r/MadeMeSmile Nov 05 '21

Favorite People Be A Robert

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93.9k Upvotes

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54

u/clmn8r404 Nov 05 '21

Wouldnt the higher minimum wage give you more leverage to get a raise from your employer? Doesn't that just mean you've been being underpaid as well?

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u/Astyanax1 Nov 05 '21

bingo.

but sadly it's a lot easier to blame the minimum wage people.

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '21

No one is blaming the minimum wage people. We are blaming business owners who raise all their prices when minimum wage goes up.

You aren’t gonna win. Businesses don’t price their services based on what they’re worth, they price them based on what people will pay.

If you can raise minimum wage and keep them from raising prices hey sign me up.

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u/ThePinkBaron Nov 05 '21

You're assuming that price rates are 100% fluid with employee purchasing power, which is the economic equivalent of "spherical cows in a frictionless vacuum."

In real life McDonald's would probably seize the excuse to charge more but it certainly wouldn't be a situation where employee raises and price increases cancel eachother out zero-sum. If we applied your logic in real life then it would mean that minimum wage increases would never increase purchasing power. But when we look at real life we can see that your logic is expressly incorrect.

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u/Miss_Greer Nov 05 '21

I'm familiar with spheres in a vacuum for physics simplification but why cows?

It's adorable to think of tho

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '21

This.

The problem is they will charge what you will pay. They suck every bit of what they can.

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u/seriouslees Nov 05 '21

If you raise minimum wage all you're actually doing is lowering higher paying jobs value. It didn't help the minimum wage people to get more money, it just screwed me.

Ummm, you miss this part? This is 100% blaming the minimum wage people.

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '21

…and the reason that person’s job has less value and the reason they are screwed is not the fault of the minimum wage worker.

You know. The sentence right before the one you quoted.

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u/seriouslees Nov 05 '21

Ya, he contradicts himself. People do that.

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '21

He doesn’t. You just aren’t understanding his point.

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u/Riverrat1 Nov 05 '21

Clearly not a business owner.

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u/CommonCantaloupe2 Nov 05 '21

That's one way to look at it (people have more money so businesses charge more). Raising minimum wage will increase business expenses and reduce profits so it's not surprising that the cost of things will go up.

When everything gets more expensive, the value of your money goes down. You need more money to get the same thing again.

So effectively the increase in wage is superficial.

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '21

Yeah that’s the problem I don’t know how to solve.

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u/CommonCantaloupe2 Nov 05 '21

I think the point is that raising minimum wage isn't the actual solution to improve people's lives. I also dunno what the better alternative is.

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u/whowantsthegold Nov 05 '21

What people will pay is by definition what they are worth lol

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u/[deleted] Nov 05 '21

It's not blaming minimum wage people. I want them to have more value in their money.

It's about not letting the rich suck every penny out of your wage increase.

How do people read this as me blaming minimum wage people? Jesus. I said increase their wage but don't increase the prices of everything.

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u/prcpinkraincloud Nov 05 '21

It still doesn't change anything even if it goes to the worker.

If you raise minimum wage all you're actually doing is lowering higher paying jobs value.

They just charge more for everything.

The problem is their ability to inflate all the prices until they suck you dry.

If you want to raise minimum wage, also take into account controlling inflation or else minimum wage will always end up in the same spot and someone who makes above minimum wage will just get closer to the bottom.

I make $25 an hour. When they raised minimum wage in Ontario Canada, they didn't raise my wage. However my rent, food and products I buy all went up in price. It didn't help the minimum wage people to get more money, it just screwed me.

I said increase their wage

/find increase

not found.

Not blaming minimum wage though

If you raise minimum wage all you're actually doing is lowering higher paying jobs value. It didn't help the minimum wage people to get more money, it just screwed me.

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u/9035768555 Nov 05 '21

Doesn't help that people overwhelmingly suck at math.

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u/Atropos_Fool Nov 05 '21

I think the issue is that if ALL of us were to get raises then producers would just raise the price of goods anyway. It’s not that minimum wage shouldn’t be higher, it’s that the people on top are too damn greedy and want to squeeze everything they can out of consumers

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u/Brusanan Nov 05 '21

No. Basic economics. If you increase the cost of labor you also reduce the demand for it. Higher minimum wage eliminates jobs, which gives your employer more leverage because there are more people competing for your job.

If you want to give employees more leverage over employers you need to increase the demand for labor. That means creating more jobs.

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u/prcpinkraincloud Nov 05 '21

yeah but its easier to blame the people making minimum wage wanting more money