Some examples of countries that require fair pay, and have low unemployment

Denmark, highest minimum wage in the world (not enforced by law, but by union negotiation. It is still a minimum wage in the sense that no-one works for less than that), 6.9% unemployment

Australia, very high minimum wage, 5.1% unemployment

Norway, no formal minimum wage but the unions are strong enough to guarentee fair wages, 2.9% unemployment

Now for some examples of no/low minimum wage and high unemployment. Obvious all of these countries have gross mismanagement by the government or they wouldn't be in the sad situation they are in, but I shall endeavour to only include wealthy countries.

United States - Very low minimum wage, 8.9% unemployment 

Libya ~$110/month , 13% unemployment

Portugal - about $3.80 US/hour minimum wage, 10.7% unemployment

So you have libya, a country that was so poorly managed that people are revolting and Portugal which is one of the most corrupt countries in Europe ...

On top of this, do you have participation rates to go along with your unemployment rates; because unemployment rate is a meaningless statistic unless you consider the participation rates. Being that these high minimum wages are associated with awful youth participation rates, I highly doubt that it is as cut and dry as you're trying to present it as ...

disagree, lower minimum wage might make more companies higher, but would make the lower class grow.

I support an increase for service jobs (servers/bartenders). Also lower taxs on small business, higher taxes on big.

Most Americans are too humane to allow their countrymen to work for a few dollars a day.  Thats not to mention that you'll have to pay more for society to cover them anyway.  Myself, I would immediately move to a gated community.

We actually already had this in America, and not suprisingly thats why we have unions now.  Look up company towns.

This is hilarious, you are actually agreeing with me.

I am trying to prove that underpaying your workers is mismanaging your country. Every time I mention a country,that pays its workers poorly, you tell me that it is mismanaged and thus we can't consider it. 

Correlation does not imply causiation, but it does waggle its eyebrows suggestively.

No, I'm actually disagreeing with you ...

A country’s total labour force is the portion of the labour force participants who are employed (participation rate * (1.0-unemployment rate)); and this is determined by multiple factors, including tax rates, how well managed a country is, and the unemployment rate. There are only a couple countries in the world who have a larger labour force than the United States (during the deepest recession in the United States in several decades), and they are Canada (a country that is far better managed with a significantly lower corporate tax rate and similar minimum wages), and a couple of Scandinavian countries (which are the best managed countries in the world).

There is one (maybe two) countries in the world that have as large of a labour force as the United States with a significnatly higher minimum wage; which is hardly enough to make a case for high minimum wages.

scottie said: As an addependum to the whole 'getting your facts right when trolling' thing, your entire premise is incorrect.   There is no correlation between lack of a fair minimum wage and employment rate.                                                                                   Unemployment rate (%)  Zimbabwe 95.0 2009 (June)[130]  Nauru 90.0 2004[3]  Liberia 85.0;[77] 88% among young Liberians[78] 2009 (July)  Vanuatu 78.21 1999[124]  Turkmenistan 70.0 2008 (November)[117]  Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Australia) 60.0 2000[3]  Mozambique 60.0 2009  Tajikistan 60.0 2008 (August)[112]  Djibouti 59.0 2007[3]  Namibia 51.2 2008[3   Zimbabwe has no minimum wage Naura has no minimum wage Liberia (minimum wage 20 US cents/hour) I could go on, but there is no point, you and I both know that your argument is bogus.   Fact is, minimum wage and unemployment benefits give people disposable income, which they spend on products and services. In order to sell these products and provide these services, more people need to be employed, reducing unemployment. Unions and minimum wage are required to reduce unemployment.

How in the hell do you have 90% unemployment? How do you even have a country at that point? You'd figure society itself would shut down if you passed up 40% or so...

HappySqurriel said: scottie said: As an addependum to the whole 'getting your facts right when trolling' thing, your entire premise is incorrect.   There is no correlation between lack of a fair minimum wage and employment rate.                                                                                   Unemployment rate (%)  Zimbabwe 95.0 2009 (June)[130]  Nauru 90.0 2004[3]  Liberia 85.0;[77] 88% among young Liberians[78] 2009 (July)  Vanuatu 78.21 1999[124]  Turkmenistan 70.0 2008 (November)[117]  Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Australia) 60.0 2000[3]  Mozambique 60.0 2009  Tajikistan 60.0 2008 (August)[112]  Djibouti 59.0 2007[3]  Namibia 51.2 2008[3   Zimbabwe has no minimum wage Naura has no minimum wage Liberia (minimum wage 20 US cents/hour) I could go on, but there is no point, you and I both know that your argument is bogus.   Fact is, minimum wage and unemployment benefits give people disposable income, which they spend on products and services. In order to sell these products and provide these services, more people need to be employed, reducing unemployment. Unions and minimum wage are required to reduce unemployment. Do you have any countries that are not being completely mismanaged by their governments?

Does such a country exist?

First of all, the reason very few countries have as large a labor force as the US is because they have smaller populations. How is total labor force an indicator of anything?

Assuming you're talking about labor force participation rate, higher is not better in this case (obviously it is better if you are a millionaire seeking to extort as much money from people as you can, but it isn't actually better for the country or its population). The way I am reading it, if you want a high participation rate, you should knock down all your educational instituions and kill off the young and the old. How is that a good comparison tool?

Reduce the minimum wage and the house prices will fall to reasonable levels. Short term pain for long term gain.  Free markets will correct themselves and adjust. People struggling to repay their mortgages will be forced to default and free themselves from debt. More  mortgage defaults and more de-leverage of debt in the economy will force house prices down. High houses prices are directly related to the amount of mortgage debt and government interventions in the housing market.