Everything we can
It’s asking too much, though.
Democratic plans to include a gradual raise to $15 in Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus stimulus bill were effectively ended on Thursday when the Senate parliamentarian ruled it should not be part of the package.
…
Biden campaigned on a pledge to increase the minimum wage to $15. Low-wage workers and unions have campaigned for a rise since 2012, and its inclusion in the coronavirus stimulus bill had been seen as a major victory.
While the proposal faced universal opposition by Republican senators and skepticism from some Democrats, Senator Bernie Sanders and others were confident that it could be pushed through with a simple majority in the Senate, where the Democrats hold a slim majority.
Why skepticism from some Democrats? Why skepticism over paying workers halfway decently?
Other progressive Democrats have proposed a less drastic solution [than removing the parliamentarian] – overruling her.
“The Senate parliamentarian issues an advisory opinion,” congresswoman Pramila Jayapal said in a tweet. “The VP can overrule them – as has been done before. We should do EVERYTHING we can to keep our promise, deliver a $15 minimum wage, and give 27 million workers a raise.”
Total workers in the US are around 155 million, so 27 million is not a tiny fraction.
I have had this discussion with left-leaning and even left-all-the-way-over friends, and they always argue that fewer people will have jobs, and there will be higher unemployment, and it’ll be bad for poor people. The final argument I always hear: Do you know how much [strawberries] will cost if we do that? It’s always something like strawberries (that’s the one I hear most often) that poor people can’t afford…that’s the most telling thing for me.
The answer? Put a cap on profit. Don’t allow the obscene profits companies rake in, or tax them. Very few of the people I argue with understand how little tax most of these employers pay, or how much the higher ups make, or how bloated those higher up positions have become, splitting into this, plus vice this and vice that, plus sub this and sub that, plus almost this and almost that…while slashing wages, benefits, and hours at the bottom, and requiring higher productivity from fewer people.
In addition to the arguments that iknklast lists, I have also heard (often from people in southern border states), that having a high minimum wage makes it more attractive for companies to hire undocumented workers, since they don’t need to worry about the rules for them anyway, So the double whammy result would be that not only would “real” Americans would lose jobs, but more “illegals” would come in to the country (to be hired by the same rich business-owners who spend their off-hours complaining about the leaky borders).
Of course, the answer provided above applies equally well here.
Good to see Costco leading by example and upping wages to $16.00 an hour. No doubt they’ll be boycotted by Republicans for breaking ranks.
I forget the name, but I saw an article a few days back about a Senator who said that he began work at $6.00 an hour. Some clever journalist figured out that the $6.00 an hour back then is equivalent to $24.50 an hour today.
Tax cuts to the rich stay with the rich. They do not spend any more, they don’t have much left to buy. Wage increases to the low the paid go right back into the economy as people can afford better food, medical care, new jeans, or even a punnet of strawberries.
They say a rising tide lifts all boats, but what they ignore is that the tide rises from below.
God, really? The meaning of $6 an hour depends VERY MUCH on when that was. 25 cents an hour was a standard pay in the 1930s.
Senator John Thune, that was.
Found it.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/careersandeducation/gop-senator-rejects-dollar15-minimum-wage-saying-he-once-earned-dollar6-an-hour-or-dollar23-with-inflation/ar-BB1e1coR
I’m so bloody sick of idiots that don’t understand that an economy is only good for everybody rich and poor when people buy things. Literally (proper definition thank you) anything. I’m not remotely an economist and in fact cheated liberally* during the exams I had in the only economics courses I’ve ever taken in my life.
It’s back on Netflix and now with Dave Chappelle’s approval but look for his sketch on reparations for slavery. It’s both hilarious and fucking educational.
* Fun story I’ll be happy to relate when we all meet up for drinks some day
My previous comment was incomplete because the alcohol is taking effect, but the point is that if you give poor people 1.9bn dollars they’re going to give it right back because they’re going to fucking buy things. Even if they buy drugs the drug dealer is going to buy bling. And lawyers.
Mike, some years ago an Australian author/speechwriter, Bob Ellis, wrote a book “First Abolish the Customer: 202 Arguments Against Economic Rationalism”.
One of his themes is “Economies exist because people trade and not the other way around”.
@Roj Kinda like the music industry thinking there wouldn’t be any music without them.
Seanna Watson @#2, I once came up with a scheme to address the arguments of those who feel that ‘illegals’ will take all the jobs:
You raise minimum wage to $15/hour
For immigrants, you pay double
For undocumented immigrants, you pay triple
That way, if these are genuinely jobs that “Americans” (read, middle-class male white Americans) won’t do, then at least the people who do them will get a decent salary. If the ‘illegals’ really are stealing American jobs, this would fix it.
None of the people who ever make those argument to me are willing to sign on to this. They are afraid the price of their socks might go up a dollar.