During the state of the union address, Obama lamented that if 2 parents worked 40-hour weeks at minimum wage, and they were supporting 2 children, they would be living below the poverty line. Cue the standing ovation!!

Can this guy ever get an economic issue right, even by accident? Earth to liberals...minimum wage jobs are not supposed to be jobs that can possibly support a family. They are non-skilled jobs, designed for high school kids to get their first taste of 'working'.

No one has any business deciding to raise 2 kids, if they aren't capable of earning above minimum wage.

And if they raise the minumum wage, who gets hurt? Disproportionately, it will be blacks. If the federal minimum wage increases to, say $10, then what happens to folks who are not capable of producing $10 an hour worth of goods and services? Businesses can't afford to hire those folks. And those folks are disproportionately black.

My family owned a Subway and a Little Caesars when I was a kid. I can tell you for sure that every time the minimum wage increased, we were forced to get a LOT more selective in hiring.

It's an idea that sounds great, but that has the exact opposite effect of what is intended.

No one has any business deciding to raise 2 kids, if they aren't capable of earning above minimum wage.

Not every child is planned.
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[QUOTE=Jim in CT;985475]
No one has any business deciding to raise 2 kids, if they aren't capable of earning above minimum wage.

:agree:

Not every child is planned.
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Does that include the "Welfare Breeders"

Other then when you were 15 years old, has anyone here worked for minimum wage?
It really is just a wage for the entirely unskilled.
Dirty little secret is some union government contracts are based on the minimum wage. This is payback for the unions and has nothing to do with feeding a poor, unskilled family with 2 " unplanned" kids
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A few years ago when the economy was really in the #^&#^&#^&#^&ter, I was probably earning less than minimum wage after I paid all of my overhead. So yeah I have.
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Not every child is planned.
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Then perhaps, just perhaps, if 2 adults don't make enough to pay for rent and food for themselves, they should be responsible enough not to have unprotected sex. And if the chose to be reckless, it's their responsibility (liberals have forgotten the meaning of that word) to work a bit harder and get one of the billion jobs that pays above minimum wage.

Eben, our economic universe cannot survive if the kid who collects my ticket at the movie theater, is guaranteed by law to make enough salary to raise a family and live above the poverty line. Do you want to pay $45 to see a movie because the kid who butters your popcorn is guaranteed by law to make $20,000 a year?

Liberals seem to be under the delusion that the government can just wave a magic and wand, and PRESTO! - we can all get paid a zillion dollars a year, and no one will be impacted by our federally mandated new wage.

Why can't liberals understand that when you increase the cost of doing business, one of two thing shappen. Either the business (1) passes on that cost to us, or (2) the business makes less money.

You don't have to go to the Wharton School Of Business to grasp this.

I don't get it. I can't understand how 50% of the country sees no harm in mandating that businesses must pay people more than the job is worth.

The value of anything, including the value of a menial job, is this...it is exactly what someone in the free market is willing to pay for it, no more, and no less. When governments intentionally mess with that equillibrium, bad things usually happen.

Sheesh.

If people's incomes were higher, consumption would be higher and the economy would be booming. You can't have higher and higher costs of living without higher pay rates across the board.
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Actually I think it could be tied to the salary of the top 10% of Fortune 500 employees, Might make boards think twice.

If people's incomes were higher, consumption would be higher and the economy would be booming. You can't have higher and higher costs of living without higher pay rates across the board.
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Glad to see we agree on lower taxes for everyone !
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If people's incomes were higher, consumption would be higher and the economy would be booming. You can't have higher and higher costs of living without higher pay rates across the board.
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Eben, I agree that if people have more disposable income, that helps the economy. But that ONLY WORKS if the people earn that higher income in the free market cycle (menaing, if customers freely choose to give the workers that extra income). The economic benefit of higher income does not apply when the higher income results from the government forcibly confiscating that extra money from someone else. Nor would it apply if the feds simply printed more money and gave it to poor people.

I wish more people were as concerned with stagnant incomes as you and I. Because despite Obama's record-setting spending, median income is down 8% since he took office. And very few people seem to hold him accountable for that.

Glad to see we agree on lower taxes for everyone !
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Right. That's another way of increasing everyone's disposable income. Our disposable income is lower because Obama gives zillions to failing green energy companies, smartphones (which I don't have) to 'poor' people, and $7500 tax credits to rich people who buy fuel-effecient cars (average disclosed income of those buying the Chevy Volt is $160,000).

Do any of these people who want a minimum wage increase understand the impact it has not only on employee pay, but also payroll taxes, etc...? We just had an increase of 35 cents per hour in January in RI. It affected my company to the tune of over $350,000 per year. Minumum wage increases sound great, but it costs the companies who are hiring to make cuts in other areas, such as benefits and hours. And as others pointed out, minimum wage jobs aren't for the primary breadwinner in a family. If you're the main source of income and trying to raise a family on minimum wage, you should look into something else.

If people's incomes were higher, consumption would be higher and the economy would be booming. You can't have higher and higher costs of living without higher pay rates across the board.
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you just took 4 years of what I learned as a business major and through it out the window.........

you just took 4 years of what I learned as a business major and through it out the window.........

Hell, that's nothing. Obama has taken 6 years of what I learned in elementary school arithmetic and thrown that out the window,