FPTV ep. 7: What's Wrong with Raising the Minimum Wage?

[fringeailments]

this guy is dirt.

[Eldeecue]

Yay straw man.

I actually do agree that raising theminimum is not the way to fix this. Installing a maximum wage would really work a lot better. Better than Libertarian magic dust and "rational" self interest, anyway.

You also seem to be under the impression that wal-mart and similiar....morally dubious employers aren't following the mantra of overworking skeleton crews for as little as possible already. Corner cutting is the order of the day, minimum wage increase or no.

[MrKilroi]

I see the socialist wonks are out in force. It's a fully employed workforce that fights poverty and raises the standard of living. I know for fact people loose jobs when the minimum wage goes up.

repeal 13th amendment hmm as opposed to the voluntary servitude you are currently living in? You are already slave chattel in your Country's debt. Got a Social Security Number? you're a slave..Got a Social Insurance Number, you're a slave. WAKE UP!

[ortafunk]

First of all this planet belongs to Us Meek Not the republican ass holes & If you republicans do Not like living according to My rules then why did you come to this planet? But you know I believe In a government that benefits the majority of People Not the few rich ass holes & there should be a law to keep the rich from hogging up all the land and resourses then there can be competition which In returns makes a better product & lower prices but the----

[biggsy182]

A "moral" objection to the minimum wage? What utter tosh. Would you also hold a moral objection to health and safety regulations? Surely it is immoral to "coerce" someone into providing safe baby food or a safe working enviroment? What about child labour laws? If you are to be consistant, you would surely hold a moral objection to all of these things.

[pitcalco]

Concentrating on poverty only serves to exacerbate poverty. Everyone should ignore poverty and simply try to become rich. If you really want to help the poor, teach them how to become rich as well. How many years has Ontario had minimum wage - and how long have they been dealing with poverty? Probably about as long.

[CosmicFork]

Hell, let's not only NOT raise The Minimum Wage, Let's repeal The 13th Amendment to The Constitution, that makes involuntary servitude and slavery illegal. That way The Ruling Class can have an endless supply of Free Labor to do their Dirty work for them, like in The Antebellum South. Oh, I forgot... this is Ontario, just goes to show there's Economic Royalists in Canada too.

The only kind of money agreement you can make, is one that benefits you at someone else's expense! You Suck!

[mike911xx]

If the gov. didn't set a min. wage we'd be living like mexicans who in my opinion are over worked and live in poverty. It has to be a fair trade between workers and employer's, when the company profits everyone profits. Companies claim billions of $ in profits(ex. most call centers)yet most of their workers make on avg. $10, it's because they will lie, cheat or steal just to make a profit and therefore can't be trusted to be fair to their employee's and thats when a gov. should take action.

[obmax1212]

What figures do you have to justify that statement? Most workers make well above the minimum wage. Why is that? If what you say is true, then that shouldn't be the case. People are paid based on the value of their labor. Employers have no obligation to provide certain benefits or salaries.

[justluckdude]

And what figures do YOU have to justify YOUR statement? "Most workers make well above minimum wage." - Your proof? "People are paid based on the value of their labor." - Says who?

[mike911xx]

I have a problem with your analogy because lets assume min. wage has a history and at sometime in canadian history there was a requirement for a min. wage because desperite workers were being taking advantage of by employers. If there was no min. wage employers would pay next to nothing and no doubt people would work for next to nothing, so I think the government is just doing its job by protecting people's rights and the economy by setting a min. wage.

[im2richbitch]

I completely agree with McKeever, it is stupid to help the poor people by artificially inflating wages. By paying the poor more money, it is only taking away from my money by driving up my costs!

[terraindrain1]

This man epitomizes the ultra right wing agenda of the so-called Freedom Party. It really takes a big man to tell the over 1 million Ontarians who earn under $12 an hour (check the statistics, that they shouldn't have a raise. It really impresses me to see a man who easily earns more than a hundred dollars an hour in law, try to beat up on the poor. It's just sickening.

[lonewolf1369]

it's not that simple, minimum wage has its own problems as previous comments show. Also, it's the high taxes that are a problem in lowering wages

[totoro201]

this guy is stupid, a looooooottt of poor people work for minimum wage wtf you talking about, chek your facts before speculating shit, you far from knowing what you talking, working after hours without behing paid? wtf is you taling about this is each individual responsibility to get paid for extra hours your stupid dude cut the crap you just a made employer that dont want minimum wage to get raised

[161803]

Yeah, maybe 1-2% of people work for minimum wage.

