Comments by "whyamimrpink78" (@whyamimrpink78) on "Senator Bernie Sanders" channel.

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  30. ***** "they are much better off with their health services, college fees, etc." That is debatable. The US has arguably the best university system in the world. It also has the best healthcare system in the world. The US is number 1 in responsive care, number 1 in cancer survival rates, and number 1 in life expectancy when you remove murder and accidents, things not tied to healthcare. The main problem, and only problem really in healthcare is cost. That is due to lack of a free market. Same is with college education. LASIK is with little regulations and has seen a drop in price. "They also can afford all their social programs because they don't make unnecessarily high investments on their military by having strong alliances with the rest of Europe, and not going to war for no reason." The US spends a lot of money to promote peace. Also those other countries one, have small population thus investment is easier and waste is avoided, and two, they pay in other ways as in lesser quality. "Democratic Socialist countries are amongst the countries with the highest average quality of life, and their healthcare makes them have a longer mean lifespan than America." I just showed you how that is not true. As shown by Robert Ohsfeldt and John Schneider of Texas A&M and University of Iowa, respectively, the US is number one when remove deaths not related to healthcare. " Can we not agree that those countries are doing something right and we need to learn from them rather than being stubborn and stick with the status quo." You can never get me to agree to such a thing. The reason why is because I don't like to compare a country the size of the US to countries the size of smaller than most of our states. Finland has a population of 5.4 million people, smaller than 20 US states. Not a strong comparison. FDR was one of the worse presidents we have had in this country. He led us through the slowest recovery ever and create federal programs that are now problems in our society and only get worse.
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  56. Sage Mantis We need to keep money, but we should also do our best to make people understand what money is. The number one problem our economy faces is that people don't know what money is. As someone mentioned money solves two problems. One, the double incidence of wants problems. I have a skill where I am good at math and science. I work for a lab. My lab pays me in money. They don't have food or a place for me to live, so they pay me with money. I use that money to go to a place to buy food, so I don't have to work for that company for food, I just pay them money. The other problem is the retention of value problem. If I run a store selling food I won't be able to save enough eggs or milk to buy off land to build something on. That is because milk and eggs have expiration dates. Now the other thing we need to teach people is that money has zero value until it is used in trade to produce what both parties involved consider to be wealth. What I mean is that if I pay you $20 and you mow my lawn, I felt it was worth $20 for you to mow it and you felt you earned enough. I got my lawn mowed and you can now take that $20 and by something, say two movie tickets and 2 drinks. Now that movie company has $20 and the cycle continues. The problem that comes is when people feel money is finite and has a set value. That is when you get terrible economic decisions such as high taxes and giving money away to people who society deems to not be producing any value. As in government takes $2 from you $20 and give it so some guy in the mail for doing nothing. Now instead you earned $18 and that guy earned $2 for doing nothing. So in this basic example that $20 is now only worth $18. So now you may only buy 2 movie tickets and one drink, or 2 drinks of smaller sizes. And that $2 is essentially worthless in that it produced nothing. That is what money is. It is needed but people need to understand what money is.
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  62. +Oscar Chabrand Climate change is a different issue than the min. wage. In theory any price setting does not work, even Paul Krugman says that in his textbook. People will naturally change their ways if something becomes too expensive. If the government were to set a price floor on cars at $10,000 several people won't buy cars, and certain cars will not get sold (such as used cars). The same is with labor. With climate change there is a lot of doubt in what is happening as if it is really bad. Climate change is happening but how strong of a role man is playing is in question. With the min. wage there is a strongly supported theory in price setting such as price floors not working and it is seen in the data. I feel there is not one single good reason to even have a min. wage. And from what I read it is basically 50/50 on if it should be raised or not. What I do know, buy studying statistics is that the min. wage is a very small portion of the massive economy. Christina Romer even admits that. So thus the current min. wage, and any raises in the past have put a minute effect on the economy. That is why in some areas you can see a higher min. wage and low unemployment, there are other, stronger factors involved. To me, though, all effects are bad and gets lost in the statistical noise. But the effects are not devastating. The issue with Bernie is that he wants a one size fits all $15/hr min. wage. My hometown simply can't afford that. Not businesses, my entire town. Small, midwestern towns in agriculture communities simply don't generate much revenue, but cost of living is lower as well. A $15/hr min. wage simply will destroy those towns. That is over a 100% increase. That is my issue with Bernie Sanders, and liberals in general. They are all rhetoric and no specifics. $15/hr is high. When the min. wage was raised to $7.25/hr the business I worked for in my hometown cut workers, raised prices and cut hours. It hurt that business and community. The same goes for Bernie wanting to create jobs by "rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure". One, what is crumbling? Next, if you build something that people don't demand then that is a waste. Mainly, though, where is the money going to come from? If these businesses are paying workers more than how do they have more money to tax? Also, what is "their fair share"? We need a hard value. At least Bernie gave a value of $15/hr on the min. wage. I can't take what he says seriously unless he first gives me a hard value, and then says why. The pure fact is that the money is not there. It also goes against what money is. To really understand how flawed Bernie's plans are you have to learn what money is. It isn't some finite resource. Money has to be invested to generate value. Spending it to build things people don't want is devalue money.
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  74. XellosTheDragon No, what Sharon was saying is that everything should go up in price, including labor because "inflation". Some goods have dropped in price and the same is with labor. Some goods have remained the same in price and some have gone up like in labor. Before the tractor we had people working on the farms. The tractor came and those working on the farms ended up getting a value of $0. With Netflix and Red Box we have seen Blockbuster employees go to a value of $0. In my hometown there was a battery plant and in the 90s it employed over 800 people. So many appliances used batteries as in walkmens, RC cars, cordless phones and so on. Now with Ipads, cell phones, laptops and so one having batteries on boards that recharge, the demand for batteries dropped. That company started to close down factories and when it closed down the one in my town it only employed around 200 people. That means the value of those workers is no $0. To think that the value of the person running the cash register or flipping burgers at a restaurant has gone up is ludicrous. It hasn't. If you look at technology and the trend in the economy inflation should not be happening and if it is it shouldn't be happening much at all. The reason why food is expensive at the grocery store is because of a policy such as the min. wage. The min. wage went up, a low wage employer such as the grocery store need to pay the employees more now by law, thus they increased prices. We are producing more food than ever due to technology, we even throw away food. The price of food should be dropping. But the min. wage, which is outpacing productivity, is causing them to go up. And to think that a min. wage was needed so you can't starve is not true. You are mandating how much is being paid per hour, but not per week. Your grasp of economics has dropped to a new low.
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  84. Mike Stavenes I am in my upper 20s. I have worked a min. wage job for years and it wasn't hard work. You have little responsibilities, it requires little skills, the hours are flexible, and overall the work is easy. So yes, those on min. wage don't work hard. "Maybe if they did that same job with more efficiency, that the boss would reward them by paying them more, out of the kindness of his heart?" The boss does out of an investment to keep their more productive employees from going to another job. "How hard people work has nothing to do with how much money they make" Yes it does, along with skill set and demand. "If they want to keep more of the money they make from the labors of their employees...they pay them less, and demand more...which is exactly what you see happening in the US economy." Except less than 5% of workers earn at or below the min. wage, around 50% of workers earning a min. wage get a raise within a year, and the average hourly earnings in the US is around $24/hr. "And you really have to stop using the bullshit about a lack of goods" Goods are limited. Where are the goods going to come from? Your idea of money is flawed. If the money isn't there then the price of goods will drop. A company just holding onto goods gives them nothing. In smaller more local areas goods are cheaper for a reason. The US moved factories overseas for 2 reasons, expensive regulations and overall the evolution of the economy. Saying the economy is consumer based if flawed, you can't consume what you don't produce. If people had the more money but the amount of goods are the same guess what happens? Prices go up. Businesses simply can't afford higher wages. If Walmart and McDonalds CEOs were to take in $0 and pass it on to the workers their employees would earn an extra $0.001 per hour. The money simply isn't there.
