Added: 4 years ago
From: YTdebates
Views: 97,819
Sort by time | Sort by thread (beta)

Link to this comment:

Share to:
see all

All Comments (543)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • These libtards wouldn't understand economics if it hit them in their face.

  • Haha! Hell no they would not!

  • John Edwards and Hillary Clinton's faces at 1:08 and 1:11 are both "I just lied" faces. :)

    By the way, I wouldn't work for it because I'm confident that I'm worth more. I might accept it or less if I moved to a new field and needed experience. If you let businesses pay people what they're worth, you'll see LOTS more entry-level work with upward mobility...and unemployment will go down and the country will be better off. STOP messing up the market with "helpful" nonsense regulations.

  • minimum wage. lol

    people are sooooo silly.

    minimum wage means nothing. you need to look at inflation and the vale of money.

    the more money you print the lower the value of each unit of money.

  • stupid niggers... typical democratic voterbase

  • Their mouth: "Yes I would"

    Their head: "AHAHAHAHAHA Fuck No!"

    Just look at the smile on Hillary's face after sh says "sure"

  • Comment removed

  • LIARS.

  • look at them all lie through their teeth, politicians in a nut shell.

  • Obama won that round.

  • Since we're all looking down on those unskilled peasants, let me ask you this: how clean do you want your dishes when you go out to eat? Or your bedding when you stay in a hotel? Or rotated food stock when you shop for groceries? Still think MW workers are worthless? Eliminating MW equals eliminating incentive. It would also prove disastrous to the economy as hundreds of thousands went on welfare that you'd be paying for.

  • obamas answer was perfect. 

  • Why don't those who oppose MW just admit that you want free labor? Someone works his ass off, and you want to take away the little bit of incentive he has to support himself? Eliminate MW and watch people scramble to the welfare roles -at YOUR expense. Eliminating MW will only hurt the taxpayer. You say no MW = creating jobs? It will also mean paying a LOT more in workman's comp due IF workers are willing to work for 4.00/hr, and IF employers can pay the additional workman's comp.

  • All the minimum wage law does it state that "If you're worth less than this amount, you are not allowed to get a job."

  • OBAMA is boss!

  • A living wage has got to be the most non-sense I have heard in a while. Not every working needs to earn a wage that allows them to live, such as teenagers. My teenage friends all work for a little bit below minimum wage because they are students, so employers actually want to hire them. They buy phones, food, alcohol, they don't need a living wage, they spend 2/3 of it and save 1/3. Living has nothing to do with it. Any adult working a minimum wage job needs to get better skills.

  • I hate american politics... It all focuses on making ´´the american people´´proud.

  • "No Business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level -- I mean the wages of a decent living." FDR

  • @TechnomancerMorhion So for instance, the newspapers should pay a paperboy a "living wage" or they have no right in this country?

  • @jjenson2006 Might want to reread that quote of FDR.

  • @TechnomancerMorhion Why do I need to re-read the quote? It's a stupid general quote made by a socialist president. When you quote someone, it means that you agree with and respect it. I asked you a question based on that quote and I expect an answer. If you can't answer, your comment means nothing.

  • @jjenson2006 Yes. If the newspapers survival as a company depends on paying paperboys wages that prevents them from being anything other than homeless people living out of their car, there's something wrong.

  • @TechnomancerMorhion Have you ever heard of a homeless paperboy/girl that lives out of a car? We're talking about CHILDREN who live with and are fully supported by their parents who want to earn some money so they can buy things that they want or save up some money.

  • @jjenson2006 I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Paperboys were adult men for the most part. Many of them did live out of their cars. I was one of them.

  • @TechnomancerMorhion How old are you? When I worked as a paperboy, I was 14 years old. Paperboys are boys, not men! If you took the job as a paperboy, you were doing a job that should have been done by a kid. You're not supposed to make a living off of delivering newspapers!

  • @TechnomancerMorhion

    Do you think closing down a business that pays less than "living wages" will benefit the people? For instance, if someone was able to make $4/hr, it would be better that the job didn't exist and they made nothing at all? Obviously if someone was willing to work at a company for $4/hr, it is because there aren't any $8/hr jobs available. Don't you think at $4/hr, the person can at least eat food, whereas someone who makes nothing at all, has to starve or beg for food?

  • @jjenson2006 In the end yes because if someone is paid a wage that doesn't provide a healthy diet and shelter and entertainment then tax payers will have to subsidize the missing amount between what they're paid and what they require for a healthy productive life. That's an unfair burden to tax payers. Or they're left impoverished, which leads to all sorts of stupid things like resorting to crime, which again increases the burden on tax payers.

