Is Sen. Warren really this stupid?

Quote from MarketMasher:

If REAL inflation (not fake CPI numbers) was relatively flat, no one would be discussing raising the min wage at all.

Oops, don't tell Ricky rectum. He'll head straight for his liquor cabinet.
 
Quote from Ricter:

Not true, since the rate of minimum wage growth may still be the lower rate.

Right. Certainly wage growth negative in real terms causes this "misery" to surface, but if growth were negative in nominal terms, even with no inflation, it would still be enough to upset anyone. This is because we're conditioned to believe costs only rise (mostly because it's always true). So getting a lower salary for future years for the same amount of work is instinctively bad.

Fortunately, this is much more rare.
 
Quote from nutmeg:

I ran some numbers.

40 hrs a week @$7.75 and as an example a new $10.00 min wage.

The Fed picks up an extra 13.50 a week in new revenue.

Social security 5.58 Plus the employer kicks in another 5.58

Medicare $1.30 additional revenue.

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And prices across the board rise....? Because they will.

Why not make minimum wage $100 an hour? If that's all that is required to balance the budget, we can just print our way into prosperity.
 
Quote from CaptainObvious:

Flat to depressed wages while the boardroom boyz have seen huge increases in pay. Benefit reduction across the board costing employees more for less, while the boardroom boyz have seen huge increases in pay and benefits. Company funded pension plans replaced by 401K's, which BTW were never intended to replace those plans, and cost the company far less and costs employees far more. More money for the boardroom boyz. Outsourcing of jobs to overseas markets by the millions. Illlegal immigrants depressing wages through slave labor wages, especially in small to medium manufacturing and industrial service shops.
So it all about the handful of top executives.
You feel it unfair that 50 to 100 top executives get obscene rewards and the 100,000 other employes fight for scraps.

A fortune 100 company with 20 billion in revenue might pay out 200 million to its top people. About 1% , yet this get Liberals all worked up.
 
You feel it unfair that 50 to 100 top executives get obscene rewards and the 100,000 other employes fight for scraps.
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I wonder if the soundman for a Jay-Z concert is bitchin about what Jay z makes.
 
Quote from Tsing Tao:

The realization that all of the debt - both public and private - can never be repaid without inflating.
Fortunately, "all of the debt" does not come due at once.
 
Quote from Ricter:

Fortunately, "all of the debt" does not come due at once.

Does it matter? We cannot and will not ever pay it off anyway.

Why? We're broke that's why.
 
Quote from Tsing Tao:

I understand what you are arguing. Let's review what we've said thus far. Correct me if I misquote you.

You said that workers had been screwed over the past several decades. I asked how, you said that - essentially - corporate CEOs and business owners (and their like) had seen big pay raises coming from big efficiencies that have driven profits over the years. Workers had not seen that in what you said were predominantly stagnant wages.

I then asked you why these workers did not quit if the salary they were being paid did not compensate them appropriately, and you responded that they had no where to go - and there wasn't much to choose from.

If that is indeed the case (and I think some of that is bang on) then wouldn't you say that the equilibrium between what a corporation can pay for a job to be performed is essentially reached? Ie, if labor is a service provided (and it is) then the cost of that service in the market is already where it needs to be in order to get the job done at the quality needed?

When markets improve, and companies find their workers leaving for greener pastures, what must they do? They have to increase salaries and benefits to attract talent. This eventually drives people to those companies when the salaries and benefits are "competitive".

How is a business owner obligated to share efficiencies of the business - which someone appropriately pointed out could come from business investment, equipment, smarter purchasing, etc - not through employee work - with the employees who did not contribute their salaries to the purchasing of said equipment, items, investment, etc?

It sounds to me like you're talking about socialism here. Privatize the losses and investments, but socialize the profits.

Well, if we can socialize banking losses, while they keep their profits private...I know, different subject. Had to get that in.
You are correct in saying that efficiencies have driven profits to a great degree, and technology in general has eliminated many jobs. So goes progress and I have no issue with that. However, to make the claim that all increased profits are a result of that technological efficiency just isn't true. The worker makes a contribution and as their time on the job grows, so does their performance, in most cases. Profits go up as a result. What I'm saying is that those highly efficient and very productive employees are not being rewarded to a degree anywhere near what exec's have been. I'm in no way claiming that the pay should be equal, or anywhere near equal, but the proportion is skewed heavily towards the exec's. The equilibrium you refer to is under the complete control of the exec's, and it is those exec's who determine pay scales more than market demands. If that is not the case, then explain how exec pay continues to rise, even in a down economy, while employee pay and benefits are slashed regardless of good times or bad as we've seen happen over the past 3 decades. The pay raises the exec's reward themselves, even in a down economy, are on the backs of those underpaid workers who are still highly productive.
I don't believe for a minute that a more sanely proportional pay scale will save the economy, or even come close. I'm just talking about getting paid a living wage for the job you do as a experienced and skilled worker who has many years of experience. In a thin market, it is extremely difficult to just pack up and take those skills down the road as one could do in better time. I can attest to that from personal experience.
 
That minimum wage thing is a tax on business. Democrats only tax and spend.

I'm conservative in my thinking but the situation is very unusual nowadays. For one thing the Marx thingy wherein the machines replace workers has really done a number on what a person can earn. That is a simple fact. In olden times it made a lot of sense for people to be stalwart workers, they were producing food and they had to work to the natural rhythms, not when they felt like it. Nowadays maybe a little stipend for those that can't work is a necessary and good thing. The good adjunct to that is for people to produce their own food. With Square Foot Gardening and Aquaponics any population anywhere can feed itself. The biggest deterrent to food production is violence. Government should focus on rule of law and entrepreneurs can distribute the food production via franchising. Anybody that won't work at growing their food can go f%^k themselves.. I really would let people starve, some would get the lesson and some wouldn't. I'd vote for a nice mixture of socialism/entrepreneurship/social Darwinism if it were available, all we have available is a cacaphony of bad ideas from crooked politicians.
 
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