Should The Minimum Wage Be Abolished?

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) seems to think so.

Lamar Alexander Says Minimum Wage Should Be Abolished
Dave Jamieson | Huffington Post

"WASHINGTON -- Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the ranking Republican on the Senate's labor committee, said in a hearing Tuesday that he would prefer to see the minimum wage abolished."June 25, 2013

Employers Still Dodging Minimum Wage Law 75 Years After Its Passage
Saki Knafo | Huffington Post

"Many are classifying full-time workers as contractors to evade the law...

By treating employees as contractors, employers are able to dodge not only the minimum wage law, but all of the provisions of the Fair Labor Standard Act, including protections against retaliation and overtime rules."

America’s Wage Crisis
By Richard L. Trumka and Christine L. Owens | Reuters/Opinion

"The minimum wage isn’t what it once was. When the minimum wage was roughly half the average wage, in the late 1960s, full-time, year-round minimum wage earnings for one worker lifted a family of three from poverty. Not anymore. Today, a minimum wage worker lives on $3,000 less than the poverty line — and the minimum wage is worth only 37 percent of the average wage.

If the minimum wage had just kept pace with inflation since 1969, it would be around $10.70 today. If it had kept up with productivity growth, it would be $18.72. Meanwhile, if it matched the wage growth of the wealthiest 1 percent, it would be $28.34."

Sen. Bernard "Bernie" (I-Vermont) Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is a junior United States Senator.

No matter how you spin this, the poor keep getting poorer. Will we shortly reach the breaking point between the haves and have nots?

We are witnessing city after city and school district after school district sinking into insolvency simply because there isn't enough tax revenue coming in. They are getting increasingly desperate. Philly schools on Tuesday (June 25, 2013) have received tentative approval from the Pennsylvania Senate Finance Committee to add a $2.00 tax on a pack of cigarettes. The Allentown School District will need over a 30% tax increase to fully balance the budget over the next 4 years!



Diminishing Wages Are The Problem
Therein lies the very solution.

What we have here is a dichotomy. On one hand we can continue down the path in which government forces money out of our pockets through it's taxing authority. The other to strong arm the private sector into paying livable wages.

On the current path government taxes and spends the money we are forced to give which compounds an already bad situation for low wage earners who live on the edge of a financial cliff. The other is to legislate livable minimum wage standards. Either way one thing's for sure, the government will get the money required one way or the other in an effort to try and balance their dismal budgets.

I'd much prefer to see businesses charge a few percent more on their prices to meet higher labor cost. We have two choices. One is to be forced to pay higher taxes involuntarily (like we have been doing). The other to pay a dollar or two more at restaurants and stores. I prefer the latter for two reasons. For one, I can control my costs on what I can personally afford. The other reason is this money stays in private sector where it can do the most good.

Just like the government, people who have more money, spend more money. The difference between the two is when politicians spend, they spend our money. It's human nature to be a lot more careful what you do with your own money then someone else's. This is a situation where either way somebody's going to be forced to pony up more money one way or the other. There's no avoiding that fact.

I'd rather see people getting a few bucks more in their pockets that will justify the reasons to go to work. Today's minimum wages make it a losing proposition after transportation, day care, work clothes and health care costs are factored in. You have got to make people have an incentive to get up in the morning and go to work with the hopes of having a few dollars left over.

Coupled with readjustment to the foreign trade deals and less government hand outs can work. However by just cutting off the so-called handouts w/o providing hope and the means for people to better themselves is a recipe for disaster. It will lead to riots in the streets like we've seen in other countries. It's human nature that desperate people do desperate things. I don't want to see that happen here in the United States. We need to close the gap between the haves & the have nots. It's just that simple.

Increase The Minimum Wage
Close The Loopholes