I have survived my second annual thinning of the herd

[Hauldren Collider]

I'd rather get paid a wage at all than no wage simply because people like C0ckney think everyone deserves a larger apartment.

[KrazyHorse]

Proof please.

This is like asking for proof that Betelgeuse exerts gravitational pull.

[C0ckney]

They'd have to reduce the number of servants?! How would all the bathrooms get cleaned?

it's a horrifying prospect.

[MikeH]

This is like asking for proof that Betelgeuse exerts gravitational pull.

Ok so you think the effect is there but it's so tiny as to be almost completely undetectable?

Huge scare stories about the minimum wage introduction hear causing massive havoc in low paid jobs, but actually seemed to have almost no effect.

[Hauldren Collider]

That's because the minimum wage is so low it doesn't make a lick of difference.

[dannubis]

I'd rather get paid a wage at all than no wage simply because people like C0ckney think everyone deserves a larger apartment.

You OTOH hand never worked a day in your life and your parents have provided you with everything incuding a house with 7 bathrooms. It is easy to be a tough guy in your situation.

[MikeH]

I would argue that the 4-5% transaction cost that KH has estimated as an average for us appears to also be so low that it doesn't make a lick of difference.

Another important factor which we haven't mentioned is that in you can't claim unemployment benefit in your notice period, and unemployment benefit are also be means tested, so the government is essentially shifting some of the burden of unemployment benefits from taxation to employers. Which is a political choice.

And a popular one both with taxpayers and employees, who are a significant proportion of voters.

[MikeH]

You OTOH hand never worked a day in your life and your parents have provided you with everything incuding a house with 7 bathrooms. It is easy to be a tough guy in your situation.

[Hauldren Collider]

It's adorable that dannubis thinks he knows nearly enough about a guy he's never met and only knows through heated political debates to judge character.

I didn't feel smugly superior to you before, dan, but I do now.

[Kuciwalker]

MikeH still hasn't to #163, the most important point. If an unemployed person offers to do my job for less (pay or other benefits such as severance) why should my interest in the job be prioritized over theirs?

Minimum wage laws, etc. are regressive: they redistribute income from low earners to higher earners.

[Aeson]

I don't think it's quite that simple. Minimum wage laws (or other less natural wage hikes) can help create a consumer base with discretionary income where before there wouldn't be. (This is not the case in the US.) That can be a beneficial thing in some cases. Also, the redistribution doesn't necessarily have to be regressive across an entire economy (forgive me if "regressive" isn't the right word, I'm not sure what is), even if it is in a case by case basis. Meaning, that if there are 50M people making minimum wage, and they get replaced by 50M making half that, the lower classes (as a whole) have lost half their income even though 50M individuals have gained. There won't be 50M more jobs created (at half value), and may actually be quite a few lost because the consumer base is now smaller. Follow it all the way down and you get an economy where no one makes enough money to support their own jobs (outside of agriculture and other necessity industries)... because they can't consume anything other than the basic necessities... and there are at least some cases where this is currently happening (or worse, they can't even afford the basic necessities).

So yah, you might be causing a problem on a case by case basis, but the overall effect (more money total in the hands of the impoverished) could be positive still.

[Asher]

Minimum wage laws, etc. are regressive: they redistribute income from low earners to higher earners.

[Aeson]

It's adorable that dannubis thinks he knows nearly enough about a guy he's never met and only knows through heated political debates to judge character.

I didn't feel smugly superior to you before, dan, but I do now.

[Felch]

Minimum wage laws, etc. are regressive: they redistribute income from low earners to higher earners.

Is there evidence to support this hypothesis? Have recent increases in the federal minimum wage been linked to a rise in the Gini coefficient?

[MikeH]

MikeH still hasn't to #163, the most important point. If an unemployed person offers to do my job for less (pay or other benefits such as severance) why should my interest in the job be prioritized over theirs?

Why shouldn't the person in the job's interest be prioritised?