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Individual companies raising their minimum wage is perfectly reasonable. They know what their bottom line can handle, and any consequences are fairly limited t

Individual companies raising their minimum wage is perfectly reasonable. They know what their bottom line can handle, and any consequences are fairly limited to the company itself and its competitors, for good or ill. An entire national economy raising a minimum wage is pulling yourself into the air by tugging on your bootstraps - futile, and likely to make you keel over instead. There's no alternatives if it fails or has catastrophic effects. Much like software, businesses work best when there aren't single points of failure - damage is limited when things go wrong. Individual companies can experiment and make decisions that would be dangerous for an entire economy, with nowhere near the same level of risk for anyone except the people at the top.

rbg246 8y ago
It has been pretty plain to see that relying on individual companies to raise minimum wages has failed and that companies see no need to increase wages from their myopic perspective. A country knows what their bottom line can make good decisions as well. They employ economists and other experts who can assess the effects of raising a minimum wage in a way that an individual company cannot assess. Countries can also experiment and make decisions on available data and have controls like inflation and other macroeconomic levers to adjust wage levels to prevailing economic conditions. I think shutting off an entire sector of economics and leaving it purely to the 'free' market is a dangerous suggestion
- Fellshard 8y ago
  This is a case of seeing what they want to see, though: they'll listen to economists who tell them what they want to hear, i.e. that more government power will be helpful, and ignore the vast number of economists that take a more durable analysis. Also, I'm not sure if you're reading the same article as I am; this is a private company raising its own minimum wage, from its own myopic perspective.
jniedrauer 8y ago
> An entire national economy raising a minimum wage is pulling yourself into the air by tugging on your bootstraps - futile, and likely to make you keel over instead. There was a time not very long ago when (inflation adjusted) minimum wage was much higher than it is today. The economy did not "keel over."
csdreamer7 8y ago
I do not know why you are raising issue with increasing the national min wage. This bill charges large employers for welfare who keep employees pay low enough to qualify for benefits and therefore receive an indirect subsidy.

rbg246 8y ago

It has been pretty plain to see that relying on individual companies to raise minimum wages has failed and that companies see no need to increase wages from their myopic perspective. A country knows what their bottom line can make good decisions as well. They employ economists and other experts who can assess the effects of raising a minimum wage in a way that an individual company cannot assess. Countries can also experiment and make decisions on available data and have controls like inflation and other macroeconomic levers to adjust wage levels to prevailing economic conditions. I think shutting off an entire sector of economics and leaving it purely to the 'free' market is a dangerous suggestion

Fellshard 8y ago
This is a case of seeing what they want to see, though: they'll listen to economists who tell them what they want to hear, i.e. that more government power will be helpful, and ignore the vast number of economists that take a more durable analysis. Also, I'm not sure if you're reading the same article as I am; this is a private company raising its own minimum wage, from its own myopic perspective.

jniedrauer 8y ago

> An entire national economy raising a minimum wage is pulling yourself into the air by tugging on your bootstraps - futile, and likely to make you keel over instead. There was a time not very long ago when (inflation adjusted) minimum wage was much higher than it is today. The economy did not "keel over."

csdreamer7 8y ago

I do not know why you are raising issue with increasing the national min wage. This bill charges large employers for welfare who keep employees pay low enough to qualify for benefits and therefore receive an indirect subsidy.