[cw30000]

We don't live in Utopia. We live in a finite world. The construction industry melted down for a reason, they over built. Banks gave easy credit to everyone, included many who cannot afford even if their wages double or triple. Of course, in the perfect world, the construction industry continue to build, banks continue to give easy credit, you and me going to own infinite of homes and continue spending... The market is always going up. Financial Market becomes the ATM. We are going to own a home in each of the 50 states at the minimum, each family member owns a car, plus one each as backup. Of course, you want house cheap and affordable because we live in a perfect world with unlimited supply and limited demand (us wanting some of everything)

Of course, we don't live in a perfect. When something is over heated, like the construction industry, there will be a lot of waste and inefficiency. When this happen, a correction (melt down) is necessary to remove the waste and inefficiency, which is a good thing in free market. It allows price to be adjusted to the norm. When things are over heated, it drive up the price of their product. The only reason why market is over heated is because demand is so high they they cannot possibly provide the supply under norm.

But we don't have free market. When correction occurred, government will step in to "spend more money" to cure the problem of too much spending. Of course, government themselves don't have money, they have to borrow it or with our government, just print it. When today's money money supply is greater than yesterday's money supply, we have something call inflation, inflation drive up the price of everything, EXCEPT wage. Your wage remind the same, but the buying power goes down. Of course, you will blame it on Walmart for not paying their employees with a livable wage.

I know the stuff I typed may be too hard for some to understand or contradict to your believe. I apologize in advance if this is the case. I just want you to know. If you going to blame someone, don't blame Walmart. Blame yourself. You vote the people in the government who love to reduce your purchasing power.

[winter-rabbit]

Raise the minimum wage and we'll be paying $20 for happy meals! Yay!

It won't affect Scoop, he is beyond happy meals!

[usnftcret]

You could always choose to be a firefighter or police officer. I heard those jobs pay extremely well in Las Vegas.

[ScoopLV]

Like every other "just bootstrap" suggestion, this has a fatal flaw -- there aren't enough fire and police jobs for everyone.

We don't have to go too far back in history to visit a time when a single-breadwinner retail clerk could afford to support a family of four. Think about that -- that would be like someone working 40 hours at WalMart and being a homeowner and supporting a family. This was once possible -- how? Purchasing power and wages were more in line with the cost of living at the time.

Worker productivity has skyrocketed but wages lag behind. And yes, people are correct -- this doesn't affect me. Except for the fact that I live here, too. And it's more pleasant living in an area where people are doing better than "just barely scraping by."

The fact of the matter is that minimum wages aren't rising for the same reason there has been such massive pushback against ACA -- politicians are deathly afraid that people will come to like a better standard of living and then insist on it. That's bad for the half-dozen nitwits who own coal companies and essentially run this country.

[BBMW]

That time was a unique bubble in history. After WWII, the rest of the world was in ruins, we were intact and at the height of our industrial might. There was a huge demand for labor to meet the need for consumer good, exports, and the development of new technology. This lasted for about thirty years, until the mid 70's. Then that ran out of gas. Ever since then, we've been trying to keep that prosperity propped up, largely with debt, smoke, and mirrors. The ability to do that is reaching the end (2008 was a good demonstration of that.)

Also, a lot of the potential labor competition was kept on the sidelines (think China and India.) Not any more. Combine that with the increase in automation, and the general demand for labor, especially in the US, is lower than it needs be to maintain the generalized prosperity you're talking about. If you have specialized skills that are in demand, you likely in good shape. If not, well, there's always Walmart (if you're lucky.)

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

Like every other "just bootstrap" suggestion, this has a fatal flaw -- there aren't enough fire and police jobs for everyone.

We don't have to go too far back in history to visit a time when a single-breadwinner retail clerk could afford to support a family of four. Think about that -- that would be like someone working 40 hours at WalMart and being a homeowner and supporting a family. This was once possible -- how? Purchasing power and wages were more in line with the cost of living at the time.

Worker productivity has skyrocketed but wages lag behind. And yes, people are correct -- this doesn't affect me. Except for the fact that I live here, too. And it's more pleasant living in an area where people are doing better than "just barely scraping by."

