Don Quixote (02-20-2013), Mott the Hoople (02-18-2013), Phantasmal (02-19-2013), The Dude (02-20-2013)
Members banned from this thread: Cancel 2018. 3, USFREEDOM911 and canceled.2021.1 |
What I find most fascinating about this is the split between Republican men and Republican women. How do you like that? So the only demographic against a raise is Republican men. Who are Republican men?
That's right folks - white males! I am always accused, rather dramatically by board drama queens, of "demonizing white males". Just reporting the facts!
Raise That Wage
By PAUL KRUGMAN
President Obama laid out a number of good ideas in his State of the Union address. Unfortunately, almost all of them would require spending money — and given Republican control of the House of Representatives, it’s hard to imagine that happening.
One major proposal, however, wouldn’t involve budget outlays: the president’s call for a rise in the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9, with subsequent increases in line with inflation. The question we need to ask is: Would this be good policy? And the answer, perhaps surprisingly, is a clear yes.
Why “surprisingly”? Well, Economics 101 tells us to be very cautious about attempts to legislate market outcomes. Every textbook — mine included — lays out the unintended consequences that flow from policies like rent controls or agricultural price supports. And even most liberal economists would, I suspect, agree that setting a minimum wage of, say, $20 an hour would create a lot of problems.
But that’s not what’s on the table. And there are strong reasons to believe that the kind of minimum wage increase the president is proposing would have overwhelmingly positive effects.
First of all, the current level of the minimum wage is very low by any reasonable standard. For about four decades, increases in the minimum wage have consistently fallen behind inflation, so that in real terms the minimum wage is substantially lower than it was in the 1960s. Meanwhile, worker productivity has doubled. Isn’t it time for a raise?
Now, you might argue that even if the current minimum wage seems low, raising it would cost jobs. But there’s evidence on that question — lots and lots of evidence, because the minimum wage is one of the most studied issues in all of economics. U.S. experience, it turns out, offers many “natural experiments” here, in which one state raises its minimum wage while others do not. And while there are dissenters, as there always are, the great preponderance of the evidence from these natural experiments points to little if any negative effect of minimum wage increases on employment.
Why is this true? That’s a subject of continuing research, but one theme in all the explanations is that workers aren’t bushels of wheat or even Manhattan apartments; they’re human beings, and the human relationships involved in hiring and firing are inevitably more complex than markets for mere commodities. And one byproduct of this human complexity seems to be that modest increases in wages for the least-paid don’t necessarily reduce the number of jobs.
What this means, in turn, is that the main effect of a rise in minimum wages is a rise in the incomes of hard-working but low-paid Americans — which is, of course, what we’re trying to accomplish.
Finally, it’s important to understand how the minimum wage interacts with other policies aimed at helping lower-paid workers, in particular the earned-income tax credit, which helps low-income families who help themselves. The tax credit — which has traditionally had bipartisan support, although that may be ending — is also good policy. But it has a well-known defect: Some of its benefits end up flowing not to workers but to employers, in the form of lower wages. And guess what? An increase in the minimum wage helps correct this defect. It turns out that the tax credit and the minimum wage aren’t competing policies, they’re complementary policies that work best in tandem.
So Mr. Obama’s wage proposal is good economics. It’s also good politics: a wage increase is supported by an overwhelming majority of voters, including a strong majority of self-identified Republican women (but not men). Yet G.O.P. leaders in Congress are opposed to any rise. Why? They say that they’re concerned about the people who might lose their jobs, never mind the evidence that this won’t actually happen. But this isn’t credible.
For today’s Republican leaders clearly feel disdain for low-wage workers. Bear in mind that such workers, even if they work full time, by and large don’t pay income taxes (although they pay plenty in payroll and sales taxes), while they may receive benefits like Medicaid and food stamps. And you know what this makes them, in the eyes of the G.O.P.: “takers,” members of the contemptible 47 percent who, as Mitt Romney said to nods of approval, won’t take responsibility for their own lives.
Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, offered a perfect illustration of this disdain last Labor Day: He chose to commemorate a holiday dedicated to workers by sending out a message that said nothing at all about workers, but praised the efforts of business owners instead.
The good news is that not many Americans share that disdain; just about everyone except Republican men believes that the lowest-paid workers deserve a raise. And they’re right. We should raise the minimum wage, now.
Entire Article Here
DARLA: The Internet's Leading Cause of White Dude Butthurt 12 Years and Counting
Don Quixote (02-20-2013), Mott the Hoople (02-18-2013), Phantasmal (02-19-2013), The Dude (02-20-2013)
Leviticus 19:33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not do him wrong. 34 The stranger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the homeborn among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
BRUTALITOPS (02-18-2013), tinfoil (02-19-2013)
What kind of country have we become?
One in which federal prosecutors can take “evidence” before a “grand jury,”
and that grand jury can “vote to indict” a former president for 91 alleged “crimes”?
SmarterthanYou (02-18-2013)
Krugman even discounts his argument, admitting that it does some damage.
Why “surprisingly”? Well, Economics 101 tells us to be very cautious about attempts to legislate market outcomes. Every textbook — mine included — lays out the unintended consequences that flow from policies like rent controls or agricultural price supports. And even most liberal economists would, I suspect, agree that setting a minimum wage of, say, $20 an hour would create a lot of problems.
Being the premier hackonomist, he ignores it and claims it will have a positive impact, even though there is no real reason to believe that.
The policy hurts the unskilled and can make skilled workers more attractive. Proponents of this hike are really the ones saying, "screw the entry level workers."
Leviticus 19:33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not do him wrong. 34 The stranger that sojourneth with you shall be unto you as the homeborn among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
/MSG/ (02-18-2013), cawacko (02-18-2013), Minister of Truth (02-18-2013)
/MSG/ (02-18-2013), Cancel 2016.2 (02-19-2013)
I don't think he does that at all. And there are plenty of studies showing that raising the minimum wage impacts the economy positively because it gives the working poor more disposable income which they spend. I know there are some studies showing the reverse. You can find a study to say whatever you want it to say.
DARLA: The Internet's Leading Cause of White Dude Butthurt 12 Years and Counting
The Dude (02-20-2013)
I could do with more inflation, myself.
"It [the draft] is duty rather than slavery. I part with the author on the caviler idea that individual freedom (whatever that may be to the person) leads to nirvana, anyone older that 12 knows that is BS."
-(Midcan5)
"Allow me to masturbate my patriotism furiously and publicly at this opportunity."
-(Ib1yysguy)
"There is no 'equal opportunity' today unless the government makes it so."
-(apple0154 )
"abortion is not killing Its birth control"
-(Desh)
Wrong!
http://www.nbra.info/
The real question to ask is, why is Darla such a stinking liar?
Free speech is cool as long as it jibes with our program.
-- The Left
What kind of country have we become?
One in which federal prosecutors can take “evidence” before a “grand jury,”
and that grand jury can “vote to indict” a former president for 91 alleged “crimes”?
Because he hates it.
"It [the draft] is duty rather than slavery. I part with the author on the caviler idea that individual freedom (whatever that may be to the person) leads to nirvana, anyone older that 12 knows that is BS."
-(Midcan5)
"Allow me to masturbate my patriotism furiously and publicly at this opportunity."
-(Ib1yysguy)
"There is no 'equal opportunity' today unless the government makes it so."
-(apple0154 )
"abortion is not killing Its birth control"
-(Desh)
Disillusioned (02-18-2013), Granule (02-18-2013), The Dude (02-20-2013)
The real question is.
Whay are most republicans lower than shit eating dogs?
The Dude (02-20-2013)
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