they politicized minimum wage - If the wage had kept up with inflation it would probably be around $18 an hour right nowSaint wrote:Capitalism worked better in America between the '50s and late '70s. The cost of living has moved up much faster than the pay scale. That's the biggest problem.
I believe that was a horrible mistake for two reasons - one is obvious - it created a class of people who can't afford to live, but secondly it allowed business to transfer their basic obligations to provide a quality of life for its employees to the government , and the government paying for quality of life is also politicized.
At the same time, a narrative was created that people who make sandwiches or stock shelves aren't worthy of a living wage - these jobs "were never intended to be career", they are stepping stone jobs for high schoolers/college kids, yet the average age of someone doing this in America is 26 years old. If we live in a country where you work full time and can't live without dependency on the government, I think we are doing something wrong.
the other side of the coin is if we just enforced our immigration laws, focused on merit based immigration and handed out green cards to college graduates, then minimum wage could be largely obsolete, such as now in a strong economy when there aren't enough workers, the minimum wage places - and minimum wage is largely just a starting base as I think most workers now making something above minimum wage - are forced to pay the market rate. With fewer workers available the market rate must be raised. It also leads to innovation just as kiosks that improve wait times at fast food places.
The downside is that in a bad economy, wages would probably fluctuate in the other direction if it weren't for the minimum wage.