  • @TechnomancerMorhion I think that it would be a bigger burdon on taxpayers if they had to support them 100% instead of the difference between what they make. Do you know that only 2.2% of the working class makes minimum wage and that more than half of these people are teenagers and that most of these jobs are in the food industry which in many cases they also collect tips?

  • @TechnomancerMorhion Having a high minimum wage increases the price of all goods and services. It also leads to companies breaking our immigration laws by hiring illegal immigrants so that they can keep their costs low in a competitive market. Unskilled labor is supposed to be paid less than skilled labor. What would happen to the price of those newspapers if they doubled the amount you got paid per paper? That increase would go straight into the price and less people would be newspapers.

  • @BriceJF No it doesn't. Redneck.

  • These are all politicians, not statesmen. They say what's popular, not what's true. Raising MW doesn't give workers a "raise." It prices the least skilled out of the labor market because employers can't quite justify hiring them for as much as MW. Some say MW prevents "slave wages," but is someone who is unemployed with low skills any less of a slave when they can't legally offer their labor for less than MW? They lose the freedom to strike a deal for say $5/hour and instead are left with zero.

  • @dbmasta However, some companies are also greedy enough to hire someone with less skills than, say, someone with a master's degree in a relevant field for a position that requires such simply because it would be cheaper. Having no MW would drive the average household income down severely; there needs to be something in the middle ground, although I have no idea what this middle ground would be.

  • @dbmasta Nonsense. Minumum wages are actually good. The company still decides exactly WHO they want to hire and what skills you need to get a job. It just sets a level of how little you are allowed to sell your labor for. Without these laws, there would simply be a short competition to hire people, which would lead to wage increases for a short time, and then massive wage slavery.

  • The minimum wage is the biggest reason for the lack of jobs in the private sector. Think about it, if your a small company, would you be willing to pay someone $10 an hour who's only skill and qualification is to put a cap on a bottle?

  • Kucinich!

  • fuck everybody on that stage.

  • I loved when the candidates said they would. The system crushed me, personally. If not for social aide, I wouldn't have survived (long story I wont share with complete strangers).

    So I appreciate that the people in power see the need that people earn enough to actually live on. At least so they claim, at any rate.

  • @Cindercheth so people who do nothing or very little should have enough money to live comfortabley... lavishly even? I don't care about you story or anyone else's. The principle behind social aide is thievery. The government through force takes from unwilling people to give to others. I understand the underlying issue that it is extremely hard to live on minimum wage nowadays. However the standard of living of the poor in this country exceeds that of the middle class in many other nations.

  • @Cindercheth min wage actually has hurt the production market in this country... thats why we dont have any production jobs because americans are fat and lazy and want to do the least possible work for the most possible gain. As the value of the dollar shrinks and cost of living rise there will be more and more demand to raise the min wage, however, business overhead and operating cost will not fall. Profit margins shrink and entrepreneurship will die along with our standards of living.

  • @Cindercheth I'd like to hear your story. How did the system crush you?

  • obama is awsome

  • All but one of them lied. The rest offered solutions but didn't say what we all know to be the answer...Hell no they would not!

  • @uconnstudent too bad he was lying along with all the other candidates... none of them would ever do that, and watching them say they would is a slap in the face to very people they are talking about.... f****** liberals.

  • Its funny that I hear all this condemning of minimum wages when the newest Speaker of the House John Boehner had to work 2-3 jobs while getting paid minimum wage while attending college to pay for his tuition.

    Being a Libertarian I don't agree with him on many things, but I can respect a man who built himself from nothing to be where he is today without having to suck on the fat tit of government.

  • obama gave a great answer here

  • @matchbox555 yes he did. he was the most honest since he knows all those people ae filthy rich lol. im glad hes our president, bcuz he wont bullshit his own status as a wealthy american :)

  • Minimum wage should be $100 an hour, then everyone would have a lot of money, hell let's make it a $1000, and then I'll ride my purple unicorn on a road made of rainbows to work, where we sit and watch teletubbies all day in our flying teletubbie rocket ship instead of working.

    Give me a fucking break, some people truly are morons, do you really believe that you can just set the minimum wage to higher level and then everyone will have more money? Your intelligence is at Palin level.

  • wowwwwwwww. not one of these guys has any understanding of basic economics. fucking unbelievable.

  • Thank you for the help man! It's easy as the money making technique explained pretty well at ez-casino(dot)com...

  • It feels like these guys are just saying what we want to hear. This makes me sad.