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  96. ***** Walmart in the past 5 years just open two new Walmarts in my city. That is that many more jobs. That is what profits do, it promotes growth.  Your small business probably had a model that allowed to pay a higher wage.  What you said can be true about any business.  Google pays their staff very well.  That is because they have a model that allows them to pay a higher wage.  How come no one complains when a company doesn't pay comparable to Google?  Or how come no one complains when a business like Costco doesn't build more stores and hires more? Fact is that some jobs are low paying.  Statistically those workers are not poor in that most of the poor are making over $10/hr to being with.  That means the vast majority of the working force making less than $10/hr are not poor.  That is because low wage workers are young and part time.  They are working entry level jobs or are part time supplemental forms of income.   You are not paid based on your personal situation but based on what you are worth.  Define a living wage?  The term doesn't exist because it is way too subjective.  If the law stated living wage then I can get a part time job because I would work for $4/hr.  I can work at the gas station down the street for that wage because I am already making a living off of my current job.  So that gas station wouldn't be required to pay me a living wage since I am already earning enough in life.  I would just work for a low wage to make some supplemental income during my weekends.  So maybe they should pass a living wage law in that I will benefit from it.
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  97. jmattbassplaya90 Your first mistake is talking about wealth and it being a problem where Walmart owns more wealth than the bottom 40%.  So what.  Look at what wealth is.  I make $20,000/yr and live just fine with my own place and car and healthcare.  I have negative wealth because I have a loan that I am paying off.  A lot of people have negative wealth due to loans.  For the average family 61% of their net worth, or wealth, is tied into their home. So beyond owning a home the average family has very little wealth. You can't argue for an increase in pay based on wealth because than you will have to start giving away walmarts to people.  When you do that, an considering 50% of small businesses fail in the first 5 years, than there will be some wealth disparity.  So the wealth figure you mentioned means nothing. You talk about CEO pay.  You have to realize that money is worthless and something is only worth as much as the market determines.  If you were to place a cap on CEO pay than a business will just give them something else.  They will give them a house, or some land or something because now they will be restricted on the money they can pay someone.   You also have to look at McDonald's are franchised.  They are ran by small business owners, not CEOs.  Thus they have very little say in how much something cost.   Plus, once again, if you remove profits you remove growth.  Competition promotes growth and business need to invest to do well against competitors.  When that happens businesses grow, jobs are created, and goods and services become better and more affordable.
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  119. mahal3680 I work because one, I like my job, and two, I plan to be successful. I am pursuing my PhD. Like a small business owner (who basically work 24/7) we work constantly. But it pays of in the end. My problem here is that people feel they are entitled. That if they just work 40 hours a week they should be fine. Life doesn't work that way. Life is work. What is funny is that those same people complain when things don't work out their way. There is a reason why. I remember a time when I was working my low wage job and I volunteered to come in and get work done. Due to me working beyond what was expected I have became successful. There was one time we had a worker who usually worked 8-3 on Saturday day shift. He had to do something at noon. Well, the person he asked to fill in for him said they would come in at 10:30 instead of the whole shift. I asked the person why and they said "well, I at least have a life. I like to hang out with friends on Friday night and sleep in." Basically translated to "I enjoy being lazy and will avoid work at all cost." That person still works a low wage job 10 years later. Times like that are all too common. Look at successful people, they work beyond what is expected. I was working 40 hours a week when I was only contracted to 20. That hard works eventually pays off. On college being expensive, it is because of federal government grants and loans. There are still cheap forms of college and it still pays off in the end if you do actual work. Socialism on the large scale is bad. It hinders economic growth and compounds our problems. It is what creates the income gap we currently have. It simply won't work. And you definition of a "fair chance" is subjective. If socialism were to ever expand than expect more problems in the US than we currently have.
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  121. Dan Underwood The problem we have in this country is that we have gone away from state rights and gone to far in allowing the federal government in having power. You just complained about capitalism, I never supported just pure capitalism. Having some social programs is good. But those programs need to be left up to the states and local government. The reason why is that at that level they are managed better and people can see if they are actually work it and easily change it. When you go to the federal level you lose that ability to control the government or see if the program works, thus you go to the next problem, too much government. Too much government is just as bad as no government, remember that. What I am getting at is that if you or your wife or anyone loses their job then I support a state or local program that helps you out until you get a job. At the federal level I don't. As for 12 weeks paternity leaev, one, that is a long time. Another, you really can't compare us to other countries, the variables are too great. The have problems as well as in higher cost of living for example. But businesses don't offer paternity leave or vacation time because they simply cant' afford it. If at the state and local level it decides to have such a program the great. If it works then great. If not then it can be changed. But at the federal level it simply can't work, and forcing businesses to pay is not smart. The problem with your idea of spending a lot of time with family is that you create a society that will only work on a volunteer basis. If I had a family they simply could not come to my job as they are not trained to be around the equipment I use. Same with the job my dad works. As for OT laws, on average the US citizen works 34.4 hours a week. Feeling entitled is not the way to go.
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  122. Dan Underwood And that is why I support state rights, what may look like a state not helping out their citizens to you is exactly what those citizens want. The is the beauty of it. Who are you to say how the citizens of a state are to run their government? At the state and local level one is able to see if the tax dollars are being invested back into the community. That is the other beauty of state rights. Milton Friedman explains that well in the video on youtube called "Milton Friedman Crushes Man's Three Questions Like Dixie Cups" "governments that are right wing.  The people who live in their state will see their benefits cut or eliminated completely.  What about those people? " If that is what the people in that area want then who are you to change their ways? There are limitations in the government as listed in the constitution, but that is it. I live in a state of zero income tax, but who am I to tell other states they should live like that? "This is one reason amerika as compared to the rest of the world is lagging dead last. " We are actually not dead last, with a proper statistical analysis one can see that one, you really can't compare the US to other countries, and two, when you do compare you see that the US is on par with other countries. You can't compare because other countries have populations that are smaller than most of our states. We have a larger diversity than those other countries. We have so many different societies and a different history. We have a different economy. You simply can't compare. It is like compare Bishop Gorman High School Football to the Dallas Cowboys. If you want to compare the US is number 2 in GDP per capita if cost of living is consider, so we do make more money. Healthcare? We are arguably better. College? We have the best university system in the world. So while it is "free" in other countries, what you get is inferior compared to the US. The min. wage? The min. wage is actually outpacing productivity. That is why prices are going up along with teenage unemployment going up. There isn't one single good reason to even have a min. wage. The min. wage is contributing to higher prices. And saying that 85% of men work over 40 hours is deceptive. How many are doing that in factory work? The economy changed. Work is not a physically demanding anymore. 40 hours a week now is easier than in the past. So basically saying that 85% of men work over 40 hours a week is shallow. "Yes I am entitled to get something for my tax money besides  a  war machine killing brown skinned kids for capitalism and greedy corporatist politicians killing our kids here for capitalism." You can change that at the local level. If I had a kid I will work hard to see to it that they have a better life than me. My dad did that. He worked night shift and I hardly saw him as a kid. But he provided us with a home, money to do extracurricular activities, proper food and so on. We were poor but we got better because of his hard work. I was able to go to college along with my 2 siblings. They both got their MBAs and I am working on my PhD. My dad didn't get his college degree until he was 36. Because of him I am better than he was, and because of his dad he was better than his dad. I irritates me when we have entitled people. And that is not to say he didn't have any time to spend with us, he did, but it all requires work.