[Libertarianist]

I've already agreed with you, but I LOVE the way you lay them smack down on this issue.

[PaulMcKeever]

Thank's for your kind words, and the smile they bring me.

[terraindrain1]

This is appalling. His analogies are fallacious, and disrespectful to the intelligent listener.

[firebat01]

How did the government ever get so corrupt? Or blind? You're videos are so informative and bring understanding to the purposefully elaborate and deceptive structure of government.

[PaulMcKeever]

Thank-you for your kind assessment firebat. Cheers, PM.

[Shineshop]

All the miminum wage increase has done is guarantee that the one or two idiots we used to hire as summer help that are borderline useful no longer have a job. Think about it. The WORST employee anyone will employ will be costing approx. $13.50-$14.00 an hour to employ after factoring in all the wage costs. That is for the worst employee out there. I wonder how many of the crusaders for the wage hike will be the first one bitching when prices get jacked to pay for it.

[SiiSTALUV]

you have an insane meanstreak, shineshop! Over 14 years you've been doing business and you say shit like that. do you have children? you are just sad. i really hope you didn't mean all min wage employees. You are just an oblivious jerk!

[Shineshop]

At my business NO ONE earns minimum wage. We don't want minimum wage employees because they are typically - lazy, uneducated, disrespectful, unmotivated losers. I know this because I have successfully owned a small business for over 14 years. Raising the minimum wage helps hardworking employees? NOT. They are alredy earning $10+ an hour. If you are making less than that you are probably borderline unemployable to begin with.

[SiiSTALUV]

wow you are just a heartless person. what about minors who work their damn butt off to help support their family and they have to work min. wage. at my job their are teenagers and foreigners. we make min. wage we are school. so you're saying we're uneducated, lazy, disrespectful and unmotivated losers? got dam at least we're not like others teens going in the street shooting people and selling crack and marijuana. you are just sad! just shut the hell up! you don't know shit about people!

[snufkinhead]

Secondly, as an objectivist proponent of laissez faire capitalism, does your position not call for entirely abandoning the minimum wage? Why dont you argue for that instead if it is at the core of your convictions?

[PaulMcKeever]

I was responding to a proposal made by another party. FP prioritizes its own proposals rather than proposing changes of everything all at once. Our priorities are set out in our platform.

[snufkinhead]

You dont make clear whether you think there should be a minimum wage at all. If I take it as implied by your argument against raising the minimum wage that you accept the validity or need to have a minimum wage, then are you saying that you think it should remain constant in the face of inflation or in a growing economy? I think not, and believe in a rising minimum wage rationally tied to basic cost of living changes.

[maui1964]

Comparing mimimum wage to what an individual would charge for their services is a flawed argument. A more apt comparison would be :

a father asking his son to mow the lawn for $5, when the son knows that he could charge $10. One argument centres on self-determination for value of servicesprovided, the other on imposed value for services provided.

[IPAPLE]

this guy is full of shit only defends the rich ppl grrrrrrrrr asshole

[161803]

retard.

[IPAPLE]

tell me who the hell can survive now and days with minimum wage that is stupid and greedy no morals raise the wages cause im about to starve to death and if that happends wat happends to the company ?

[shrouded60606]

Employers who complain that raising the minimum wage makes their companies hard to be competitive need to realize this means their companies are not viable. Workers are not here to subsidize companies by working for next to nothing.

[Shineshop]

On the flip side, employers are not in the business of providing employees a job that pays a "fair wage". If all you are worth is minimum wage then you have no "right" to force an employer to pay you more because you feel entitled to a higher standard of living.

[rjisinspired]

I thought the first post didn't go through, sorry about that.

[rjisinspired]

I didn't think the first post went through, sorry about that.

[rjisinspired]

Remove the Fed and the IRS and then minimum wage would be doubled or more. Having a private corp print more money out of thin air lessens the value of money. Congress needs to use what is their authority to fix these issues.

[rjisinspired]

Abolish the Fed and the IRS and there goes a great deal of the headaches. The more money that is printed out of thin air, the less money is worth. Without these headaches, minimum wage would be about doubled or more.

[imtrueblue2007]

you are stupid and boring.

we need a TEN DOLLAR MINIMUM WAGE.

[obmax1212]

A very convincing argument.

