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I mean, I do think that is the genuine goal for most proponents of raising the minimum wage. As far as I know, as a general trend, politicians pushing to raise

I mean, I do think that is the genuine goal for most proponents of raising the minimum wage. As far as I know, as a general trend, politicians pushing to raise the minimum wage tend to also push for raising taxes on the wealthy and greater investment in social programs, especially those targeting the poor. On the flip side, politicians I'm aware of that push back against minimum wage increases tend to also be against any tax hikes on the wealthy, and as a bonus they generally work to erode funding for social safety nets. I'm not aware of many politicians being for raising minimum wage but against increasing taxes on the rich, or at least that not being just a minority of those involved in the debate. Either way my take on it is that we should just look to what seems to work empirically. For my money that's the Nordic countries, which have an effective (due to very strong unions) high minimum wage, along with high taxes and strong investment in social programs. That said, maybe you're right and UBI accomplishes the majority of what we're going for more directly. I definitely think it will be a necessity soon either way.

lotsofpulp 4y ago
> As far as I know, as a general trend, politicians pushing to raise the minimum wage tend to also push for raising taxes on the wealthy and greater investment in social programs, especially those targeting the poor. >On the flip side, politicians I'm aware of that push back against minimum wage increases tend to also be against any tax hikes on the wealthy, and as a bonus they generally work to erode funding for social safety nets. Yes, in the absence of a UBI, a minimum wage will have to do, and I do appreciate the politicians that can at least make that happen. I did not intend to crucify individual politicians per se, but rather the voting public’s priorities, which clearly make half measures with undesirable side effects such as minimum wage (and higher education loans and “recycling”, etc) the only politically palatable option. Unfortunately, a lot of these require consensus on the federal level and are not possible on the state level, so the compromises are quite heavy.

lotsofpulp 4y ago

> As far as I know, as a general trend, politicians pushing to raise the minimum wage tend to also push for raising taxes on the wealthy and greater investment in social programs, especially those targeting the poor. >On the flip side, politicians I'm aware of that push back against minimum wage increases tend to also be against any tax hikes on the wealthy, and as a bonus they generally work to erode funding for social safety nets. Yes, in the absence of a UBI, a minimum wage will have to do, and I do appreciate the politicians that can at least make that happen. I did not intend to crucify individual politicians per se, but rather the voting public’s priorities, which clearly make half measures with undesirable side effects such as minimum wage (and higher education loans and “recycling”, etc) the only politically palatable option. Unfortunately, a lot of these require consensus on the federal level and are not possible on the state level, so the compromises are quite heavy.