The US Minimum Wage and Poverty...?

Question

The only major groups effected by minimum wage IMO are a) 14-15 year old grocery store baggers and b) Agriculture workers in the south and c) minors working in tanning salons.

I commend the current decision in congress, but will it really effect the poverty level in the US?

What can we do better to help the poor?

btw, I'm slightly right economically and vey authoritarian, so don't think I'm a liberal.

Answer 1

the best thing we can do to help the poor is to educate them, thus giving them more potential to break out of poverty.

Answer 2

No. It will hurt the economy in that prices will go up and everyones money will buy less. They could raise minimum wage to $50 and hour and it would still not help. Why well the price of gas would go up to $25 a Gallon, and Gallon of milk would run around 35 and loaf of bread at about $10. Any time there is a vote in the House and Senate that is over 80% know that the politicians are doing a feel good excersize to convince everyone they made the right choice in the last election. It is political grandstanding at its very worst! And what would that snotty little rich kid Ted Kennedy now about poverty. He is the biggest Hypocrite in the World.

Answer 3

Dear Rush,
Do you understand anything at all about the minimum wage? First, it only effects businesses of certain sizes. Small operations, like one man outfits can pay whatever they want. You are required to pay minimum wage if you fall into certain guidelines that encompass gross income and number of employees.
Second, the minimum wage guidelines promote fair wages. I live in an economically depressed area of New York State (which is most of New York State) and almost nobody pays anything close to minimum wage. The local Taco chain is paying eight bucks an hour for part-time students to work there. They know they have to offer something better then $5.15 an hour to get anybody to work there.
Third, you certainly wouldn't work for $5.15 an hour would you? But it's okay for somebody else to, isn't it?
Fourth, if you need help in your business, and you can't pay somebody seven bucks an hour to help you, you don't have a business, you have a hobby.
Fifth, if the government really gave a rat's-behind about people living in poverty, they wouldn't tax anybody making less then 20.000 dollars.
Sixth, the current poverty level for two people is $13200 a year. Can you imagine you and one other person living on $13200/yr? If only one of the people work that comes out to $6.35/hr. I bet they have a really nice place to live in.
Seventh, have a baby and try to raise a family and the federal government thinks if "daddy" makes more then $7.98/hr you don't live in poverty.
Does that really make sense to you? Can that possible make sense to anyone? The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Oh yeah, here's wher I got my numbers.

Answer 4

It will some as it will make those who screw people pay more!

We are not willing to tackle poverty until we realize that we are the cause of most of it! Hell, the US just spends our money it doesn't even have. I sure would like to be able to do that without going to jail!

We can stop the dollar drought from communities, like Walmart that sucks towns dry for minimum wage!

We can stop looking at the poor as any less than we are. Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is mainly an American myth! It fits in well with how people blame victims!

Answer 5

Raising the minimum wage is only a small step, granted. But remember, teh minimum wage is not intended to be a "living" wage so much as to prevent unscrupulous employers from paying excessively low wages--in short,to minimize the worst kinds of exploitation.

Four things need to happen to start improving the growing poverty problem in the US. All of them essentially amount to reversing abusive policcies of the neoconservatives:
1) Immigration reform. We need a guest worker program and measures to establish a legal status for those undocumented workers who are actually here to work (the majority). This will stop the exploitation of these workers. BTW-it willl aslo force the employers to start turning over billions of tax money they've been pocketing.
2) Restore the rights of workers to organize and negotiate with employers. Technically, this is still legal--but the current laws make organized labor virtually meaningless--they have no real leverage.
3) Reverse the erosion of our educational system. One goood way to start would be to junk the "NO (withe) Child Left Behind" program and start real support of educational reform.
4) start reversing the policies re business and finance that have led to a real decrease in average wages--which is occuring in a period of economic growth, just to add insult to injury. the range of these policies and legal loopholes is considerable--here's one of dozens of examples, just to illustrate: It is currently legal for exectutives to walk away with tens--or hundreds--of millions of "bonuses" merely for showing up and signing a conract with a company. That money is not only stolen from stockholders, it --if spent--would do far more to improve company perfrmance if it went to redressing the growing wage gap between the lowest and highest paid workers--and might acutally benefit the stockholders by improving incentives. As it is the only beneficiaries are these corporate pirates.

Answer 6

educate them... but not just in the way you and I think about...

many have no basic skills... know knowledge of money and how to handle it at all... their parents never had a clue and most schools don't teach that kind of thing...

also just teaching them basic manners and social courtesy... that goes a long ways too...

much of this is what many take for granted that we were lucky enough to learn at home at an early age... but there are quite a few in poverty that have no idea... without these basics, the rest is useless...

then you have to focus on remedial education and also focus on EDUCATION AT HOME... the parents don't so much need to teach, as much as they need to be supportive and firm... many parents don't value education themselves, so of course their children won't... .

what do you do if the best role model you have doesn't have a clue? you're in deep, deep trouble...

also more college loans at lower rates and more grants would also help those that can make the grades, but can't afford college make it and get that extra education that will often make a huge difference and break these cycles of poverty...

it's a lot about breaking these cycles...

Answer 7

I disagree with you. An increase in the minimum wage helps the investing class. It insures that lower income Americans can continue to buy goods and services from companies that we own stock in. A higher minimum wage results in higher retail prices which is ultimately good for the year over year bottom line.

If we want to help the poor we need to do three key things:

1) Outlaw TV sets in households earning less than $50k per year. In her book The Overspent American, Juliet Schor finds an inverse correlation between the number of hours one spends watching TV and his or her net worth. In addition, she finds that low income people tend to adopt the people they see on TV as a financial reference set (trying to emulate their lifestyles and acquistions). The problem is obvious. Most people portrayed on TV are either upper middle class (Frazier) or financial realities are subject to artistic liberties (as in the Friends effect demonstrating how people working in a coffee shop and their entry level associates can afford a loft apartment in a major metropolitan market).

2) Teach financial literacy in school. We spend too much time learning how to read books and not enough time learning how to read numbers. In his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, David Kiosaki lays out six or seven simple lessons that can become habits in anyone's life that will help improve financial decision making. Rich people don't think differently about financial issues than poor people, they think oppositely.

3) Teach them that if they're going to be an employee, you had better also be an investor. Avoid credit cards. Avoid gambling, lotteries and other forms of speculative risk. Invest in income producing assets. Ameritrade accounts can be open for $500. Prosper.com accounts can be opened for as little as $50.

Broke is temporary. Poor is permanent. If we are serious about really helping the poor, we should start by teaching them the difference.

Answer 8

a minimum wage increase helps only if price of products and services do not increase in proportion to the wage increase which will start an increase in inflation that will nullify wage increase.

Only a increase in productivity of work without cost of more capital
allow employers to increase wages without increasing price.

This limits the ability of government help the poor directly by mandating by law an increase wages

Answer 9

Seriously, who makes minimum wage? My first job at McDonald's paid more than that and now I see them advertising $10+ an hour.

Answer 10

It affects more people than you think...and more businesses as well....it needs to be raised and hopefully will be.