So first off I wanted to say that this forum is actually one of the best I have come across in regards to political discussions. They can become somewhat heated, but are generally very cordial and more importantly intellectual as well.
Now on topic.
Some of you may think that I am a conservative, based on the discussions in the previous threads, like the healthcare ones for instance, although those were a long time ago and it has been quite a long time since I have posted in these forums. I'm actually quite liberal, in the american sense of the word and on the American political spectrum, although in other countries that puts me to the center or the right. Compared to you all I might be more conservative, or slightly more liberal, don't really remember how far left ya'll were.
Anyway, as most of you will know president Obama wants to raise the minimum wage, to 9$ an hour, from 7.3$ or so, a roughly 30% increase. First I want to know what you think about that.
I for one am actually a fan of the minimum wage, because it ensures a good standard of living, below which we will not let people fall. It also keeps people off of welfare and out there working. Also welfare programs today subsidizes low wages because employees have an artificially raised standard of living, they consume more than just their wages. So employers can potentially hire people for less than they would otherwise, because people are willing to work for less money. Given that welfare programs subsidizes low wages, I would like to seek an indirect end to the effects of that subsidy, while keeping the standard of living for the lower class the same.
I want to raise minimum wages to a lower middle class level of income, to put an end to all but the most basic welfare programs for people that are working (ie. still get workers comp and other things, but no medicare and food stamps or cash payments). For some background, according to CNN (
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/CAREER/trends/08/30/ilo.study/) in 2001 Americans worked almost 2000 hours a year, or 38 and 1/2 hours per week, not counting vacation (38 and 1/2 is just ~2000/52, so it is really the average worked per week, so on most weeks you could actually work a lot more, but of course the vacation time has you working zero hours, thus dropping the average quite a bit).
Based on some one working 2000 hours, we need a minimum wage of 9$ an hour to ensure that people in rural and other low cost of living areas can make ends meat. That would have them making 36,000$ a year, which is 10,000$ above the threshold where most of the poverty programs kick in. I think we have to adjust the minimum wage for cost of living too, because living in NYC is far more expensive than rural areas, so for high cost of living areas the minimum wage should obviously be more. For NYC specifically, it has been reported that
(
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/27/cities-high-cost-of-living_n_1236841.html) the poverty line adjusted for cost of living in NYC is 60,000 dollars a year. I say we have to have a minimum wage of 18$ an hour in the city, that would have them making 72,000$ a year, enough to make sure no one who is working needs a welfare check.
The above calculations all assumed dual income households, we of course need programs out there for single mothers and other single parent households.
I would like to hear your thoughts on the matter. See I know that this would mean a modest increase in unemployment in the short-term, but it would save the government billions of dollars, and more importantly raise the working poor's standard of living. Also the poor's increased monetary resources would stimulate demand, since this money is coming primarily out of either corporate profits or increasing the cost of living or price raises, and the corporate profits are sitting on the side lines.
I was actually thinking of making it so that the minimum wage was for a single person household, but that would lead to average families dual income earners making 72,000, which is more than the average income.
Thoughts?
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Topic: Minimum Wage (Read 9865 times)