  • Republican scumbags are millionaires but want poor people to make less than the minimum wage. So you rednecks in the red states voted against your own best interest. If Govenors slash the minimum wage in your state, you can't blame the Democrats.

  • Hillary Clinton looks like shes on meth

  • How is it that United Health Care continued to make record profits through the Bush years, yet Republicans blocked raising the minimum wage? How is it that the income gap continues to widen, with more going to the top and NOT "trickling down?"

    Watch the corporate money flow into Republican campaign funds. It's already happening with Karl Rove's front group, and foreign money coming in through the Chamber of Commerce. Thank you, Supreme Court!!

  • @demmmmm1

    Why do you believe the minimum wage helps the poor? If the minimum wage does help, then what do you support raising it to? If something like $8/hr, maybe $10/hr, are you really happy with that as the new minimum? Why not raise it to $100/hr? If the min wage is good, surely a higher min wage is better, no?

    Let's see how well you do when you get challenged to think.

  • @oterj0 The federal minimum wage is a protection against low-skill workers being taken advantage of. I think when considering the minimum wage, we need to think of it as a "living" wage. If a person puts in 40 hours a week, working hard, they deserve to be able to live on it. Maybe even be able to put a few bucks away.

    Right now a minimum wage job provides around $12,000/year. That's $1,000/month. $260.00/week. I don't know about you, but my rent is alone is $1,000/month. I'd be toast.

  • @demmmmm1

    Okay, but what's a "living wage"? With all the expenses of life, saving for retirement, kids' college, etc, etc, do you really think increasing the min wage a couple bucks an hour will make the difference? Would you support raising the min wage to $100/hr?

  • @oterj0 How have you determined the amount of corporate welfare? How many tax breaks should they get? How many $100,000 tax cut checks should we write for millionaires? How much is enough? Should we just get rid of the capital gains tax altogether? Why do you support giving tax incentives to corporations for moving jobs overseas? Republicans really like that one, 'cuz not only do they take jobs, but their corporate playpals get PAID to do it.

    End corporate welfare. Vote Democrat!

  • @demmmmm1

    I dont support corporate welfare and I dont think giving wealthy people tax cuts is what we need. I do believe in eliminating the corporate tax, though, because corporate taxes are very regressive. Do you really think a tax on business gets paid from the shareholders' equity? If you do, you're a fool. Business taxes can come from 1 shareholders, 2 employees, and/or 3 consumers. Who do you suppose the business wants to pay up? The consumers. Business taxes raise prices-->regressive tax

  • @oterj0 Wow. I just realized what you wrote. You wrote, "do you really think increasing the min wage a couple bucks an hour will make the difference?" Wow.

    Well, I congratulate you for being well-off. You must know, however, that there are people in this country who can make that extra $80/week take care of food for 5. You can't comprehend what $80 can mean to someone who's struggling.

    Lack of empathy is the cornerstone of the Republican party.

  • @demmmmm1 Let's imagine you're a small business owner, and all of a sudden, by law, you have to pay your employees more money. Do you raise prices, or plant a money tree in your backyard to pay them?

    See that's the problem, you're not thinking it through. The truth is, minimum wage hurts the poor greatly.

    Price floors create surpluses when they are higher than equilibrium prices. In the case of labor, this means unemployment. Although that's not the only bad thing that happens.

  • @demmmmm1

    What are you talking about? I'm saying why give somebody $80/week more, when you could make the minimum wage $100/hr and everyone would make $200k/yr. Wouldn't that be even better than just throwing low income people a few measly bones?

  • @demmmmm1 Wrong. It's a law that PREVENTS a low skilled worker from being hired, period!

    Those low skill jobs are not for people that have to support themselves. They are for teenagers, old timers and handicapped people who don't need full income. If you are grown up and are working a minimum wage job, it means that you are simply a loser! I'm sorry, but part of growing up is to learn skills that make you valuable of which you are able to be marketable as a valuable employee.

  • @jjenson2006 Which law prevents a low-skilled worker from being hired?

  • @demmmmm1 Minimum wage.

  • @jjenson2006 And if we can go back to slavery, then we can hire all the unskilled labor we want and won’t have to pay ‘em anything! Seems to be the dream of the right-wing.

  • @demmmmm1 A bit like it was in the early 20th century with ghettos full of workers who worked 20 hour days in order to afford a closet with 15 other people.

  • latisha and shaqueesha posing a question? mmm affirmative action :(

  • @alexhamster1134 REPUBLICANS blocked minimum wage increases for 10 years. At the same time, the rich were getting richer and Congress was being paid more as well. If you have any sense of the history of labor in this country, you'd know that the "minimum wage" question and "affirmative action" are two entirely different issues.

