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S.6 Raise Minimum Wage to Living Wage; RAISE IT
Topic Started: Mar 23 2015, 01:18 AM (2,217 Views)
Wildeboden
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Down with the Bourgeoisie!
Because implementing a living wage will maximize the most amount of net benefits, I affirm the resolution that, “Resolved: Just governments ought to require that employers pay a living wage”Since the resolution uses the term ought, which means moral obligation, I value morality. The only way to achieve morality is through utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the moral theory that is based on maximizing the greatest good for the greatest number. Thus my value criterion is maximizing the most amounts of the net benefits.
Use Utilitarianism when creating policies because:
a. Government policies entail tradeoffs
b. public action is required from the inability of individual action to achieve certain morally desirable ends.

A. A living minimum wage brings people out of poverty.
According to Dube, an economist, an immediate increase in the federal minimum wage is projected to reduce the number of those living in poverty by around 6.8 million.

B. A living wage will boost consumerism.
raising the minimum wage puts more money in the pockets of working families when they need it most, thereby augmenting their spending power.¶ Increasing the federal minimum wage to $10.10 by July 1, 2015, would give an additional $51.5 billion over the phase-in period to affected workers, who would, in turn, spend those extra earnings. This projected rise in consumer spending is critical to any recovery, especially when weak consumer demand is one of the most significant factors holding back new hiring. Cooper and Hall '13

Raising the minimum wage means minimum wage workers have more money to expend which means more money ripples throughout the economy as minimum wage employees are able to spend more. -Halvorsen '14

C. Consumerism is good.

Consumerism is fast emerging as an environmental force affecting major business decisions as consumers become more aware about their rights. A broad recognition and growing acceptance of consumerism makes the firms more consumer‐oriented rather than product‐oriented. It is noted that consumerism tends to serve as an opportunity for those corporate managers who are able to identify and anticipate the consumer’s problems.

FOR THESE REASONS:
Article 1
Section 1. Raise the minimum wage to $10/hr
Edited by Wildeboden, Mar 28 2015, 10:05 PM.
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CDLand
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Also, if raising the minimum wage to "living wage" is a good idea, wouldn't raising it to $50/hour or $100/hour be an even better idea? More money for everyone! Except that there are always costs; in this case the costs are borne by anyone unemployed because they lack the skills necessary to justify such a wage, the businesses which go bankrupt or are unable to start because they are unable to find suitable and affordable labor, and the consumers who have to pay higher prices for goods and services.
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The Rhein States
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CDLand
Mar 23 2015, 02:41 PM
II. Living Minimum Wage
First of all, no one has a right to any set wage. In a free society, people are able to trade their labor in return for what someone else will pay for that labor. As long as the exchange is mutually agreed to, there is no need for intervention by any third party. Why? Well aside from the fact that such intervention infringes on the individual rights of both the employer and employee, such intervention does not lead to a better result for either party.

a. Target
Who is it that you're targeting by raising the minimum wage? Poor people? Well, yes. But who are these poor people? A good deal are teenagers or college age students who are still dependent on their parent's incomes but are taking a job to gain employment experience and skills. Is it necessary that these people receive a living wage? Absolutely not. Only 23% of minimum wage workers make at or below the federal poverty line.

b. Unemployment
It's very simple: when you raise the cost of something, you get less of it. If you raise the cost of employing lower skilled people, you get less employment of lower skilled people. This is borne out in two ways: higher unemployment and lower business success ratios. You may help one person by raising his wage, but at the same time you harm another person by lowering his wage to $0. You are depriving teenagers and low skilled individuals of the ability to step on the bottom rung of the skills ladder.

c. Consumer cost
I fail to see how raising the minimum wage facilitates a consumer society. By imposing more costs on business, the businesses pass on the costs to the consumer, thereby causing prices to rise and consumerism to fall.
a. Target
You are missing the point here. The discussion is about those who are in the age range to settle for themselfs. Teenagers are not post-graduates. Also, just to comment on it, gain job experience and skills these days is very difficult.

b. Unemployment
Well, the study made between New Jersey (minimum wage) and Philadelphia (no minimum wage) was that there were no effects, whatsover, on higher unemployment. In the case of these 2 states and according to your logics, New Jersey should have a higher unemployment, but no. The skills ladder, thanks to the student loans, does not exist anymore. A fairytale, really. In the 1970's the percentage of people who were able to climb up the social ladder was about, sorry this is from the head, 30 percent. Nowadays, that percentage is as low as 17 percent. Where you come from is now more important then what you know and learned.

c. Consumer costs
Actually, businesses are to blame for all the problems. This is what makes talking about one specific problem so difficult. According to a study made by The European Union, well if you can call it a study, showed that businesses evaded paying taxes in massive quantities. How big, nobody is sure, estimates give a conservative 150 billion a YEAR. These taxes are never payed in Europe and it goes for all countries in the world. Governments cannot get enough funds and go bust. Evaluation of the Dutch tax payments showed that between 2000 and 2014 businesses payed 50 percent less taxes, while all of them earned more! The taxes on income have risen the same percentage as the business taxes dropped. Work is now even harder taxed. Question: Why would you work then? (it was the first question I had atleast).