[jonathan89765]

now try to convince this to premier Stalin. and while you're at it ask him about the incandescent lightbulbs lol

[jonathan89765]

If an employee is unhappy with the wage they're earning, then they should simply find another job. When I wasn't happy with the high workload and low wage my employer was throwing at me, I simply found another job at another company. It's all about free market competition. The best paying employer will attract the best and brightest workers.

[strat2131]

I have only 1 small criticism and that is when u said the reason why these laws are implemented is to serve as an advantage for other employees (aka the 10dollar neighbor)

This is quite hard to imagine, and drifts off my train of thought, because most people support minimum wage laws without being in direct competition.

[obmax1212]

He's probably referring to the lobby support. You might find that many people are supportive of a minimum wage increase, but how many of them are actually pestering politicians to do something about it?

[strat2131]

I enjoyed viewing your idea's, although they are definitely not new too me. I believe that the majority of what you said is spot on.

i think the true problem is the general lack of knowledge, and the rate at which society conforms and agrees to almost any scenario a politician puts forward.

The problem is the average persons propensity to agree.. Great video, and i think that videos like these are the starting point of logic

[rbairos1]

Its a great service you're providing. I hope others listening, start forming their opinions on clear logical thinking, and not knee-jerk reactions to popular sentiment.

[Reaversz]

Wow, what a terrible video I've never seen such twisted logic... I couldn't stop watching because I wanted to know what silly thing was going to be said next... btw dude Alberta's minimum wage is $7, but considering Tim Hortons workers there get $12 an hour I think its irrelevant.

[Mammonist]

Ya, looks like in 2005 they increased it 20% to $7. Shame. Now if I own a manual labour factory and pay $10.25 to my workers, hmmm, $7 definately comes into play for considering a move (not to mention Alberta's lower taxes). There's no twisted logic here. Minimum wages kill jobs. If I'm willing to work for $10.24/hr it's none of your business.

[Mammonist]

... Tim Hortons workers there get $12 an hour ... thus proving once again, the free market is more efficient and in touch with economic relaity than a bunch of politicians. Also proves that minimum wage is not needed. Want to increase poorer people's wealth? Cut taxes. Stop restricting business. Stop restricting wealth creation.

[Mammonist]

I can't imagine why companies close down operations in North America and Europe and move to cheaper labour in India and China. Or even why companies move to Alberta (min wage around $5/hr).

[lycurgus33]

Go ahead and find someone working for 5$/hr in Alberta. You won't.

[Mammonist]

Right, already addressed that in below posts...the free market once again out does the government

[bobalu10]

In USA 98% of people earing minimum wage haven't graduated highschool yet...how bout u?

[khalnak]

Yah sure. That's why they have a high GDP per capita

[bobalu10]

USA's GrossDProduct is high b/c of many reasons---higher education is one.

[SaskBigPicture]

If only more Canadians understood the sheer folly of government-dictated minimum wage, and how damaging minimum wage increases are to all workers and the economy....we might actually get some RATIONAL governance in this country.

[lonewolf1369]

how is government dictated minimum wage bad for both workers and the economy? I'm a libertarian, but I want to know your reason for this.

[PaulMcKeever]

Any job the hourly value of which is lower than the minimum wage ceases to exist in the jurisdiction with the minimum wage. Fewer jobs helps neither workers nor the economy.

[PaulMcKeever]

(...continued). However, the essential problem with the raising minimum wage is that it is immoral to living by taking money from someone under threat of force.

[JLCMJelly]

Bad for workers=if there were previously two workers doing a job for $9/hour, and the minimum wage is raised to $12/hour. The other worker gets fired, while the other will have to work 1,33 times more productive. If no worker can do the particular job well enough so that it would bring profit to the company->both workers will be fired.

Bad for the economy=well, people will be living on welfare instead of producing valuable things. I guess anyone can understand this part.

[obmax1212]

You claim to a be a libertarian yet you fail to understand how the minimum wage is bad for the economy? It's very simple, it prevents people from being free to negotiate the terms of employment. People who would otherwise be employed won't be, and businesses will be less productive.

[TemujinBC]

Heh, talking to a camera while driving can be hazardous to your health. The safety of the general public on the roads and sidewalks should be your primary concern!

After the snow we got today, I think I'll go shovel my neighbor's driveway... for five dollars an hour :-)

[scottferrie]

Great Video!!! I am an Anarcho-Capitalist Libertarian...