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  128. David Adame Jobs disappear, it is a fact.  You mention cashiers, self check-outs replaced some of those.  Due to technology and innovation warehouse jobs are disappearing. My dad worked at a battery factory, the place was booming in the 90s, it recently closed and when it did they downsized to 1/4 of what they use to have.  A reason why is that now a lot of appliances have batteries on board that are rechargeable.  Demand for batteries have dropped.  It happens.  The factory closed so he got another job. More people may be graduating with a college degree but a degree in what?  History?  Art?  Business?  Not really skillful degrees.  Graduating more students with college degrees doesn't matter if they still don't have the skills. Your mindset on Reagan is wrong, the median income went up under him and continued to do so until the mid 2000s and when the recession hit the median income dropped  and is still low.  So saying that wages have dropped due to Reagan is a lie.  What we do see is the evolution of the economy.  Certain jobs will disappear, a problem is that actions by the federal government is increasing it.  We have the highest corporate tax rate in the world driving out businesses, we have too many regulations driving out businesses and killing jobs.  The federal government messing with the market is creating this problem as well.  We have to let the market adjust itself, with the federal government playing a role it is making it worse. 
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  154. Justin-Michael Fowlkes Not many people are living off of min. wage to begin with. That aside, it isn't up to a business to worry about someone's personal finances.  Someone can be making the min. wage but still make a living.  My girlfriend works part time on min. wage and she is actually paying off her loan.  That is because she lives with me and I make a lot more than she does.  I make $20,000/yr.  I pay rent, own the car, pay internet, where she pays for energy, a lot of the food, and her loan, and soon mine.  We manage our money well.  The average household income for and individual making $9.50/hr or less is over $47,000/yr.  That is because low wage workers are supplemental income and not the main earner.  That is the problem with the term "living wage" in that it is subjective.  You are paid based on your work.  You either have to find a way to earn more or manage money better if you are having a hard time making a living. Another problem with the living wage is what is $12/hr, or $20/hr?  Money is essentially worthless until society gives it value.  The same is with cars, land, houses, etc.  The Waltons have so much wealth because they own half of walmart.  The property that walmart sits on and the buildings themselves are worth a lot.  It isn't that the Waltons have a lot of income or money to spare.  If the government starts setting prices, as in the price of labor, then money becomes worthless.  So people will be making more but the dollar will be weaker. This, and much more is why the term "living wage" can't be defined.
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  207. Lightmane321 1. I am not trolling. You say my comments are idiotic, how? You haven't given one reason why. So based off of that it is clear that you don't know what you are talking about. I can easily say your comments are idiotic, I at least give justification for what I support. Until you do all you are doing is giving a genetic fallacy. 2. How am I making myself look like a fool? I am an ultimately an anonymous person on the internet. I can be your neighbor or someone on the other side of the state or country. People can see me as foolish but you can personally meet me (without knowing I am WhyamImrpink on youtube) and see me as one of the smartest individuals you have ever met. Your mentioning of Trump was an error on your part. You are so confident that I would vote for Trump that you said you would bet on it. But now you are retracting that statement. I comprehended what you said perfectly, you are just back pedaling. 3. The problem is that you don't know how to solve the problems. Bernie Sanders' policies will just compound them. The problem with Bernie is that the "problems" he brings up are over exaggerated and his ways of "fixing" them will just make them worse. You don't realize it because you refuse to look at it in any different way. I am, on my free time, willing to explain to you why Bernie is wrong in so many ways. Instead you just laugh due to you being very myopic. That is just sad. Instead of wanting to listen to the other side you follow a man who only spouts talking points and gives no solution. That is why he is going to lose. And when he loses you will cry and say we have problems in this country when in reality you are the problem for failing to be open minded and willing to tackle and learn about complex issues. Simply taxing and giving money away won't work. I make a living educating college students, I am giving you free advice in how Bernie is a fool. You're welcome :).
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  256. Catherine S. Todd Good for your business.  Walmart also pays above the min. wage and hires a lot of people.  At the same time Walmart is a one stop shop retail store that is open 24 hours.  How much does that worker working from 2 AM to 7 AM in a snowstorm makes for a company?  Some small businesses close down during inclement weather because they simply can't afford to be open then. It isn't up to a business to worry about your personal finances.  You are paid based on your work.  I make the min. wage but that job is a part time job.  My full time makes a lot more.  My girlfriend makes the min. wage and she is able to pay off her loan because I am the main earner of the home.  How much you get paid means nothing.  It is how you manage your money. The long term solution is to establish capitalism again.  The short term solution of raising prices is like every other short term solution, they are temporary fixes (if at all) that creates problems again.  You raise the min. wage and then certain people won't get hired because they don't have the skill set to justify that new wage.  Or prices go up because the cost of more expensive labor has to come from somewhere.  Where unskilled workers can't get a job then they have no chance to move up in the workforce that they won't enter to begin with.  That is why the min. wage is considered to be removing the lower rungs of the economic ladder.  Short term "solutions" are causing this mess. Walmart isn't receiving welfare, the workers are. They should be responsible for their own finances and us, as society, need to stop accepting polices that raise prices and kill jobs. 
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  258. Your Dada The Waltons are not being subsidized.  The thing is that the Waltons invested in their company to grow it and as a result they made a profit.  That is how life goes and it is great.  Everyone striving for their individual goal leads to success.  Walmart is successful in that they offer a plethora of cheap products at a one stop 24 hour shop.  The drawback is that they can't afford to pay workers more.  Walmart would love to have an employee like me in that I have a lot of work experience and a strong skill set, but I would demand a wage they simply couldn't afford.  Same goes for that they can't hire doctors, engineers, or other highly skilled workers to do remedial tasks, they can't afford to pay a higher wage.  The people they hire are paid the wage they are because they either have low skills and work experience, work flexible hours, or simply just want a job for busy work (as in my uncle who has a PhD and a retired economic professor who works for little at H&R block).  In all they can't sell their labor for more and don't get paid that much.  It is the balance of businesses have to pay well or they lose good workers.  But if they pay too much then they lose money and go out of business.  A worker wants a lot of money but if they ask for too much then they won't get hired.  Let us assume you make $30/hr.  If you go to your employer and demand $50/hr you wouldn't get it since you don't have any leverage to get that. A business owner takes in profits to invest in their business and grow.  If you look at one thing that businesses invested in it would be technology.  The job of the low skilled worker has gotten easier.  Look at cash registers alone.  If you look at unit labor cost of the restaurant industry, which is the hourly compensation over productivity, you see it is rising meaning the price of labor is outpacing productivity.  Also, look at how people in poverty own TVs now, cars, the price of the pocket calculator went from around $300 to almost free.  That is how people are getting rewarded, competition means business invest to bring better products at an affordable price.  If you lower profits that takes away investments and growth and progress.  Say bye-bye to more energy efficient cars and dishwashers.  Another flaw in what you said is that you assume that money is finite.  It isn't.  The productivity of the highly skilled has increased due to their investment in technology and growth making them worth more and thus they are paid more.  The unskilled worker's productivity has stagnated thus they are not paid more.  That isn't all bad because like I said that investment creates jobs and better products at an affordable price. Those walmart workers are expendable and low skilled, they are not entitled to anything.  With what you are saying I feel you should take less pay since your employer didn't have to hire you, that is unless you possess a high skill and can sell yourself for a lot.  I am not a walmart apologist, I just want a strong economy.  
