"Should the Minimum Wage Be Abolished?"

[Brigid]

Caught a bit of "Crossfire" on CNN while I was out today. I didn't even know that program was still on. I couldn't follow what was bring said because it was kind of noisy where I was, and I was too far away to read the captions; but there was one really striking optic that I probably wouldn't have noticed otherwise : A split screen with Newt Gingrich, Michael Steele, and some other old white guy in a suit chortling on one side, and an African American woman (a Democratic representative from California, I think) scowling on the other -- all over the headline "Should the Minimum Wage Be Abolished?" Can you believe this is actually being seriously discussed? I swear the Repugs won't be happy until we're all being paid nothing and living and working on plantations!

[Fred Sanders]

1. They are too scared to headline "Should the minimum wage be raised?"' Because the answer does

not please the corporations that pay millions that exact wage, but these talking heads on corporate owned news stations, well, they pay so much more.

[Augiedog]

2. Maybe we need to think outside the box

How about we tie the employees wages to the "bosses", CEOs etc. Using an algorithm that reflects the success of the highest paid person. It could be a sliding scale which would factor all aspects of a company so that the employees and the managements pay is reflective of the real value workers provide. The simple truth is, no employees, no profit.....period. I'm sure the "bosses" of the world would attempt to game the system, but seeing as how corporations are now people we can execute the corporation for such behavior. Just kidding.

[standingtall]

3. The minimum wage should never be abolished

and no it is no surprise it is being discussed. Libertarians have been pushing this abolish the minimum wage nonsense forever.

[JaneyVee]

4. Lets all fight each other and beg CEOs for the lowest wage

[Brigid]

5. It's what the 1% wants.

They want the rest of us fighting like starving rats over shitjobs.

[Prophet 451]

7. Yep

The dream of the very wealthy has always been to have a labour pool poor enough and desperate enough to work for pennies. All politics is ultimately about the rich versus the rest and everything the GOP (which is now just the political arm of big business) does is to pursue that dream.

[ronnie624]

13. A vast pool of labor, with extreme competition for jobs.

A paradise for rich business owners.

[Prophet 451]

6. I understand your frustration

It just dumbfounds me that a major political party in the twenty-first century literally want to turn the clock back to teh Gilded Age.

[HughBeaumont]

8. Riiiiiiiiiight, because corporations are going to be MORE benevolent if we just drop that standard.

Hey, let's take money OUT of the hands of people who have to spend every dime. SURELY in an economy where 2/3rds of it depends on consumer spending, THAT'S a smart-as-shit-out idea!!

[ronnie624]

15. They won't have any problem finding markets in a totally integrated global economy.

If the only thing that matters is short-term profits, the emerging markets of Asia will provide lots of opportunities.

Capitalism is an absolutely unsustainable paradigm for modern human civilization, however, in the long-term. To secure the future of our civilization, we need a predominantly socialist economy that is firmly founded on science and the Laws of Thermodynamics, instead of the fantasies of mainstream economic "theory" and other such gobbledygook.

[TBF]

16. Excellent post - I agree 100%. nt

[Half-Century Man]

9. Yes, the term "minimum wage" should end

$10.10 and up is now the living wage.
Between $8.00 and $10.10 is now bare survival wages.
Under $8.00 is starvation wage.

$15.00 is fair wage.


Work the language at least as well as the thugs.....

[Recursion]

10. Germany, Switzerland, and Singapore seem to do OK without one.

They effectively have a guaranteed income, though; I'd be fine with replacing the minimum wage with a guaranteed income (explicit or effective). Plus Germany and Switzerland have very strong labor representation in businesses.

[U4ikLefty]

11. Only if this administration is for it.

Then the DU faithful will attack anybody that objects.

[2pooped2pop]

12. "should all labor be slave labor?" Just didn't sound right, so they reworded it. n/t

[CatholicEdHead]

14. Minimum wage was one of the things Unions won back in the early 1900s

Their plan is to roll back to the late 1800s robber baron era, the minimum wage is one thing that has to go to get there.