    You wouldn't be a racist, would you? Truly. Imagine the same exact question being asked by a blonde country-clubber. What would you think? "Concerned citizen?"

  • @demmmmm1

    Who works for minimum wage? Ill save you the trouble of looking up the Dept of Labor Statistics website, its half people under 25. Add in people working min wage as supplemental income (i.e. spouse has a higher paying job), and the number is about 75%. Of the 25% remaining (~500k people), it isn't known for sure how many, but many of these are illegal immigrants working under the table for min or less. There is no min wage crisis; teenagers and illegal immigrants dont need our charity

  • @demmmmm1 not everyone can be equal, thats never going to happen. just face it, some people are better off and have better opportunities than others.

  • @alexhamster1134 Very true. Some will always have more. Always. And some will be taken advantage of. Always. And some will die in the street as a Mercedes cruises by. Always. But this is America. The richest country on earth. No one should go hungry in this country. No one. And no one should go bankrupt because they get sick, despite the fact that Republicans are okay with that.

    Unemployment benefits=good stimulus.

    Tax cuts for the rich=least effective stimulus.

  • @alexhamster1134

    Oh, but we all are equal. Our assets may not be. But in the human family, we are. You are correct though, there will always be the have and have not divide caused and maintained by those that have.

  • Minimum wage should be realistically indexed to living cost! It should be $15.00 an hour! Seems rather high doesn't it?! The peoples employers will be rid of and replaced not by an unaccountable gvt beauracracy but by themselves. By the people who work there into a co-op. I would fight for these changes until we had a truly socialist society, just not the asshole kind where some fuckin prick controls ur damn life so he can make money, in other words replace your boss with another boss.

  • @fishontuesday

    you think min wage should be $15/hr?? Is that really enough? That's only $30k/yr. Shouldn't the min wage be higher, like maybe $100/hr? That would mean no one would be poor, wouldn't it?

  • @oterj0The value of the dollar would be useless. The only problem I see with raising minimum wage is that employers won't be willing to compromise and will move their workplace to Mexico, China, etc. But don't worry my friend I would make huge changes before I dared do such a thing. The value of the dollar should represent what it truly means without being held back by the middle man of owners. a dollar gets a dollar, not $0.75

  • @oterj0 My plan will not strip the value of the dollar. But will simply ensure that EVERYONE is capable of using money that they should surely be able to use. I'm not going to pump in new money, thats what devalues currency. Instead i'm making most everybody a part of a well paid middle class. Todays middle class well isn't, not when you do some serious comparing to the real rich elite. sp-usa.com

  • @fishontuesday

    So raising the min wage to $100/hr would devalue the dollar, but raising it to $15/hr won't?

  • @oterj0 Not the way I want to do it. Let me explain. I did alot more research and I change my decision to $10.00 an hour per person. With my plans to change businesses into co-ops and other similiar collectives $10.00 wouldn't be asking for too much because nobody would be making millions of dollars off of their labor so the extra money should go to them. The state wouldn't need to be pumping extra money into circulation.

  • @fishontuesday

    How do you propose to change businesses to co-ops? By force?

  • @oterj0 I get this question alot and it is very hard. I don't know exactly. I guess it would have to be taken in baby steps and be done carefully with cooperation from more local gvt. too. Maybe I could form one union and put everyone in it. Then I would bust some serious balls. Theres a million ideas on how to do that but instead of fighting me hows about you help to make peeaceful solutions and join the socialist party. Oh and after I did some math I found the value of dollar would rise litle

  • @fishontuesday

    I'd be one to fight such a change. If you'd like to start a co-op, I'm completely okay with that, but if you're proposing stealing someone's business to make it a co-op instead, you're no better than the common thief. I don't think I'll be joining you in your mission.

  • @ot Once again there are a billion answers. Maybe I could start a co-op and we might be able to gain ALOT of support and maybe run others out of business and replace them. I'm sure the people would be willing to do a little boycotting to make America a better place for everybody. The Socialist party just knows we need to get there, Anyone who believes that is a Socialist in some way or another. Specific tactics for reaching this society include things like syndicalism, int'l proletarianism, etc.

  • @oterj0 I'm glad you want to fight for these changes but instead of squeezing me for ideas so much what would YOU do. I don't think the dems and Reps are to concerned about this even though it's very significant. Oh and read my other comment too. Peace.

  • @fishontuesday

    What would I do? There's nothing to be done, really. People are free to work or not, people are free to own a business or not. To the extent that govt makes it more difficult for people to start businesses, I'd like to see business taxes eliminated. Makes one less barrier for entry and business taxes are regressive taxes anyway. Replace the lost govt income with a simple, progressive sales tax. That's what I'd do.