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  259. Catherine Todd I worked in small business for years.  I have many friends and family members who worked in small business.  My two siblings have their MBAs, my uncle is a retired economics professor.  There is a lot of business experience in my life from my friends and family.  I choose to take the science and math route to work in getting into pharmacy school (to where I will have the skill set to sell my labor for $50/hr).  Point being is that I do know how economics and business work. Walmart cannot afford higher wages, it isn't about them being rich (where does it show that they are rich?) but that their business model doesn't allow them to pay more.  If they do they will go bankrupt or not expand due to less money to invest.  Also, who cares how much the Waltons make?  They are the ones running the business, putting in all the financial risks, working 24/7 in dealing with new laws, potential lawsuits, new taxes, etc.  The worker comes in, clocks in, works and then leaves.  Yes they do work for the company but one they are expendable in that they are a low skill worker, and two Walmart didn't have to give them a job.  If you ran a business you would be putting in all the work so you should see the reward.  Competition would force you to pay higher wages. Walmart a few years back supported a min. wage increase.  When it was $5.15/hr they paid their workers nearly double that.  A min. wage increase to $7.25/hr wasn't going to hurt them but instead hurt their competitors that can't afford a higher wage.  That is why Costco supports a $11/hr min. wage, they start out paying $11.50/hr (due to their business model) so it will hurt their competitors.  If you really do run a business and pay your workers well then great.  I see your support of higher wages as your way of eliminating competition.  It means that this new law will benefit you at the expense of others.  Here is something I have to ask?  How come you don't hire more?  Why are you complaining about Walmart's wages when companies that pay more (you by what you are claiming) when other businesses are not hiring more?  Why don't you hire more.  It will make your workers happier if they have to do less work.  It is a very simple question that really no one has ever answered.  So many attacks on these low paying companies but none on ones that don't hire more.  Like Reich said in this video, GM use to have the most employees.  Where have all the manufacturing jobs gone that pay well?  In retail, due to the business model the business can't afford to pay more.  So tell me, why do you hire more? Walmart would like to pay more so they can attract better workers, all companies do, but they can't if their business model doesn't allow it.  I don't support slavery and these people are not slaves.  They have the choice of working there, Walmart had the choice of hiring them.  It isn't up to a business to take care of your personal finances.  When I complete pharmacy school down the road and I get paid $50/hr then I proceed to live outside my means then that is my fault, not my company's.  Same as in Walmart.  They pay their workers the market rate at what they can afford.  It is up to the worker to manage their money.
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  260. Your Dada A better question is why are there no longer higher paying jobs?  And why have the purchasing power of the dollar weaken?  Reich pointed out that the largerst employer used to be GM.  Where have those jobs (manufacturing jobs) gone?  Manufacturing jobs pay a lot, retail don't because their business model doesn't allow them to based purely on the market.  Walmart simply can't afford higher wages.  For them to be able too they would need to only be open on peak hours (7 AM to 11 PM) for example.  That would mean night shift employees would be gone.  So now people go from having a job to nothing.  Prices would have to be raised to have the money come from somewhere so now the purchasing power of the low income earner is worse.  And Walmart would carry less products.  This is now becoming a similar model to Costco.  The only difference would be the lack of membership and bulk items.  The pure and simple fact is that Walmart simply can't afford to pay more.  Doing so would hurt profits and thus hurt growth and expansion.  Your comparison to slaves is asinine.  Slaves were force to work and were sold to the plantation owners.  They were essentially property.  The Walmart worker has the ability to get a different job or move up, that is until certain policies kill higher paying jobs or hurt the purchasing power of low income households.  I still have yet to have anyone answer the simple question on why do companies that pay more, as in Costco, hire more?  I don't think we should have people on welfare, but artificially setting prices makes it worse.
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  261. Catherine Todd More misinformation.  First you say that people are willing to spend the extra 46 cents when in reality they aren't.  People who shop at Walmart are living on a budget and that extra 46 cents means a lot.  I know I would personally shop less at a place if their prices went up.  It also leads to the slippery slope in that "what is an extra 46 cents?", to "oh, it is just 20 more cents" and then son 30 cents, 50 cents, 10 cents, and more inflation leading to hurting the purchasing power of the lower income individuals.  The Waltons are rich because they made wise investments.  You don't get rich by giving money away. Plus, forcing them to pay more means tapping into their profits leading to less growth and less jobs.  People feel like money is finite when it isn't.  Capital has to be created and in order to do that you need wise investments.  Forcing bad investments is a practice we have been doing for years and it is hurting higher paying jobs. Walmart is a 24 hour one stop shop retail store.  That business model doesn't allow for high pay just like a restaurant doesn't allow for high pay.  The simple fact is that Walmart can't pay more.  If they did they would be paying above market rate and they would not be the rich but bankrupt.  I still have yet to have my question answered.  Why is there a constant attack on Walmart for not paying enough but never an attack on companies for not hiring?  Manufacturing jobs are leaving, jobs that pay well.  That is a problem.  Instead of creating new policies that will kill more jobs we need  look into bringing higher paying jobs back. It is funny how you claim what Walmart is doing is immoral and illegal.  You have to remember they can always chose to fire people and close down some walmarts.  Attack them and they will get rid of jobs much like the manufacturing companies did.  It isn't a support of Walmart but the facts of the market and how it works.
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  262. Your Dada Franchise owners of McDonalds make around 4-6 cents for every dollar they get.  Your thinking that the hamburger cost more than 99 cents isn't true, it does cost around that much. McDonalds can't raise the price anymore because demand will drop.  Same as in retail if Walmart raised the price of bread or milk than demand will drop.  Drop in demand means a drop in customers and a drop in profits.  Just like an increase in price of labor means jobs will be lost. In retail and restaurant the pay is low because that is the market rate.  If the pay were higher then there will be less jobs and lower prices. Look at pharmacist.  They get paid a lot, but there are far less pharmacists than walmart workers and the cost of drugs is high.  Never mind the skill set.  My dad currently makes $26/hr working maintenance at a factory that is basically filled with lead.  It is a dangerous job and he has a lot of skills and he gets paid a lot.  The company has a hard time retaining workers due to the job conditions and thus pay a low where in retail the job has minimal risk and skills and thus they get paid little, never mind the low profits they bring in. Things like cops, firemen, paved roads, etc. are ran by the states and cover everyone.  Everyone benefit from it.  A business can always  choose to leave or close down some of their stores.   Closing stores mean less jobs and thus less growth economically and socially. Somalia is a poor example.  That country is a mess with no control anywhere  
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  264. Your Dada You are making a strawman argument thinking that I support no government.  I support state rights. The federal government is there for two things, deal with foreign affairs and give US citizens the ability to control the government.  Everything else were to be left up to the state and local government. When states and local governments run policies then you have two things.  You have a government that represents the people better to where it isn't really government but instead a community working together.  You also have 50 states competing together to be the best.  That is a part of capitalism where everyone will benefit.  I don't support Somalia because it has on protection from anything. Your feeling of feedlots is digging at the bottom of the barrel.  Animals for millennia have been producing methane, those feedlots means nothing. Public assist is a problem of our society not allowing higher paying jobs to be produced, or ruining the purchasing power of the dollar, or allowing the federal government to run public assistance instead of states where the money will be managed better. You complain about billion the Waltons make (can you show evidence of that).  Who cares?  That is my response.  If they made that much money that means they create all those and sold that many goods to do that.  Money isn't finite.  It isn't that the Waltons are taking in all the money that exists and giving none away, they are actually creating capital.  My dad makes $26/hr because he creates that much capital.  Just like after I finish pharmacy school I would be making around $60/hr because I produce that much capital.  The walmart worker makes around 9/hr because they produce that much capital.  People should also be more concerned with what they make instead of what others make.  I really question who is the greedy one when people complain about what others making and not worry about themselves. I couldn't care less what they Waltons make.  They offer low prices and from competition other stores offer affordable prices (I don't shop at Walmart much, I try to go elsewhere).  That benefits me as a buyer. 
