They can work somewhere else, until they can't. I'm not saying the minimum wage is a good idea, but hand-waving that "they can just work somewhere else" is ignoring why minimum wage was created in the first place. It was a knee-jerk reaction to a populace being absolutely fucking raped over in labor value.
I'm conservative to the core, I don't like the idea of minimum wage, but doing away with it completely without an alternative to stop the abuse is just returning to a time when the American worker was the equivalent of a slave. If I had my way, I would eliminate the minimum wage and pass a new law that says to pay people what they are worth and stop being a fucking greedy piece of shit, but alas.
There weren't options like there are today, and people can easily pick up and move without a wagon train. If they are too weak to move on from a bad job, they deserve it.
Winners and losers exist for a reason, and it's not because life is fair.
So you have job A, B, and C. Right now, federal minimum wage mandates $7.25 an hour.
So you work at A.
Federal minimum wage is abolished with no other safety net.
Employer A says, well, we're going to lower wages to $4 an hour.
You say "That's bulllshitttt!!" and go to job B, which is still paying $7.25 an hour. Job B heard what job A did, and they set the pay to $4.01 an hour.
Job C hears about this and decides they are clever, so they set their wage to $4.25 an hour.
All prices are the same as they always have been.
Everyone wants to work at Company C because they pay the highest in the field, but it's still fucking garbage.
You finally get on at Company C making 25 cents more an hour than everyone else in your field. You have the nicest cardboard box on the sidewalk, and since you can't afford a car, you get lots of sunshine and exercise.
Prices and the economy will eventually adjust to the new economic conditions, but there will be a LOT of fucking misery in the meantime. The first place businesses try to cut costs is labor because labor is the most expensive aspect of doing business, but they will do so irresponsibly and selfishly and as quickly as possible to improve their bottom line for the impending recession/depression.
We should not increase minimum wage, but we should not immediately abolish it. Sudden change of a magnitude that great would be very destructive. We could probably wean ourselves off of it a quarter at a time over the next couple of decades, but it can't go away at once. Nor can it double, which these idiot Democrats can't get through their fucking skulls.
They can work somewhere else, can't they? If people are too weak to walk away from abuse, they deserve what they get.
They can work somewhere else, until they can't. I'm not saying the minimum wage is a good idea, but hand-waving that "they can just work somewhere else" is ignoring why minimum wage was created in the first place. It was a knee-jerk reaction to a populace being absolutely fucking raped over in labor value.
I'm conservative to the core, I don't like the idea of minimum wage, but doing away with it completely without an alternative to stop the abuse is just returning to a time when the American worker was the equivalent of a slave. If I had my way, I would eliminate the minimum wage and pass a new law that says to pay people what they are worth and stop being a fucking greedy piece of shit, but alas.
There weren't options like there are today, and people can easily pick up and move without a wagon train. If they are too weak to move on from a bad job, they deserve it.
Winners and losers exist for a reason, and it's not because life is fair.
So you have job A, B, and C. Right now, federal minimum wage mandates $7.25 an hour.
So you work at A.
Federal minimum wage is abolished with no other safety net.
Employer A says, well, we're going to lower wages to $4 an hour.
You say "That's bulllshitttt!!" and go to job B, which is still paying $7.25 an hour. Job B heard what job A did, and they set the pay to $4.01 an hour.
Job C hears about this and decides they are clever, so they set their wage to $4.25 an hour.
All prices are the same as they always have been.
Everyone wants to work at Company C because they pay the highest in the field, but it's still fucking garbage.
You finally get on at Company C making 25 cents more an hour than everyone else in your field. You have the nicest cardboard box on the sidewalk, and since you can't afford a car, you get lots of sunshine and exercise.
Prices and the economy will eventually adjust to the new economic conditions, but there will be a LOT of fucking misery in the meantime. The first place businesses try to cut costs is labor because labor is the most expensive aspect of doing business, but they will do so irresponsibly and selfishly and as quickly as possible to improve their bottom line for the impending recession/depression.
We should not increase minimum wage, but we should not immediately abolish it. Sudden change of a magnitude that great would be very destructive. We could probably wean ourselves off of it a quarter at a time over the next couple of decades, but it can't go away at once. Nor can it double, which these idiot Democrats can't get through their fucking skulls.