  • @oter Why a progressive sales tax that keeps lots of poorer people from buying stuff. How's about a very progressive income tax instead. But if co-ops gained alot of popularity would you try to support those businesses a bit more then the traditional style. If everybody was aware they could change our society without ruthless gvt methods they could work together and truly make a difference. My mission is to spread awareness, To make everybody know what they can do to change the world peacefully

  • @oterj0 Oh yeah theres this other popular technique to become more socialist. It's called social democrats, it's popular in Europe and especially in scandinavian countries like Norway and Sweden. They believe they can become more Socialist through reforms and reject violent revolutions and Marxism. They have been criticized though for being too weak with their reforms. Perhaps you should check it out a bit too.

  • Yes they would, they are so rich they could not get paid at all. Question is would they be willing to live on it.

  • Are these guys serious? A higher minimum wage would cause prices and unemployment to skyrocket

  • @GoingGoingGalt

    Are you expecting that these guys have thought about it critically? If the min wage is good, surely a higher min wage is better, but what would happen if the min wage were $100/hr? Maybe they might realize all that would do is either export labor or reduce the value of the dollar such that people making "only" $100/hr would be the new poor. I doubt they realize that the min wage raises the price of consumer goods, which ends up being a regressive tax. They don't get it.

  • @oterj0 Ah yes, true. Politicians aren't out to do things because theyre logical. Theyre only out to woo voters

  • increase it al least 9-10 dollars to give people a chance out there to provide for their families.

    Is this guy a comedian or what?

  • @raiserverg

    Why stop there? Why not set the min wage to $100/hr? That would truly eliminate fear from want, no?

  • @oterj0 truly stupid words coming from a truly stupid person, so you think $10 would actually provide help to a person who already has a job, no they wouldn't because most people have bills to pay and $10 would be of minimal assistance to those people. The only ones that could be helped by such an amount of money are people on the verge of starvation like hobos even though most of them still survive with no help whatsoever

  • @raiserverg

    what's stupid? if the minimum wage is good, then a higher min wage is better. If a higher min wage is not feasible, then maybe that says the min wage itself doesn't do what we think it does.

  • Наравно да се слажем да радим за законски најмању сатницу под условом да је 20 долара на сат уместо садашњих 8.Таман да смањим радно време са 24 сата недељно на 12 сати недељно.

  • Why would anyone actually think minimum wage is good idea?

  • @coaster61: BC no one's time is worth less than 7.25 an hour. Bc the economy sucks, I was forced to take a low wage job. I work 40 hours a week for $8 an hour, I have no kids but I can't even afford to live by myself, I need a roommate....Pay me less and I would be homeless. I have skills and am working on getting a better job, but this is all I have now.

  • @mcgregwood7 Why do you think unemployment is much higher where there are higher minimum wages? Minimum wage does NOT help you. One of two things happen. Some companies will increase prices and it won't hurt there sales, OR it does hurt their sales. In the latter scenario, there will either be layoffs or the company will just close up. In the former, GREAT you now have more money, but everything you want to buy is more expensive. So either you lose your job, or if your lucky, nothing changes.

  • @coaster61

    Right, but don't forget that if prices go up, that disproportionately hurts the lower incomes who spend 100% of their income vs. wealthier folks who use a lower % of their income on consumption. So, nothing changing is a best case. In reality, the case where prices go up ends up increasing the rich poor gap; the exact opposite of what the boneheads promoting it would want.

  • LYING MOFO'S

  • Minimum wage is one of the worst things to happen to america. It's making it it illegal to hire people for jobs that are only worth hiring if you can earn a profit......

    one economist estimated the last increase from $6.55 to $7.25 destroyed 300,000 jobs.

    If we got rid of the minimum wage we would literally have millions more jobs, and destroy almost all unemployment....

    minimum wage sounds like a great idea at first, but everyone who supports it.....TAKE ECONOMICS!! even an intro class

  • lol, i think it would have been more effective if they said no they would not want to for if they were elected they wouldn want to live under that circumstances as such they would do something about it because truly they understand XD

  • These idiots are pandering to the public that do not know anything about economics. Minimum wage laws, as Milton Friedman says are a tax on the poor! Anyone who doesnt see this is simply living in wonderland. Some company's in which such individuals can get jobs cannot provide it because the capital simply is not there. It therefore drives up the costs of there products in order to pay mandated wages. If its food, then we have high prices which effect the poor anyway! When will they get it

  • youtube search "stossel minimum wage"

  • 20 years ago compared to today where i live, a pack of Newports went up %1400 percent, Gas prices went up 300%, Milk prices went up 400%. but the minimum wage only increased 81%.