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  275. +TheGreatCat123 There is corruption but you hardly hear it at the state level, and when it does happen they get caught. You can look up state corruption and how they actually get convicted. For example Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell or Patrick Cannon, Mayor of Charlotte, NC. Politicians will take bribes, you are more likely to catch them and hold them accountable at the local level. We need a government, but we also need control over it. You get that with smaller more local government and the constitution. EU governments are small. Those countries are smaller than most of our states. I have no problem looking at those countries for example and then states implementing what they do. I have a problem with implementing what those countries do at the federal level. What happens in the EU actually supports state rights. Denmark, Finland, Norway etc. are all smaller than most of our states. Iceland is smaller than my city I live in. "Can you imagine how messy can it be that every state is different? " It will actually be ran better because states will be competing with each other. Plus every state deals with different issues. Having a one size fits all policy simply won't work. When the federal government gets involved things get messy. Education has always been ran by the states. The department of ed was created in 1980 and has become a mess ever since. I agree that education is important, but allowing a centralize government that overseas 300 million people to control education is dangerous. They can control what is taught and what isn't which is indoctrination. With states if one state uses education as indoctrination they won't go far because neighboring states won't and will do better economically. Overall state rights is about checks and balances. Never put all your eggs in one basket.
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  294. Kathie Bishop My opinion on Chomsky shows that I can look past a guy that speaks well.  He is not very economically sound.  I remember one talk he gave where he mentioned about one group of people holding on to all the resources where he was talking about money.  The thing is that money isn't a resource.  It is just a universal means of trade with an arbitrary value.  So what he said is wrong.  But that isn't surprising coming from a guy that feels people could just volunteer their services and our society will function just fine. There is a youtube video where he talks about taxes and how we should celebrate April 15th if we are really a free, democratic society.  He says that taxes are there to fund policies for us.  The problem is that in the US we don't have a democracy, we have a republic with 300 million people and 50 states.  The American people have little voice at the federal level in the US thus us paying taxes are not necessarily paying for policies we support.  He doesn't understand how this country was designed and how it is supposed to be ran.  One can go on.  He is a great writer and speaker, but his political and economic ideas are disconnected from what goes one, especially in the US.  Look past the great writing (because he is a great writer) and you see a guy who spent his whole life behind books but never in the general public to understand what goes on, or understand people in general.  This is a youtube comment by the way.  I don't put too much effort in writing and editing this.  Where as with my PhD dissertation I will spend 3+ years working on it.   
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  385. Matt Peters Aw, citing Card, Krueger, Reich, et. al. The typical people to go to. https://www.epionline.org/minimum-wage/minimum-wage-teen-unemployment/ There are three papers that say otherwise, ones that don't use phone interviews for gathering data or look at a handful of counties (as Card and Krueger did). The pure fact is that the min. wage leads to higher unemployment amongst teens. Most of the data shows that minus a few that cherry pick data and have been called out for it (the exact same people you just cited). It does lead to price increases as well. The fact that food prices are going up doesn't follow the current economic trend. We are producing more food than ever but food prices are going up when it should be going down (much like TV, cell phones, computers prices are going down). But the price of food is going up. The reason why is that retail, restaurant and grocery outlets hire low skill, thus low wage workers. The min. wage increase means they have to increase prices because the money doesn't exist. The min. wage is outpacing productivity in that workers in those areas of the market are seeing their productivity remain stagnate. "There are plenty of reasons, but since you are operating on a false definition of Liberty, freedom and fairness , I doubt any of the economic growth we can prove will matter to you." Well there isn't economic growth. If it led to economic growth then when the federal min. wage went up in 2007 nearly over $2/hr we would have avoided the recession. We didn't and have seen a slow recovery from it. Also if it did lead to growth then why not $50/hr? And on fairness, it isn't fair that certain workers, teenagers, are priced out of the job market due to you setting an arbitrary price floor that you based off of nothing. I mean, why is the min. wage set at $7.25/hr? That leads back to why not $50/hr, or even just $20/hr? Those numbers are completely arbitrary. "Wrong again as the hand of the market you talk about so much will not allow all extra cost to be taken out on consumer prices. Such increases would be marginal." You admitted that increase will exist. If all it took was a small increase and not lose any customers, why don't businesses raise prices already and collect that much more profit? The answer is that it isn't that simple. I repeat, there isn't one single good reason to even have a min. wage. It doesn't work in theory or in practice. Teenage unemployment is at an all time high, so is the min. wage. Citing Card and Krueger, whose research has been shown to be flawed and cherry picked doesn't change any of those facts. As I said, if it did do good then why not $50/hr, or even $20/hr?
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  388. Matt Peters I have pointed to you other data that is better. The massive deflation was due to a recession which occurs naturally, but according you should have been avoided, or at the least recovered from due to he over $2/hr min. wage. I posted 3 studies contradicting your two studies, one that did phone interviews in only 14 counties, a small sample size. The increase was over $2/hr in a span of 3 years. You first said it was 45 cents, now you are saying it is under a dollar in 2007, you need to get your facts straight. "There is no economist that would connect the collapse to the minimum wage. " But you are connecting economic growth to the min. wage. I am not connecting the collapse to the min. wage. I never said the min. wage led to it. We raised the min. wage in the 90s and were fine due to other variables holding more weight leading to growth. But the increase in 2006 to 2009 didn't lead to growth even though you said raising it would. That is the argument I am presenting to you that you are twisting. "We still have not Re-regulated the markets and fixed the marginalized market caused by it. " Actually the market is highly regulated which caused the slow recovery. Recessions happen, it is a part of the evolution of the economy. Every recession except for two took around 5 years to recover from, all with little to no federal government involvement. The two that took the longest were the great depression and now, both times we saw massive federal spending, more regulations and increase in taxes. The federal government and their regulations caused the slow recovery. What caused the crash is debatable, what isn't debatable is what is causing the slow recovery. The only people who feel that the slow recovery is not from the federal government are Keynesian economist that are becoming more and more silent every year.  "It is provable that Income has not kept pace with productivity for 35 years. " That is no true, even the BLS has wages keeping up with productivity. The fact is that those with skills and those who invent technology are becoming more productive and are seeing the increase in wages. Those who cook burgers and Burger King are not. It is called Skilled Biased Technological Change. Those who are skilled or how invested in technology or created it are getting the increase in wages due to them being more productive. Now that doesn't mean that those on the bottom are not well off. More technology means more productivity and thus better goods and services at a lower price. That is a brick cell phone cost nearly $4000 in the late 80s but almost anyone, even those on welfare, can afford smart phones today. Or someone like me, who only earns around $25,000/yr has 4 computers at home, a TV, a smart phone, my own car (2006 model), where someone earning that much in the past wouldn't have anywhere near that. Cars are better, TVs are better, we have Ipods as opposed to walkmans, Blu rays as opposed to VHS and so on. That is why when food prices go up it is the opposite of what should be happening. We are producing more food, we have an over supply of it. It should be cheap. But regulations like the min. wage leads to higher prices in food. Grocery store workers are low skilled low wage workers, those who work at Sprint are not. Thus the increase in min. wage leads to higher food prices, but not higher cell phone prices. "How do explain the fact that adjusted minimum wage had the buying power of $13 an hour in 1969? " So. The value of the worker is not $13/hr. I explained to you why some prices are going up. The min. wage is outpacing productivity. You feel that everything inflates and that inflation is a must. That isn't true. Not everything inflates, and really inflation should hardly be happening. If inflation was happening then not only will those Blockbuster employees still be employed, but they will be earning more. But the fact is that the price of both goods and services either rise, fall, or remain the same. As I shown with the cell phones, the price of them dropped. They are better than in the past and cheaper. The same is with certain workers. My dad worked at a battery factory. In the 90s batteries were huge with all these portable devices. Now with everything having rechargeable batteries on board (my Ipod is 9 years old, keeps recharging), the demand of batteries dropped. They closed down the factory 3 years ago due to lack of demand. All those workers' values went to $0/hr. They dropped in price. So not everything inflates.
