$15 minimum wage

Oh. So good fortune is supposed to fall in your lap because the wealthy all of the sudden decided to give away their money to those down the ladder. Got it.

Funny. I've always heard if you wanted something, you had to work hard for it ... Go get it because it's not coming to you.

 

Hahahahahaha, so much for 15$ per hour order takers, IF you want more out of life, PUT more into life!!!

 

That's what all the suckers who idol-worship Reagan and his "Reaganomics" believe. Give major tax cuts to the "job creators" (i.e. Their super rich cronies) so as to make their effective tax rate a fraction of the working man, and they'll reinvest that money into the economy and their businesses which will create more jobs and make them more money which will create more jobs.....ad nauseam. This is what guys like Cruz and Rubio and Kasich and Ryan still preach.

What really happened was the money that the super rich saved in tax cuts went into private investments (on which the capital gains are not taxed) and off-shore tax havens. It never "trickled down" into the lower levels of the economy. It perpetuated the ever-widening gap between the rich and the middle class, stagnated wages for the middle and working classes, contributed to the malfeasance on Wall Street and the near collapse of the economy in '08, and puts ever more of a tax burden on middle class workers while our infrastructure crumbles and social security goes bankrupt.

 

All of the "go better yourself" posts are great, but the opportunities are simply becoming more and more unavailable.

I'm not educated beyond a high school diploma, but I've worked hard to have a good job, a house with no mortgage, and 7 sources of rental income. Luck had a lot to do with it, trial and error and learning the hard way was more effective. Folks like myself are becoming dinosaurs, even educated people are unemployed or underemployed and they generally have a staggering amount of debt to contend with.

The wage gap is outrageous, the 1%ers are controlling WAY TOO MUCH of the country's wealth and the welfare recipients simply don't want to work because the middle class is supporting them. Something has got to give because the middle class is going to break.

Is $15/hr minimum wage the answer? I don't know. On paper, it would generate more tax revenue. The ultra rich don't pay taxes and neither do those that receive government assistance. Would the cost of a cheeseburger rise enough to decrease sales? Who knows. The middle class has to have enough money to keep the economy churning, lack of good paying jobs prohibits that.

I'm afraid of what the future will bring. Very afraid. Sorry for the rambling.

 

@Pintlehook My concern is what happens to people that are making $15 an hour right now. All of a sudden their job has been devalued from something that paid approximately 30% more than minimum wage down to minimum wage. Now we have inflation taking place and within a few years once things equalize, everyone's job has been devalued by $5-$7 an hour because there is no way the rest of us are going to see more than the typical 0.5% a year raise that hardly keeps up with our current inflation rates. Maybe I'm crazy but I think this minimum wage raise will only benefit government and big business.

 

The 15 is broken up over a 7 year period. Noone above minimum is going to be punished. Corporations spend millions fighting the raise because they know it will benifit everyone and cost them billions in raises. I'm tired of my tax dollars paying for corporate welfare thru tax subsidies and supplementing employee wages with welfare. Enough is enough. My tax dollars need to be spend on better public education, roads that don't make my teeth rattle and some tax breaks for the real economy movers...the middle class

 

You forgot the effect on inflation as well.

I'm not an economist, but I do pay attention to what goes on around me. And here is what I see: major corporations seeing frequently record breaking profit margins while enjoying significant tax breaks who then off-shore those monies into more "tax-friendly" environments or "private investment" accounts, all of which removes this money from the flow of the economy. Now, since the economy is fully dependent upon the flow of money, the more money that sits off-shore or in private investments, the more money the Federal Reserve is forced to print in order to maintain a "flow" of money within the economy.

But wait, there's more! See, the Reserve must continue to recognize that money that is sitting off-shore, or in private investment. Therefore, that money must be added, thusly devaluing the total worth of all the money. So while the mega-corporations and top wealthy sit on all the profits, they are seeing the value of those profits shrinking and now feel the need even higher profits (normally gotten at the expense of the workers) so the value of their wealth continues to grow, even while they continue to contribute to the ever-growing inflation problem by still taking more and more money out of the flow of the economy!

They say that evil will always consume itself. Indeed, one of the old symbols of evil was a serpent consuming it's own tail. And they also say that money is the root of all evil. I believe we are seeing the truth of this within our economy. If you actually sit and listen to some of the arguments put forth by progressives (as opposed to stewing within your own pre-concieved notions fed to you by the mega-corporations who use the media to influence you) you will see that NO ONE is preaching re-distribution, or claiming they are gonna come take all your money and success away. What they are discussing are ways and methods to encourage those with all that money that is sitting in a vault some where doing absolutely no good to anyone (including the possessor of said money) to take that money out and inject it back into the general flow of the economy as a whole.

If more privately held money was injected back into the economy, through higher wages, equipment upgrades, increased domestic manufacturing, and further research and development into new products and services, the Federal Reserve could stem the flow of freshly printed money (and perhaps even begin to remove excess), thusly bringing inflation back under control or even instituting a carefully controlled period of limited deflation, thereby stabilizing the value of American currency and making the five dollar bill in your wallet actually WORTH five dollars!

Just my uneducated opinion.

 

@brsims I only scanned your post because I have to run out the door for work, but I loved what I saw. I'm going to post some hard numbers later today or tomorrow. Like I said before, something has got to give.

 

$15 an hour is a political gimmick to appeal to the young voters stuck in dead end jobs.
I will be glad when this election is over. No more Obama for people to hate. The new target will be Hillary or the Donald.

 

Yes that is correct, a state university. I provided her with a car and insurance. What helped a little was the books are included in the tuition. The school provides them and the students return them at no cost after each semester. The meal plan was very reasonable and included in her dorm room cost, She lived in the first 2 years. She worked every weekend and most days she didn't have classes and many nights when she did.
The reason for the student loan, last summer she had to take a class during summer break. The loan was $1,800 but she has paid it down since then. She doesn't want any debt when she graduates.
Its not Harvard or Yale but it is a good education and because it is not a Major University the tuition is a lot more affordable. Tuition was around 4g a semester plus living expenses.