The fact of the matter is that minimum wages aren't rising for the same reason there has been such massive pushback against ACA -- politicians are deathly afraid that people will come to like a better standard of living and then insist on it. That's bad for the half-dozen nitwits who own coal companies and essentially run this country.

[ScoopLV]

Read up on your history. We created the middle class by raising the top marginal rate to almost 90%, and then using the GI bill to give everyone access to inexpensive college educations, mortgages and small business loans.

It "ran out of gas" because we stopped doing it. Hard to keep an engine running without fuel.

The only part of your post I agree with is that we've been trying to keep prosperity propped up with debt, smoke, and mirrors. We cannot create prosperity out of thin air with tax cuts -- that's Peter Pan economics. We CAN create prosperity with improvements to infrastructure and wages. Drives me nuts that people in Las Vegas dispute this, seeing as the Hoover Dam is just down the road and is a excellent example of how building things and paying workers makes for a stronger economy. That dam has been paying dividends for 80 years.

It's not wasteful spending, it's investing in society. Pays short-term AND long-term dividends. Tax cuts mostly head straight to offshore accounts in places like the Cayman Islands. No benefit there.

[LV10101]

Originally Posted by winter-rabbit

Raise the minimum wage and we'll be paying $20 for happy meals! Yay!

It won't affect Scoop, he is beyond happy meals!

A study was done on Seattle Washington's increase to $15 for minimum wage and proved you absolutely wrong. It showed that the average cost increase on going out to dinner would be 7%. So your $7 meal at McDonalds is now $7.49. A $30 meal is now $32.10...sorry not as much as you think, stop fear mongering.

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by LV10101

A study was done on Seattle Washington's increase to $15 for minimum wage and proved you absolutely wrong. It showed that the average cost increase on going out to dinner would be 7%. So your $7 meal at McDonalds is now $7.49. A $30 meal is now $32.10...sorry not as much as you think, stop fear mongering.

When they don't have facts, pulling numbers rectally always seems to be the fall-back position. Just as long as their beloved plutocrats are showered with C-notes like rose pedals at a wedding procession...

[BBMW]

Sorry, that's nonsense. Those was part of FDR's failed New Deal. Try as he might with taxing and spending, he couldn't pull the country out of the depression. It took Hitler and Tojo to do that. But his crap rolled forward though the 50's and 60's. It didn't help in the 70's when things started to fall apart. Then Greenspan came along, and rediscovered debt stimulus, which is pretty much where we still are.

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

Read up on your history. We created the middle class by raising the top marginal rate to almost 90%, and then using the GI bill to give everyone access to inexpensive college educations, mortgages and small business loans.

It "ran out of gas" because we stopped doing it. Hard to keep an engine running without fuel.

The only part of your post I agree with is that we've been trying to keep prosperity propped up with debt, smoke, and mirrors. We cannot create prosperity out of thin air with tax cuts -- that's Peter Pan economics. We CAN create prosperity with improvements to infrastructure and wages. Drives me nuts that people in Las Vegas dispute this, seeing as the Hoover Dam is just down the road and is a excellent example of how building things and paying workers makes for a stronger economy. That dam has been paying dividends for 80 years.

It's not wasteful spending, it's investing in society. Pays short-term AND long-term dividends. Tax cuts mostly head straight to offshore accounts in places like the Cayman Islands. No benefit there.

[von949]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

The fact of the matter is that minimum wages aren't rising for the same reason there has been such massive pushback against ACA -- politicians are deathly afraid that people will come to like a better standard of living and then insist on it. That's bad for the half-dozen nitwits who own coal companies and essentially run this country.

I don't understand the people that are against the ACA. ACA is a modern day Headright program, Homestead Act, GI BIll, VA, SSI, FHA, etc. All of these programs were started in order to jump start America's lower to middle class or at least give these people a level playing field. These programs are/were nothing more that social programs. These social programs were acceptable for a "certain group" of people back in the day but not for the people who need them most today.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JErESW-CQI (Try to ignore the race stuff)