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  389. Matt Peters I told you about deflation and inflation and the min. wage. Deflation has been happening already. Several factors caused the recession. My point was that you said that the min. wage increase led to growth. Well, where is that growth? I am not seeing it? I guess we needed a $50/hr min. wage., or maybe $15/hr. I guess a $2/hr increase (pretty high compared to previous raises) was not enough. https://www.epionline.org/minimum-wage/minimum-wage-teen-unemployment/ There are my sources.  "You are setting up strawmen and I am pissing on them, I suggest you cease" You said this "There are plenty of reasons, but since you are operating on a false definition of Liberty, freedom and fairness , I doubt any of the economic growth we can prove will matter to you" In response to me saying there isn't one single good reason in even having a min. wage. Your response is that it led to growth. Now you are retracting that statement? So what is it? " The fact technology becomes cheaper does not negate other factors of economics. There is not a single state where minimum wage can afford an apartment alone.  (Hint there is no such thing as people on welfare who don't work)" Actually my technology point does play a role. It shows the purchasing power of the dollar is higher. We also see that in people have more disposable income these days. The idea that people are not earning more is completely false, they are. And if you are trying to pay rent with a min. wage job that is your problem. Get a roommate, find a cheaper apartment. Rent out a room. You are now asking that low wage jobs with develop little wealth pay for luxury items. That is now how an economy grows. " No sir, I know why prices go up, I understand inflation better than you do. I want to know why pay used to keep pace with both inflation and productivity. " You don't seem to know how inflation works. As I said with pay and productivity, it is keeping up. According to what you are saying not only will that factory in my home town that built batteries still be around, but they will be paying workers more despite the lack of demand. People who are more productive are paid more, it is called skilled biased technological change. But to think that workers working at a fast food joint are working harder is completely false. Look up unit labor cost of restaurants, you will find that hourly compensation is outpacing productivity in that sector. That means pay is outpacing productivity there, and it is the same for other low skilled jobs. " Yes I am saying if your company is more profitable you should not get all of the extra profit. You are piece of shit if you do without thinking about sending some extra down to workers regardless of what you moronically think their work was "worth".  But that is something else entirely. Unions should have the right to disrupt your profit if you don't. " Less profits means less investment which means less growth and less wealth. Companies just don't sit on profits, they invest it. Where do you think all that new technology comes from? It just doesn't appear out of nowhere. A business uses profits to invest and create. We can force more money going to those that create little wealth and that is exactly what you will get, little wealth. "The recession we had no mass recession in the 20th century after the depression was because of Labor laws and wage laws as well as tax code that prevented demand and supply from becoming unbalance d . Since 1981 these have been getting done away with.  " We had one under Carter. " I have a masters in economics from USC" With the way you talk I doubt it. I guess I can throw around a fake degree. I have PhD in economics form UC Berkley. But I won't lie, I don't. I have done this for a while as well, I concluded there isn't one single good reason to even have a min. wage. For you supposedly having a masters in economics you resorted to emotions pretty bad. As in "When a CEO is earning 500 times what his employees earn eventually demand will hit a roof as consumers have less money to consume." and "You are piece of shit if you do without thinking about sending some extra down to workers regardless of what you moronically think their work was "worth"" Not statements I would expect from someone who holds a masters. But considering how those with PhDs act (I am a grad. student so I have experience) I am not surprise. On your first statement, demand for better goods and services are almost infinite. The reason why the demand for batteries dropped is because, as I explained, portable devices have rechargeable batteries on board. If people had more money (ignoring that flawed idea) they won't buy more Walkmans or cordless phones which require batteries, but instead Ipod and cell phones which come with batteries and can be recharged. Think about that. You seem to lack understanding of demand.
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  390. Matt Peters So you are now retracting your statement that the increase in the min. wage creates growth? If you are an adult earning the min. wage then you are almost beyond help. Or it says something is very wrong with out economy. The min. wage is said to remove the lower rungs of the economic ladder. A teenager working a min. wage job allows them to gain experience to they can work higher wage jobs at an older age (when they are an adult). But if the min. wage goes up teenagers can't get jobs, thus they enter the workforce at a later age and thus we now have the problem of adults working low skilled task a high school student can do. So the min. wage created that problem. Following Carter we had massive inflation and an increase in unemployment and a negative GDP growth, we hit a recession. We recovered from it quickly just like we recovered from the recession in 1988 quickly. And the recession in the 50s and early 60s. Data doesn't lie. We see recessions all the time. How we recover is key. "As I said I have grown to have disdain for people who think being a successful business person is simply having made money.  If you had no regard for the health of the company Such as Bob Nardelli , Carly Fiorina and Mitt Romney  did.  They are failures as business people because of what happened to the companies. The fact they made money off it means they are manipulators. " I agree that our financial system is out of wack, it is mainly due to the federal government messing it up. I don't thing those individuals were successful. I know fixing the problem is reducing the role of the federal government in the economy. "Yes but ability for the consumer to pay for the goods aren't. " True, but that is purely due to there not being an infinite amount of resources. What we have to push for is the development of those resources into wealth. We do that by allowing those in the private sector to invest in what people demand and having workers work at the best of their ability. We don't achieve that buy just giving money away. "Indeed , but what happens when you have less companies? " New companies come and go, and there will always be competition in a free market. What removes competition is the government. Keep in mind that it was Walmart that supported a higher min. wage at one point knowing it will eliminate competition from smaller companies. Costco is the same way. " How is this type of investment benefiting anyone but people with large amounts of the particular stock?" That is how a corporation works. If all the major CEOs of Walmart for example were to take in $0 all the employees earning less that $25,000 would make something like $7 extra dollars a month. Corporations run off of stocks and if the company is not profitable then people will demand new CEOs to get an investment off of their stocks. "And you will argue it's "unfair" for the government to tell a company how to run their business, how widely they can expand or what they should pay and I liken this emotional attitude of your side to someone saying it's wrong for the government to regulate and tell someone he can't rape and abuse people and you will fail to see it as the same thing, which makes me believe sociopath... but hey,  " Rape is a law that effects everyone and gives back something equal to everyone. While I am not allowed to rape I will be protected by it in that it is illegal for others to rape me. With regulations on a business you are saying that the second you invest your own money in private property to do business with private individuals, you have to follow these set of rules simply due to the lifestyle you choose. That is not equal and the only way you can justify doing that is if the government gives something back to the company in return That is the difference between rape laws and business regulation laws.