    Were only getting POORER! The minimum wage should be MUCH higher so people can afford decent purchasing power like they could before.

  • Your right and wrong to some degree. Minimum wage hurts the poor. Certain company's generally small bussiness are hurt but mandated price wage for its workers. It therefore hurts the consumer which is also poor individuals because the small business has to increase prices in order to offset the mandated price wage to its workers. The Consumer suffers and so its a continual process. Unions lobby for this all the time not the poor. They can nagotiate and up there wage based on minimum ;)

  • Benito-obama the fed, wall street, goldman sachs boy. His largest campaign donors. Wake up people, the house is on fire!

  • dont expect top notch work for below standard pay in other words less you pay worse quality of worker you have. dont expect much from someone make very little

  • Stupid question.

  • the government CREATES poverty through minimum wage. for them to literally provide us shit for compensation, are we not to understand that they think our labor is worth shit? for America to sit back and take that for as long as we have just goes to show you how we would let the gov't bend us over and teach us the law

  • smart answer, obama.

  • I would bet that all the Capitalist 'purists' that comment on doing away with the minimum wage make at least double the minimum wage. Reading comments on vids like this only reinforce the fact that yes, we are a capitalist society and that capitalism is by far the best economic system ever devised. People's comments also reinforce that a LOT of folks have never in their lives been forced to work for the minimum wage in their adult lives. They simply don't understand "Hard Times".

  • cont- Having a "living wage" may be a socialist concept but it protects the weakest among us from becoming virtual slaves in a dog eat dog system that they are powerless to change. Humanity can live side by side with Capitalism without destroying capitalism. Don't believe me? Quit your job and take a job at minimum wage for 2 or 3 years. See if THAT might soften your views an give you a new found respect for labor...

  • @randy95023 hear hear!

  • @randy95023: THANK YOU!! If the labor market didn't exploit workers then there won't be unions. I have worked plenty of low wage jobs and they do work you hard for peanuts, plus they hold that threat over your head "u will be fired if u don't pass that test, or preform this fast." Some of these folks on this blog don't realize that many minimum wage workers are college students trying to get by. These conservative clowns on this blog...Mommy and Daddy paid all their college expenses. 

  • @randy95023

    Raising the min wage helps teenagers by hurting working adults just above minimum wage. You see, raising the minimum wage is a cost on business that must be paid for by either 1 loss of business equity, 2 layoffs, or 3 increased prices. In general, the industries hiring min wage workers can easily pass costs onto consumers because they sell gas, groceries, and other necessities. Helping the min wage worker is a regressive tax for everyone above min to give teenagers more money.

  • We need to let those buying and selling agree on the price each is willing to trade for. It's nobody else's business if someone buys a loaf of bread or an hour of labor for one cent or $100.

  • We need a "living wage" more than a "minimum wage". Anyone willing to put on their boots and head out the door every morning to a full time job should at least earn enough to pay basic rent, food and utilities. I earn triple the minimum wage and work 40+ hours a week. I live by myself in a small apartment and drive a 10 year old pickup. I'm hardly able to save a nickel a month. I see kids working a LOT harder than me for 1/3 my pay. It just isn't right...

  • cont.- BTW, I have a degree in Economics and fully understand the capitalist reasons for NOT having a minimum wage. I realize that a Living Wage is artificial and would increase unemployment by 1 or 2%. Point is still the same. We are humans and should care about our fellow man AND respect labor. Before you respond, or "thumb down" just ask yourself how you'd like to live on $7 per hour? Would YOU? Could YOU? Living Wage is the right thing to do and would be well worth the cost.

  • how would u counter the talking points that says people cant find work when minimum wage is raised

  • Who makes minimum wage? Check out the Dept of Labor statistics on minimum wage demographics (search in Google, you'll find it), you'll discover that half of min wage workers are 24 or under (i.e. students), about a quarter make less than min wage (because they'lre here illegally), leaving no more than 1/4 of the 2 million min wage workers possibly supporting families. Of this 500k people, many are supplementary income earners, so a min wage increase helps VERY few people supporting families.

  • What about the effects of the minimum wage? People talk about rising unemployment, which is a possible effect, but another one is rising prices. If labor costs more, business has to either recoup that through lost employee wages (layoff), lost shareholder equity (fat chance), or increased prices (you got it). If prices go up when the min wage goes up, min wage workers (teenagers) get a benefit, but everyone else sees no wage rise, but prices go up. That's no helpful to low wage earners.

