Here's what fast food will cost with $17 an hour wages

Because the government pays for a tax cut (usually in a reduced benefit or service, or simply by adding to the deficit). The money doesn't come out of anyone's earnings.

A forced hike in the minimum-wage takes money out of other people's pockets.

 

The mind that is the sj.com left: Millions of business owners are leaving untold billions in profit on the table because they're not smart enough to pay their least-skilled workers more.

I just don't understand why some enlightened sportswriters haven't taken that fact and run with it. Pool your money, buy some underperforming newspaper -- maybe one that's about to go under; you could get it for a song! -- then give the entire staff a 67% (or more) raise. Shouldn't be too long before the profits start pouring in.

 

Except the reduced benefit or service is also coming put of someone's pocket.

Government cuts taxes. They don't have money to pay for that extra social worker. That social worker loses their job. Losing the job takes money out of the social worker's pocket.

 

Or State Gov cuts taxes. Tuition at State U suddenly kinda pricey. And local property taxes go through the roof.

 

Of course, that would be counting on the advertisers wanting to advertise more with the paper with their new profits from newspaper staffers' spending. To do that, advertising with the paper would have to be profitable for them, which, for a lot of them nowadays, isn't happening.

Might have been more workable before the Internet era.

 

The fetishization of billionaires increases apace on the right.

Also shareholder value!

 

The fetishization of "innovations" at gunpoint continues apace on the left.

Also compassion!

 

Why hasn't increasing the EITC gained more traction? It helps families, and spreads the effects of a minimum wage.

Or we can with New York's plan to increase the minimum wage for just some workers, while basically telling others they should have gotten a job at McDonald's.

 

It is unclear to me how compassion increases shareholder value?

So lacking compassion would be a plus in business. And shouldn't that be something valued on the right?

 

I see you've been taking lessons in obtuseness re: others' posts from [yougetoneguess].

 

Well, my hypothetical business has $200 in sales and blows McDonald's out of the water. Plus, these business owners pay each employee $100K/yr, give their employees a 5-bedroom home, buy their employees two new cars per year, cure cancer, and keep the boogieman away.

 

There are more "shareholders" in this country than there are minimum-wage workers.

"Shareholders" (aka regular folk with 401[k]s) are invested in the economy, remain so for much of their lives and count on their investments to build wealth and help fund their retirement. They are the fuel for the economy.

That's just a tiny bit more important, in the big picture, than an entry-level job that only serves as a starting point for many people's careers.