| the2real4mafol said: You lot complain about the minimum wage, but how would you like to slave around for your favourite corporations for 12 hours a day and get maybe $1 at the end of it all? The bigger companies at least are just very greedy, they moan about the minimum wage and having to give benefits like health insurance, but it's too benefit you the worker. A higher minimum wage is a terrible excuse to lay off workers, especially when you make massive profits like many companies do. Unfortunately these greedy bastards use stuff like the minimum wage as an excuse to outsource there work to India and China, shame on them! Obviously, it's harder on smaller business but still. |
Well I do work 12 hours a day (I'm a nurse for a corporate health network) and when I was in the military I worked probably 12-14 hours a day and when you figured it out to hourly wages it was very low (less than minimum wage) and I lived just fine. If I am not paid what I need or am worth I take my talents else where. I know I don't need any union or government to argue for my worth. In fact I believe I am more skilled and worth more pay than many of those with whom I am employed and should be allowed to negotiate for my pay. Unfortunately due to union rules etc. I can't even negotiate for my pay. I MUST take the pay rate assigned to me (secondary/tertiary consequence of unionization).
If you think greed has nothing to do with the minimum wage on the part of politicians and the labor force you are mistaken. Greed is universal my friend. So that is a wash. What it comes down to is the unintended consequences of actions with thought. Most people only think of the primary consequence of an action in the case of minimum wage it would be on the surface higher pay for the worker. Well "that's the point" you'll say. But when you look at secondary and even tertiary effects you see that the minimum wage causes higher prices and fewer workers hired. And it doesn't stop there.
If your costs went up and you weren't expecting an up-tick in extra income how would you manage? You would cut costs. You'd fire the gardener, or the nanny, shut off your gamefly account or trim back your grocery bill. All of those actions cut the income of other people. So with your POV you are being greedy since you are now cutting the income of others. Don't you see the relationship? Its the same for businesses, large and small.
Labor is the single largest cost of ANY business. Medical benefits is right up there and then there are the other costs involved. Then there is the cost of marketing, advertising, navigating regulations and compliance etc. etc. etc. For many businesses yes a slight raise in labor costs can have a large effect on business. I'm not saying companies are benevolent because they aren't they want your money and they want you to spend it on them. But to say only they are capable of greed is ignorant.
You have a simplistic view of business (probably because you don't understand it) in that you believe they have massive profits. Yes many large corporations DO have a lot of money. They have a lot of money because they supply goods and services that a lot of people use or consume. Most of them operate of very thin profit margins however. Not to mention many of these companies need to amass large amounts of capital to be able to weather down years and/or increased costs etc. Look at SONY for an example if they didn't have a lot of capital how could they continue to run after losing billions? Most companies would fold after losing just thousands. Which leads to fewer jobs.