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  391. Matt Peters So when the min. wage goes up and there is growth it is due to the min. wage? But if it goes up and there is a recession is isn't due to the min. wage? That is about as bias of a way of thinking as possible. It is complete cherry picking of data and if you do have a masters in economics you need to return it. My boss will personally fire me if I cherry picked data like you just did. "I know engineers who work at Starbucks and lawyers pull 30 K . I think you're beyond reality. " They must not be very good then. They are also the extreme minority. "That the increased cost is negated by default increased spending as you are not the only employer who raised wages." A lot of times employers don't pay higher wages, they cut hours to make up for the increase in price of labor. Plus, if workers are making more money but are not producing more all that does is reduce the value of the dollar. This really hurts small towns. I have seen the min. wage literally bring businesses down in small towns. Now there are other factors involved but for the small business I worked for when the min. wage went up we cut a lot of hours and raised our prices and still struggled. it was a common thing around my home town. " Wage income kept pace with inflation and productivity until the 80's. I will not tolerate the moronic libertarian freak out about inflation.  " Wages have kept up with productivity. You have to look at Skilled Biased Technological Change. You also have to consider how people have more disposable cash now than in the past and have more wealth. You are looking at just pure money, as an econ. major you should realize that money has value and isn't set in price. As with a brick cell phone costing well over $1000 in the 80s but now smart phones are under $100. That is why the data you keep looking at is flawed thus form a questionable source. "Explain , and I want a specific example ." Too easy. I can give two examples both dealing with federal taxes. First I have 2 jobs. One gives me a W2 and another a 1099. On that 1099 I pay zero taxes. But on my W2 I pay taxes without a choice. The federal tax code is so messed up that those who don't earn as much pay a lot due to those who earn more having several breaks to reduce their taxes to almost nothing. At times they can lie and the IRS won't catch them because as long as you report income they don't care. When I report taxes I lie all the time on expenses. If I get audited they won't be coming after my boxes of receipts. The reason why is because the IRS is understaffed and underfunded due to the inability of the federal government to properly manage a budget thus liars can get away with tax breaks. So in a nutshell, the complex federal tax code and lack of ability of the federal government to properly manage a program (the IRS in this case) leads to an unbalance in taxes people pay where the very people you want to help, the poor and middle class, get screwed. Now another example. In the 40s due to more taxes set by the new deal employers couldn't pay employees more without being taxed more. But a loop hole allowed businesses to pay via healthcare insurance benefit which was 100% tax free (and in some cases a deductible) courtesy of your federal government. Now this created the problems we have with healthcare now. This is why we had the problem of pre-existing conditions. This removes the ability of those getting the insurance from negotiating prices with the insurance company. The business that offers it offers a generic plan from a company as opposed to a personal plan that the consumer can decide to pay for and negotiate for a cheaper price. Thus insurance companies increased prices and lowered quality due to lack of competition. Now enter Obamacare and insurance companies are increasing rates higher than ever. So now the federal government is making a problem they created worse. There are two examples in detail. " If your business model does harm to people in a community or you are taking advantage of people who don't understand or have little choice but to accept your contract or they get nothing, You're a criminal as far as I'm concerned. " So you support oppressing people you simply don' t like or agree with. I don't think we need as many bars as we do. How about we shut them down? They lead to people to become alcoholics and waste their money. Are the bartenders criminals then for feeding off of someone's addictions? "The government has every right to set the rules of the game if it plans to have a stable system. " No it doesn't. " You only like the government poking it's nose in when it hurts your profits or prevents you from getting ripped off." Seems like you like government to suit your needs. On CEO pay, here http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/08/15/ceos-pay-slash-workers-benefit/
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  392. Matt Peters You are making this too easy. You said this "I never claimed there wasn't, just that there is no data saying increased minimum wage has never been connected as a cause of an economic problem in a city, county, state or country it's been done in.  That the increased cost is negated by default increased spending as you are not the only employer who raised wages." So you are saying that the min. wage either leads to growth or nothing. But when the min. wage goes up and the economy hits a recession you say they are not related. That is you being bias. "except I have already presented two studies showing this is not what happens" And I presented 3, and the guy on this video presented more. 3>2, plus what Skylar Lehto presented. "Data, as anyone who says they have "seen it" is by default the inferior in the debate." But you said this "I know engineers who work at Starbucks and lawyers pull 30 K " So it seems that while are are both inferior, we are even since you have "seen it" as well. "It's more than likely it was due to competition from large chains that should not be allowed (yes ALLOWED) to exist. " That is quite a pathetic statement to make. Your idea of helping society is bringing people down. That is like saying preventing people from getting PhDs will improve our university system. We don't grow an economy by bringing people down. In the 80s and early 90s only the rich had cell phones. Did we take them away? No. We allowed them to have them. Now almost everyone has a smart phone. If we would have took the cell phones away, which is preventing success, we will still be using rotary phones. I bet you support giving everyone a trophy as well. Or would tell the fast runner at a high school track meet to slow down. That is not how you improve an economy. There are several good reasons to have chain businesses. "I was actually asking you to prove regulation that hurts business that also doesn't serve another purpose of protecting someone else. " I was proving a point how regulations designed to supposedly help the economy and the middle class end up hurting. I work my job where I get a 1099 due to my skills. One reason I have those skills is that at a young age I was able to work a low wage job. Now I work a high skill job where I pay $0 in taxes. Some of my co-workers earn close to 6 figures and pay $0 in taxes or close. It goes the same with the healthcare example. Government is causing the rise in healthcare cost. Now you point towards profit because according to you profit=evil because profit=success and it isn't fair that someone is doing better than you. But our for profit system is arguably the best in the world. In the US a non-profit, government run system simply won't work. Look at the post office. I don't want to stand in line hoping to get care. The government creating lack of competition has create the the problems in healthcare. And somehow a non-profit system is supposed to create competition? "No, I support curbing  behavior that does harm to people or the community." Ok, you raise the min. wage. The business decides to leave town or hire less people, or raise prices or close their doors earlier. How does that improve a community? The reason why businesses do that is because of one simple reason, they simply can't afford higher wages. Especially small business in small towns. You are comparing this to rapist and burglars. You are violating a business's property rights. You are literally holding a gun to a business owner's head telling them how to run their business. That business owner out of their own free will is deciding to create a business and invest their money in it and you are deciding how they should run it. You are the crook. How about if you buy a house I use the government to tell you to allow homeless people in your home? You clearly are better than them? We should prevent homeowners from existing so that homeless people have homes. Do you support that? Your comparison of rapist and burglars to business owners investing in their business is shallow. Also you decision on who is hurting the community while exercising their rights are arbitrary. You need to give your masters degree back, or I need to avoid UCS since they have a weak economics department.
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  393. Matt Peters In depth study, really? So 14 counties is in depth study? Never mind that when federally when the min. wage goes up so does teenage unemployment. Also watch the video "What You Weren't Told About The Minimum Wage" by Skyler Lehto. He does an in depth study that makes your "in depth" study look like child's play. "No, I am saying correlation is not causation" And the same holds true to the min. wage and economic growth. Let us look at an example. Robert Reich made a claim that under the Clinton administration they raised the min. wage and things were fine. The reality is that when they raised it the percent of those who were earning at or below the min. wage was dropping (as mentioned in Skyler's video) and thus raising it didn't actually do anything in that most people were already getting paid above the min. wage. It was a pure political move. Now you mentioned a CATO study as the only one who supposedly has show only negative effect but I have shown you more. Plus, the one you just linked, look at what is say. No "discernible" effect. But they are saying there is an effect. As I said the raises in the past have been small thus all negative results have been small. Or as in Robert Reich's case people were already getting paid above the min. wage thus the federal raise was completely frivolous. Also I showed you 3 studies which beat your 1 on that issue. Unless you think 1>3 which at this point I would not be surprise. And teenage employment is completely relevant I am smart enough to know that overall the min. wage has a small effect on the overall economy. When the average hourly earnings is over $24/hr, when less than 5% of workers earn at or below the min. wage, when around 2% of min. wage workers work fulltime, as a whole the min. wage worker plays a minute effect on the overall economy. I can admit that raising it in 2006 didn't lead to the crash but raising it in the past didn't lead to economic growth. You, on the other hand can't admit that. Any negative effect to the min. wage is done at target groups, such as teenage employment and prices in areas that employ low skill workers. That is why when variables are removed we see an increase in teenage unemployment, or high teenage unemployment in areas where the min. wage is high. And we also see an increase in prices. But what you have to remember is that the min. wage, as is, does not effect the overall economy. But any effect is negative, it just gets lost in the statistical noise. As an econ. major you should have taken advanced stats. This was something my class learned when I took and and a project we did. " If your business model hurts or takes advantage of people , you shouldn't engage in the activity. " And who decides that? You? You do know that major corporations such as Walmart and Costco have supported higher min. wages in the past knowing it would hurt smaller companies and thus creating less competition. That is because those companies have more staying power to go through more expenses until the economy stabilizes. So now you have a situation where those businesses are using the government to harm other businesses. I don't mind regulations, they need to be done at the state level though so we can have actual control of the government. You need to remember one thing, too much government is just as bad as no government. Right now we have too much. I have no problems with monopolies as well. With today's technology they will not be as strong. The main reason why they were strong in the past was simply due to lack of technology. People didn't have cars to move around or computers for online shopping. These days monopolies exist due to government reducing competition as I just showed. You saying natural monopolies existed in the past without noticing the change of technology is careless of you. "No you should not be able to lock others out or to manipulate supply and market.  