  • raising the minimum wage only increases unemployment! If some workers are worth less than the minimum wage they wont get hired. Raising the minimum wage only pushes the prices and poverty level further up so anyone who thinks they moved up has stayed the same.

  • @randy95023

    My mother works wakes up everyday at 7:30AM, and comes home at 6:30-8:30PM.

    She works five days a week, maybe more sometimes.

    She does not gain 650$ as minimum wage.

    We do not live in America.

    Only in America would someone who works so less could complain, yet still get to earn 650$ per week.

    I spit on you and your wilingness to consider yourself a hard worker.

  • @Lulzman69 That's economy for you, that guy wasn't BRAGGING that he earns that much but saying he feels bad for the people that don't. He's trying to be compassionate and you're insulting him? You fucking ass, go suck some dick.

  • @Lulzman69 The simple reply to you would be that WE live in America. What it COSTS us to live here is very expensive. We dont have a choice, just like YOU. No wait, we would let you move here, you probably wouldnt let us move there. Thats the difference between you and us.

  • I deal with non-polluting limitless energy systems that are all electric, or Hydrogen-based, and devices and systems that are pollution free, and MUCH faster than any rocket, no G-forces. That is the future that has been denied to all, except the military-elites, and black budget projects free fo congressional oversight, since the 1950s.

  • The minimum wage should be truly reformed. First off there should be no minimum wage on people without a high school education and are under than 18 for 2 reason. 1 it makes it so people will go to high school. 2 jobs in high aren't important what you learn from the job is. Also the minimum wage should be pretty much optional on employee. So businesses and people can say to someone who is out of work. OK I can't hire paying the minimum wage,but I can by paying you below it.

  • than whats the point of even having it?

  • Well having a job in high school teaches you responsibility and makes you want to work harder,because you have a job at a deli. You'll say this sucks I'm going to work hard and get something better when I'm older. A little extra money is good to,but still.

  • You could have shortened your post and said "get rid of the minimum wage, it makes no sense" if its optional then it doesn't exist

  • The very pretense of that question is stupid. Everyone on this panel is capable of making way more. Duh. The question should have been: "Do you think one should work for the minimum wage?"

  • This is what wkruk1979 left in my mailbox

    "i feel a pedophile should be allowed in this FREE MARKET KILL ME A NIGGER TOMMROW !!!!

    i love not haveing to take responsibility for what i write as a liberal"

    When what he thought was a private email, like any good liberal, wkruk1979 revealed his true feelings regarding black people

  • spammer

  • what will minimum wage be in 2010?

  • same as now i bet

  • Typical democratics... Who does the minimum wage hurt the mjost? I'll tell you who, the poor.

  • yes because makeing 2 an hr is WAY BETTER!!! than 8 hr

    idiot,

  • wkruk1979, let me enlighten you. Wages are not a function of employer charity. They are determined by the marginal productivity of the employee. Using your numbers, if you were to raise minimum wage from $2 to $8, you will not increase the wages of everyone currently in the $2-7.99 range. Instead, you will ensure that everyone whose marginal productivity is less than $8 loses their job. Employers won't keep employees they lose money on.

    In summary, you RAISE unemployment, and help no one.

  • If you support minimum wage then you should support price floors on all products and services.

  • Not exactly. I want a minimum wage. Yet if an employee is willing to say I'm willing to be paid 4$ an hour for the job,because they can't afford to higher when it's more.

  • In the scenario you describe, the minimum wage does not exist. You ARE advocating the complete repeal of the minimum wage, and I agree with you.

  • Well know I'm not advocating the total elimination,but something like that yes. More of a standard in jobs.

  • yeah but being forced to pay someone 8 dollars an hour and lose all my money overpaying employes is WAY WORSE than paying them less so I can actually make a profit! How do you expect business owners to make profits and ends meet when they are forced to pay a wage thats too high?

  • if your having problems paying a meere 8 hr than maybe u have bigger problems than just payroll

  • @tatomuck18 it's simple, they aren't FORCED to pay wages that are too high.......they'll simply not hire near as many people and the people they do hire will get less hours.

    the last increase from $6.55 to $7.25 was estimated at losing 300,000 jobs. I think it ended up losing even more, I'll have to check.

  • raise it to $100/hour, why stop with a single digit?

  • They wouldn't do it. Regardless of what they say. Politicians are liars, especially when it comes to garnering support from the people. All raising minimum wage does is make Business owners raise their prices or lay people off. If you're getting paid minimum wage it's because you're doing a low-qualification job. What the hell is wrong with people? Does EVERYONE want a handout?!

