too.
In fact, I took the time to write to him and challenge him to "put his money where someone else's mouth is."
"As Director of Legislative Affairs," I wrote "you undoubtedly draw a 6-figure salary." I proposed that for the next 60-days, he live off the equivalent of $5.15/hr. minimum wage (less taxes), pay rent, food, utilities, etc.; no credit cards, no outside resources, and donate the rest of his salary to his local food bank. Ivory tower elitists like him couldn't do it for 2 days, let alone 2 months. Before anyone gripes about the impact of raising minimum wage, let them walk a mile in minimum wage boots.
(By the way, I make far more than minimum; that does not mean I am unmindful of those who make minimum.)

[saxonmor]

There are only two reasons for not raising minimum wage: greed on the part of business owners and oppression on the part of the rich and powerful elite.
Business will adapt to a higher minimum wage, as it always has. Business owners are not simply going to "close up shop" and go to work for WalMart because the minimum wage goes up. They are going to find ways to make their businesses work better and smarter.
And the fact is that Trickle UP economics works far better than Trickle DOWN. When the lower classes have more money to spend, they eat out more often; they buy those extra few little toys they couldn't afford before. And, oh, yes, people are generally HAPPIER when they are not economically depressed and stymied. Heaven forbid we should consider the human factor in the economic equation. Let's make it all about dollars. And how's that working for America nowadays? WalMarts everywhere, jobs streaming overseas. As in any case, the RIGHT solution needs to consider a helluva lot more than just the bottom line.

North Carolina has already taken the step and raised it's minimum wage to $6.15 an hour, my 16 year old son was pretty happy about that until they cut his hours in half and now is making less than he did before...I see a trend here

[madisongirl-2009]

A $2/hour increase times 40 hrs/week times 52 weeks/year equals $4,160 PER employee PER year in extra labor costs.

If you have 11 employees (which I have), that's $45,760 per year increase in labor cost to my business.

THEREFORE, in order to pay for the minimum wage increase, I will have to lay off 3 employees in order to pay for said increase.

[3 employees times 7.15/hr (new rate) times 40 hours/week times 52 weeks/year equals 44,616]

I still come up short

Posted by processor2 at 11:15 AM : Jan 10, 2007

...........

I don't know what business your in. but isn't it possible to raise you price just enough to cover costs?

Posted by rharrin1 at 11:32 AM : Jan 10, 2007

ANSWER

and lose all my customers to the competition who has lower prices....yeah,,right

Posted by processor2 at 11:35 AM : Jan 10, 2007


ONCE AGAIN PROCESSOR2, YOU HAVE HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK