Raise the Wage?

Hello you guys, sorry I'm a day late, but here I am, and let's talk:

Another huge controversy in politics today is whether or not the minimum wage should be raised federally, or kept where it is. The left feels as though we should #raisethewage, but the right feels as though the minimum wage is fine where it is. So, who's right and who's wrong? Well, it depends on how you look at it. The federal minimum wage is at $7.25/hour, although many other states have much higher state minimum wages, such as New York, which is where I live, has a minimum wage of $8.75/hour, effective in 2015. So, is $7.25/hour fit for adults with families that they need to support? Of course not. But that isn't the argument here. The argument isn't that this mere $7.25/hour, or a mere roundabout figure of $15,080/year is suitable for workers with dependents. The argument is that the minimum wage is not meant for this demographic of people.

Yes, it's easy for you to say that a 16 year old white boy sitting in his bedroom on a snowy monday afternoon on his macbook computer typing away on his blog simply doesn't know the struggles of workers who are simply trying to supply for their families. So, let's look at the facts:

Last year, over 3.3 million people worked at or below the minimum wage. Considering the United States has a population of 316.1 million people, and roughly less than 298.4 million people working (considering the unemployment percentage), that means that 1.2% of workers in the United States were working off of this minimum amount of pay. This may not seem like a lot of people, but considering the huge amount of working population in the United States, this number is gargantuan. What do we have to do to stop this? Well, for starters, jobs. Creating more jobs for skilled people will lower this number significantly. We can't just do this at a drop of a hat, but it's something to work towards. However, are there jobs out there that at least some of these people working at minimum wage employment can take? Absolutely. The myth that this country is just simply fresh out of qualified workers to fulfill skilled labor jobs has gone on long enough. We're not out of jobs, we're just out of people who are willing to take them. Why? Because as long as we live in a socialized healthcare state, there will always be people not willing to work hard enough to get to the point where they're off the ground. Are all people like this? Of course not. But it would be ignorant to assume that people like that don't exist. The fact is that there are always going to be people who would rather flip burgers at McDonald's or sweep floors at a retail store, and collect welfare to satisfy their needs a little bit than aid in the development of a worthwhile corporation and fulfill their potential to society. Again, to stress, some people have had some unfortunate things occur in their lives, so, no I don't believe that "every minimum wage receiving, welfare collecting lower class citizen" is lazy, but I know that at least some of them are.

The problem with fiscal liberalism is that it's socialized. No one likes to hear that word, but it's true. Giving to the bottom to sustain them instead of forcing them to work their way to the top. I've always said that capitalism is the best cascenario because it's encouraging. It encourages those at the bottom to get to the top, and those already at the top to stay up there. Socialism does the opposite. Although a terrific idea in theory, socialism is flawed. It's flawed because it encourages people to stay at the bottom. Why would you wanna work hard when you can do nothing and get the same results as the guy standing next to you? It's human nature. People only want to do the work that gets them their fair results. So why am I talking about this? Because fiscal liberalism resembles this theory so much. As radical as that sounds, it's true. From the minimum wage to their policy on welfare and healthcare, to Obama's new free community college plan, it's socialized, and it doesn't work. The best way to get people to pick themselves off the bottom, is to show them that hard work rewards you. How do we do that? By encouraging them to get to that point. And, finally, how do we do that? Not by encouraging people to stay at their minimum pay for minimum work job and just increasing the pay, but by keeping these jobs at a low rate, and encouraging them to reach for higher. That's how you encourage people to be the best that they can be. Not by increasing pay rates at McDonald's to this outrageous $15/hour, but by keeping them low and showing them to strive for more if that's what they want.

Finally, the issue here is quite plain. Minimum wage workers are typically the least useful people in the company. They are meant to consist of teenagers or college students just trying to get by school or trying to save up for that car they've always wanted. It's not fit for a parent trying to supply for their kids because that's not what it's meant to be used for. If the minimum wage was meant to be suitable for adults with dependents, it wouldn't be a tiny $7.25/hour. Equal pay for equal work. The fact is that most companies can function without these workers, and if the wage were to increase any further, then the companies would be forced to let people go, just to satisfy a small amount of people's financial needs. You'd see unemployment skyrocket, and jobs go way down.

Let's put this into perspective. You're walking down the street and you see 10 starving homeless people, and you only have $50. Do you give each person $5, to give each of them another fighting chance to go get a small meal for the night, or do you give one person all $50 so they can eat in luxury, but the other 9 starve? Just something to think about.

Thanks so much to all of you for reading this post and I will see you all next week! See ya!