Businesses have ALWAYS passed taxation onto the consumer, the consumer pays all taxes in the end. The question that should be asked is, whether it is moral and ethical if businesses kept money to themselfs, for higher wages, and leave government and citizens to pay for all the damage they cause!

That was off topic, I know. Final question: Do we really have to buy all the time?
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CDLand
Mar 23 2015, 03:48 PM
Also, if raising the minimum wage to "living wage" is a good idea, wouldn't raising it to $50/hour or $100/hour be an even better idea? More money for everyone! Except that there are always costs; in this case the costs are borne by anyone unemployed because they lack the skills necessary to justify such a wage, the businesses which go bankrupt or are unable to start because they are unable to find suitable and affordable labor, and the consumers who have to pay higher prices for goods and services.
Such abnormal amounts of money will always lead to inflation, perhaps even hyper-inflation.
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CDLand
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A bill raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour (which I think is the standard for what people demand in a "living wage") would affect everyone. And if you tried to target the minimum wage by saying it only applies to people who are the primary source of income for their families, then you'd find a lot of businesses discriminating against these people and hiring teenagers instead.
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ILTrains
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Too bad it's just a theory
People will obviously get greedy and not take on the profits that they can get without the increase.
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The Rhein States
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CDLand
Mar 23 2015, 03:52 PM
A bill raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour (which I think is the standard for what people demand in a "living wage") would affect everyone. And if you tried to target the minimum wage by saying it only applies to people who are the primary source of income for their families, then you'd find a lot of businesses discriminating against these people and hiring teenagers instead.
Perhaps I shall throw this over another fence (dont know what I am saying here). CDLand, is it to your believe that businesses have rights and duties? In a SOCIETY everyone has rights and duties. Businesses are not different from humans, they are created by us and we run them. You talk about businesses as if they are run by robots and if they do not have duties and rights (probably not a strong way of saying this). According to what you have been saying is : that businesses do not have to have moral and ethical standards just like our society. That it is normal for businesses to discriminate and exclude while, when a human does the same as a business, we talk shame of him.
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ILTrains
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Rhein you can get the post about money in TPU in AS any time you want
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Moscuro
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Was this inspired by my post on the RMB?
"The Great Questions of the day will not be settled by Speeches and Majority Votes, but by Iron and Blood."

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CDLand
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The Rhein States
Mar 23 2015, 04:01 PM
CDLand
Mar 23 2015, 03:52 PM
A bill raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour (which I think is the standard for what people demand in a "living wage") would affect everyone. And if you tried to target the minimum wage by saying it only applies to people who are the primary source of income for their families, then you'd find a lot of businesses discriminating against these people and hiring teenagers instead.
Perhaps I shall throw this over another fence (dont know what I am saying here). CDLand, is it to your believe that businesses have rights and duties? In a SOCIETY everyone has rights and duties. Businesses are not different from humans, they are created by us and we run them. You talk about businesses as if they are run by robots and if they do not have duties and rights (probably not a strong way of saying this). According to what you have been saying is : that businesses do not have to have moral and ethical standards just like our society. That it is normal for businesses to discriminate and exclude while, when a human does the same as a business, we talk shame of him.
Businesses by themselves don't have any moral duties. You're right though, people have moral duties and rights. But there's a difference between a moral duty and a duty imposed by policy through the government. It may be my moral duty to donate 10% of what I make to charity, but I don't think the government should mandate that I do. Morality is personal and it's not to be imposed by fiat by the government.

And even if it were, I'm arguing that increasing the minimum wage is bad from a policy standpoint. It discriminates against people with low skills and is ineffective at targeting those it's trying to help.
John Newman (LP-Buxton)

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Moscuro
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Stop watching Fox News, glenn.
"The Great Questions of the day will not be settled by Speeches and Majority Votes, but by Iron and Blood."

-Otto Von Bismarck
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