Joe Biden has already quietly told several Democrat governors that he’s not going to be raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. There’s no way an increase like that will get through a narrowly divided Congress. That’s going to be upsetting to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) and other people who are terrible at math.
But it’s worth talking about the federal minimum wage anyway, because the subject is sucking so much oxygen out of the room in DC right now. Anytime someone on the left starts telling me that they want a huge increase to the minimum wage, my first question for them is always this: Why do you hate black people so much?
The National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge has just released a timely study of what has happened to prices at McDonald’s restaurants nationwide, every time the minimum wage is increased. Their conclusion probably isn’t a big surprise to anyone on the right: Every time the minimum wage is increased, the entire cost is passed on to consumers who suddenly have to pay more for food.
Fast food restaurants are models of assembly-line efficiency. They can slap together burgers, fries and milkshakes for a whole family in just a couple of minutes. With so many efficiencies built into their business model, there’s nowhere else where they can cut costs to pay for minimum wage increases. The only short-term solution is to raise prices for everyone.
Princeton University has found, again to the surprise of no one on the right, that minimum wage increases drive up the price of just about everything else in the economy. The result is always the same: The same people who receive the pay increase from a minimum wage hike are no better off in the end, because everything else that they have to pay for goes up in cost.
Here’s another thing that all of the dummies in the “Fight for $15” battle don’t realize: The real minimum wage is always $0. At a certain point, companies that provide entry-level jobs will simply automate and replace their minimum-wage employees with robots or vending machines. McDonalds restaurants are already doing this in California, where the minimum wage increased to $14 an hour in January 2021.
If there’s a glut of unskilled workers and no jobs for them to fill, well gee, what do you suppose that does to wages?
You already experience the $0 minimum wage effect every time you use the self-checkout at the grocery store. Think about it: You go to the store. You fill your cart. You scan the items. You bag your groceries yourself. You pay the machine and leave.
You’ve just done all the labor for the grocery store! Once the stores figure out how to restock the shelves with a couple of robots, there will be absolutely no need for human employees there any longer. That might not happen immediately under a $15 minimum wage, but it’s coming.
Now… don’t pull your hair out and run screaming from the room at this next statement. The federal minimum wage has always been a racist construct.
The first federal minimum wage was passed during Reconstruction – you know, that period in American history after Republicans freed the slaves from the Democrats. The purpose of the first federal minimum wage was to specifically prevent the post-Civil War jobs boom from benefitting southern states.
After Republicans freed the slaves, there was suddenly a glut of new workers who were ready, willing and eager to find jobs. Cost of living in the South was lower than in the Northern states, so the large black workforce didn’t care about making the kinds of wages that people in the Northern states were demanding.
The first federal minimum wage thus disincentivized new factory and jobs growth in the South. Which is better for a civilization in the first place: A job, or a minimum wage that is too high to create that job in the first place?
All of this is a moot point anyway in the end. Joe Biden’s promise to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour was just like his promise of $2,000 stimulus checks, forgiving student loan debt, and free healthcare for black families. It was just another lie he told on the campaign trail.
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Nobody ever mentions what this will do to the elderly on a budget, does social security double for seniors, no it would not, seniors would have either buy food or medications not both. By democrats thinking the elderly are just a burden and they don’t care about them. The thought that the entry level person would be a lot better off after the increase like it was stated in the article entry level employees will be on welfare, costs of all commodities goes up to match the raise so you are still in the same rut.
A person enlisting in the military has always been on the low end of the pay scale , considering the hours they put in (all the military for that matter ) so, $ 15.00 hr / times 24 hours a day times 365 days a year ….where do I sign up?
Jacking up prices on goods and services and letting people go because you can’t afford to pay everyone that much is such short sighted stupidity. If they had proposed a simple raise of minimum wage to something reasonable, this wouldn’t be as big a problem. The minimum wage was never meant to be a living wage. Trying to fit a square peg into a round hole….
Fast food is mostly high school kids. They don’t need $15 an hour. It’s not skilled labor like a machine operator, fork lift driver or semi driver.
S Says, you are correct…fast food restaurants are for kids in high school or college…not for the head of house hold to support their family. When will these demon-rats get a brain??? That AOC bitch and her followers need to go back to school to learn math!! They are all brain dead!
The communist democRATS don’t care about the repercussions of inflation that will be caused by this stupid plan. They are only short sighted in it will for the first month make them look good then the reality steps in with the inflation and workers laid off because it is an economic failure. People that look at minimum wage as a living wage are too lazy to better themselves and make changes in their life to better their economic position. They are satisfied with going to a place and giving the bare minimum of effort for a wage.
Minimum wage is just a stepping stone to get actual work experience.
The real minimum wage is zero. That is what all the kids that can not get a job becuase the business hire fewer people will get: zero.
Minimum ways is for new unskilled workers. They neither deserve more nor should they get more.
Bruce. Businesses determine what wage to pay.
When there is competition for the same type skill of worker wages are determined, if a business can’t find workers at the wages they are paying because of competition for those workers they will raise wages to keep the employees or go out of business. It’s that simple. Government doesn’t need to get in the way
It’s amazing how politicians get paid a certain salary yet wind up becoming millionaires not because they are so clever, but they are resourceful at taking what does not belong to them. Politicians getting paid 500K for speaking engagement. What could they possibly say that is worth so much money. During their tenures many of them become traitors to our country to oblige foreign entities as those same entities pay them big bucks to steal from the country they are supposed to be serving. How about they use fund allocated for BS for real issues that need to be addressed for our people in trouble due to the pandemic or the trouble these officials have created for our businesses as well as riots that destroyed some of our cities. How about holding accountable these jackasses who spend money like a sieve instead of being fiscally responsible and cutting back on foolish crap spending. Cut our taxes. They must serve within the means as we citizens must live within our means. The only racists are the Democrats that think their constituents are too ignorant to see what they are doing, when in actuality they are holding them to their word, hoping they will do what they say. Democrats as well as some in the Republican party can’t be trusted period. We the people must be able somehow to make these elected officials be accountable for their actions and not have so much power. They are paid employees just like the rest of us. We are a democratic country and will continue as such.
210309. 2 response to the uspoliticsandnews.com fight-for-15-why-do-democrats-hate-racial-minorities-so-muc ?
The phony minimum wage deal can be exposed and stopped by proposing legislation that requires all advocates and their families to earn and then live on the minimum wage they advocate for 1097 consecutive days – all their`other wealth being civil forfeiture to the`state… this would include both the ‘principle’ people who support and who oppose the minimum wage in question.
Doing this means No one would ever bring up the ‘Krony ‘Kapitalist : politi’Kal ‘Klass minimum wage fraud again.
but, as usual, you will do nothing… so, evil wins – again.