If that's what you have to do to keep you company on top then you need to go. It really is that simple." No it isn't that simple. Those business owners have a constitutional right to their property and what they want to do with it. Funny how you mentioned an act from 1938, around that time there was a lot of unconstitutional and destructive things done to the economy. If a state wants to create such regulations that is within their state rights. But at the federal level that violates the constitution (the federal min. wage is unconstitutional) and needs to be stopped. Too much government is just as bad as no government. What you support are arbitrary laws that you base off nothing more than your feelings. You feel that this business is bad thus they should be stopped. Walmart's model allows for cheaper goods and services for low income consumers. I despise shopping at Walmart. I avoid it if I can and for the most part do. But every other place in most areas have goods and services at a higher price. Plus, with chains what that also leads to is the fact that every Walmart in the country has to have the same standards. My poor experience at the Walmart in my city means I am less likely to shop at one in another city even though they may be great. So there are advantages to chain businesses. You are saying they are all bad but they are not. They are not all good. That is a clear difference between you and me, I see the middle ground. You are one side or the other. Like when you said the min. wage leads to all positive but no negative results (even though several studies exist that show otherwise). "No, fuckwhit it is about a fair market place. " What is a "fair market place"? Creating policy that raises prices is not "fair". Unless you support price control. Telling people how to run their business is not "fair". You are using a completely arbitrary and subjective word there. So when I stand in front of my committee for my PhD defense and I say "after 5 years it is only fair for me to get my PhD" would that fly? Knowing my committee it wont'. Once again you are basing your ideas off of emotions. Let us look at Walmart again and the min. wage. While they have supported a higher min. wage (which creates an unfair market), they have a limit in how much to pay. If the CEOs of walmart were to earn $0, the workers of walmarts would earn an extra $0.0014 per hour. That is simply not that much. Walmart, along with other low wage worker jobs, have thin profit margins. They simply can't afford more. Most of their money comes from shareholders. If walmart were to practice higher wages then the shareholders will demand a new board and vote one in so they can get money off of their stocks. Now you may think the whole idea of stocks is bad, but it goes back to it helping a business in they can keep prices low and attract more customers. The business I shop at is smaller and more local but doesn't have shares of stocks (as far as I know, if they do it is small). Thus their prices are higher. As someone with a masters in economics this should be basic to you. "Now present me a study where this was a huge problem directly connecting minimum wage increases to this actually happening and we might have an actual argument." I have shown you studies. Also I told you how in the large scale the min. wage is small. It plays a minute role in the overall economy (even though you think it leads to noticeable growth which is false). But if it didn't lead to negative results then why not $50/hr? Or even $20/hr? Costco is pushing for around that rate, $20/hr? So why not? "In the long term since ALL businesses raised wages the increased spending negates the cost long term." Not all businesses raise wages though. Some, as in Walmart or McDonalds for example, has the ability to avoid wage increases by investing in automation. There are now self checkouts and McDonalds with touch screens for ordering. Walmart can do away with the door greater or have less workers picking up carts in the parking lot. And they have. One reason why I avoid Walmart is that they lack cashiers. But they get away with it due to low prices. They can get away with cutting back more. Not all businesses are created equal, that is also something you failed to learn in you masters route (you really need to get your money back). Saying all businesses will raise wages is completely false. They will cut hours, close down doors earlier, and raise prices. But not every business will raise wages since every business is different. And while you are enforcing how much is paid per hour, you are not enforcing how much is paid per week. There will not be increased spending either. Higher wages with same productivity just means higher prices. You can't consume what you don't produce.
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  411. Ben Oliver A lot of min. wage workers are young, the BLS has numbers on that where half are under the age of 25. How can I link teenage unemployment to the min. wage? When you raise the min. wage you price certain forms of labor out of the market. Teenagers lack experience thus a business will avoid hiring them and instead hire someone with more experience. This is called labor to labor substitution. Those adults entering the workforce to work the min. wage job do so because with a higher min. wage they are more likely to take on the job where for supplemental income. Thus teenagers who need the job get screwed. Costco is a warehouse store, not retail. Let us compared Walmart to Costco. Costco sells in bulk and is open only during set hours, such as 9-6. That is designed to move more products per hour. Walmart is open 24/7 and has a wider selection of individualized items. They don't move as many products per hour but they are more convenient to shop at. Customers can shop there at 3 in the morning and get a gallon of milk and a half a pound of sugar where in Costco they have to wait until 9 AM and buy 5 pounds of sugar. Also Walmart hires far more employees than Costco. I hear praise for Costco paying more but never complaints about how little they hire compared to Walmart. In all they are two different business model. Saying Costco, a warehouse company, pays more than Walmart, retail store, thus Walmart can afford it is like saying Google pays well, so why doesn't Costco. You can't compare the companies.
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  417. Victor Espino Bernie wants to create a tax plan that arbitrarily taxes rich people more to spend on other people.  He wants to spend other people's money.  The Walton's actually earn their money.  There is the difference.  "but that service and job being provide require their workers to be on welfare. " Which is not the Walton family's fault.  They offer them a job at the market rate. They can't afford more.  It is not their fault those workers refuse to better their lives. "it's like me saying I'm providing a job I pay this guy 1 cent an hour" If you can find someone to work for you for 1 cent an hour than you have found a fool. No one will work for so little. "they're only asking for enough money to not have to be on welfare. " And where is that money going to come from? "the CEOs make record profits, billions, on the backs of their employees and providing their employees wages that require them to be on welfare. " And a lot of those profits goes to the shareholders. They want to see their investment grow.  If it weren't for shareholders than Walmart will be no bigger than Raley's or Hy Vee who pay their workers similar wages but no one complains about.  Also, it you were to take the top 6 executives of Walmart and spread their salary to the 525,000 lowest paid employees of Walmart, they will earn an extra $147 a year.  That's it.  CEOs are not earning that much. "if you can't understand that then, idk , it's pretty simple for me." That is the problem.  You are taking a complex issue and trying to make it simple.  I have said I wish liberal economic policies will work because they are simple. If all it took was raising taxes to provide certain service than I will be all for it. It isn't that easy though.  Take "free college" for example. We lack TAs, professors, tutors and other skilled workers.  Where are they going to come from?  How are we going to provide those services when we lack the people to actually provide it?  Raising taxes is not going to help in that case.
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  441. Shad Jones, a lot of homes still have one bread winner. The reason why we are seeing more homes with more than one bread winner is because more women are exercising their freedom to work. We have become a society where we now allow women in the workplace. Is that a bad thing? Also, close to 70% of people live paycheck to paycheck while close to 70% of lottery winners go bankrupt. What that means is that people spend their money as opposed to saving it. Thus two breadwinners means they will simply spend more. Fact is people can still have one breadwinner, downsize and be just fine. Theorists do not deal in absolutes. I work in science, theorists make many assumptions to see a trend. I work in physical chemistry so I know many theorists. Consider, for example, the many models of water we use. On is called the "polarizable continuum model (PCM)" that treats water as dipoles. When you use that model you neglect hydrogen bonding. This model is used to save computational time because if you were to consider how a water model acts physically then you need to account for numerous forces. I am working on a paper right now and I measure vibrational lifetimes. The theorist I work with modeled the lifetimes and produced lifetimes of around 3 ps for one system and two vibrational lifetimes of 1 ps and 7 ps for another. My theorist gets 4 ps for the first system and 0.2 ps for the second. You may say the numbers are off for the second one but in reality it showed a trend, the lifetime is shorter. He could not measure a bi-exponential lifetime as the model could not account for it as that situation is not well understood or accounting for it will add to computational time that will delay projects. So yeah, I know theorists. They do not deal in absolute. Also, why are billionaires unnecessary? You do understand no one has billions of dollars as most of their value is derived from their stocks?
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