  • Or, you have a high-qualification job, like COMPUTER PROGRAMMING, and the jobs are all outsourced to India, and all that are left are sales jobs at Radio Shack, and low-wage service jobs, and retail. I don't want a handout, I want the job that I trained for, went to school for, and almost died from stress to learn. Not a minimum-wage service job or retail job!!! That's why I started my OWN businesses, because of this fucked up jobs situation, since 2000.

  • Nature of the best. :\

  • One of many stupid questions these liberal journalists like to ask......

    Check out my video on the minimum wage.

    watch?v=gJHt0MJ5Dwk&feature=ch­annel_page

  • I think being a President is a LITTLE harder than working at minimum wage job...correct me if that sounds outlandish.

    "I think we need an increase in minimum wage so all my neighbors can get an increase in wages"

    or all your neighbors could get laid off. You can't raise minimum wage and expect there to be no consequences, businesses aren't going to go along with it. No matter how much government tries to legislate, people actions are still going to be influenced by supply and demand.

  • Mostly by simple GREED.

  • the human race would go extinct without greed.

  • The human race is goingextict BECAUSE OF GREED. The greedy oil companies buy up and shelve cheap-clean zero-point energy systems, and suppress inventions and murder the inventors and proponents, such as the late Dr. Eugene Malloeve, and Stan Meyer. The pollution and global warming caused by fossil carbon fuels is detroying our Planet. Greed causes a stratification of income insuring the rich get richer, and the middle class dwindles, and the poor die. Greek KILLS.

  • your comment lost all of it's validity as soon as you mentioned global warming. it's a hoax. try to argue with me on that. and of what society do you know of that doesn't run on greed? greed has been the driving force of man. the strong prevail and the weak die. why is it a crime to be rich these days? we're all born with the same opportunities, but none of us are equal by any means.

  • hi

    dont call it greed. call it profit incentive.

  • Howmany yaghts can you water-ski behind, how many summer homes. Whilst the workers go bankrupt, and cannot even afford a home, in America anymore. In the 1960s, we had a HUGE 3-bedroom apartment in Riverdale NY, for $235 a month. Gasoline was only 40-cents agallon. People took vacations and bought boats, adn had sumer homes and the economy was the best it ever was. I lived it. I was born in 1961. Republicans were hell bent on destoying the economy, so they elected Richard Nixon.

  • Global warming is no hoax. Ive' knownabout it since 1970, and it is caused by burning dirty hydrocarbon fuels, like coal and oil. We dump BILLIONS of tons of CO2 and Methane into the air every year. That is unsustainable. That is science. You cannot argue with the data. Hydrogen burns CLEANLY, so we should cut-over to a hydrogen economy. Peace.

  • unsustainable my ass. the amount of CO2 man puts out is nothing compared to the amount the planet puts out. how about you try and cap emissions on the ocean or volcanoes? CO2 doesn't even make up 1% of the atmosphere. CO2 isn't even a pollutant, plants thrive on it. why does the founder of the weather channel think man-made global warming is bullshit? please tell me. and why has it been so cold with so much snow where i live along with a cold summer this past year? tell me.

  • The point is we are pouring billions of tons of greenhouse gases a year into the envioronment more than nature does. Why do you think Venus is too hot for human-life. Runaway greenhouse effect, that we are artificially producing since 1900.Unsustainable. Islands and coastlines are disappearing, and the north pole is nearly devoid of ice. When I was a kid in the 1960s, it was HUGE. We must stop polluting our world with acid rain, soot, and carbon-emissions. Nature had sequestered in underground.

  • didn't you read what i said in my last comment? the earth puts out way more CO2 than humans ever will. i agree with you on limiting pollution, but man-made global warming is by far the most retarded thing people have come up with this generation. the earth goes through its own cycles, regardless of what we do. venus is far closer to the sun than the earth, and has CO2 levels far higher than the earth (95%). the earth has a CO2 level of 0.0387%, not even close to 1%.

  • There is only thing wrong with your statement. and that is it is not true.

    We must end our ADDICTION TO PETROLEUM. The Japanes have a car that runs on WATER.

  • prove my statement is wrong. quit listening to politicians and open up a fucking science book. jesus christ, i just gave you the facts, but, you choose to just look the other way. i've actually made money off of oil. so why would i quit using it? i could give two shits about what the japanese are doing. move your ass to japan and go drive their water powered cars if you like them so much. fucking enviro-nazis......

  • I have. I have studied Global warming caused by fossi-fuel burning since 1972.

    If you're not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. We are ADDICTED TO PETROLEUM. We need a POLLUTION REVOLUTION. No more E