The naiveté of the OP is staggering. I honestly feel like I've been hit in the chest with a sack of wet carpet.
I need a minute here...
OK, I don't have the time or the inclination to reconstruct your entire world-view from the depths of whatever Conservative Crime Squad upbringing you've had, but I can, at least, address the issue of minimum wage.
Let's assume, for a moment, that there exist a class of people who would be employed below minimum wage that are simply cut out of the market. If, as you suggest, eliminating the minimum wage would cause them to be employed, would they be able to survive at that income?
Let's see... $5.00/hour, working 12 hours a day (multiple jobs, none of which count as a full-time position because, remember, the employers are trying to pay people the least possible amount), that's $60 a day, let's be generous and give them 6 days a week for $1440/mo. Low, low one-bedroom apartment is $500/mo, plus average monthly for a car (mandatory in the US, especially if you have several jobs) $479, plus gas (a full tank every two weeks if you're lucky) $60, plus car insurance ~$100. Food's a necessity, of course. The low end for food is $544/mo... At this point, you're already down $200 a month, working like a dog and living like one, too.
The fact of the matter is, the poverty line* in the US, for a family of 4 with two kids**, is $22,162 annually. If we assume that people, even poor people, deserve humane working and living conditions, then that's ~2080 billed hours a year. Do some simple math and tell me if even $7.25 is enough. Remember, one person has to stay home and take care of the kids, or else find daycare that costs less than he or she would make!
This whole argument is a race to the bottom -- a race the United States cannot win. Our only choice is to function like a real, grown-up society. One where the government exists to provide an environment where people can thrive. Eliminating the civil protections we've worked so hard to build is not the way to achieve this. The fanciful assertion that the only reason companies aren't hiring is that Americans are too pretentious for the labor is laughable, as is the assumption that removing the minimum wage would cause companies to hire enough people to cause a net increase in payroll payouts.
*Meaning if one unexpected expense arises, you will be impoverished, but for now you're able to survive.
**You can't do financial planning for the whole nation as if it were made of lonely internet trolls.
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Topic: Minimal wage - should it exist? (Read 17718 times)