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Ready for the $9 Big Mac, for real?

It is all pretty simple. Raising minimum wage will in turn cause businesses to pass on increased costs to the consumer. Business owners will not be hurt. Prices will increase.

So who gets hurt? The middle class. Our wages will not increase, so our buying power will decrease. So all that work the middle class did to get a college degree, etc., will now be worth less as someone who did not graduate from high school just doubled their wage and makes close to what you do because they are "entitled" to it.

The super rich will stay rich, prices will increase keeping the minimum wagers in the same state, and the middle class will be hurt. How is this a solution?

Historically, almost every sentence in your post is false. Outside of that, great point.
 
Y'all have some kind of labor economics degree or are you just spouting ******** out of your *******?

Outside of franklin, that pretty much describes everyone in this thread.

Even then, the people with degrees disagree so much, you'd think they are also pulling stuff out of their asses.
 
It is all pretty simple. Raising minimum wage will in turn cause businesses to pass on increased costs to the consumer. Business owners will not be hurt. Prices will increase.

So who gets hurt? The middle class. Our wages will not increase, so our buying power will decrease. So all that work the middle class did to get a college degree, etc., will now be worth less as someone who did not graduate from high school just doubled their wage and makes close to what you do because they are "entitled" to it.

The super rich will stay rich, prices will increase keeping the minimum wagers in the same state, and the middle class will be hurt. How is this a solution?
Probably not this simple. If the price of low skilled labor goes up, the price of skilled labor goes down relatively, which should drive some increased demand for that labor, likely leading to an increase in wages (at least nominally).
 
Y'all have some kind of labor economics degree or are you just spouting ******** out of your *******?

I have a degree in Economics, but I have never used it, as I pursued a career in the field of my other degrees. I have honestly forgotten much of what I was taught in college. You don't need a degree in Economics to clearly see what the effects of raising minimum wage are.

The minimum wage earners will make a bit more until prices adjust. Middle class earners making more than minimum wage will be hurt when prices adjust unless their wages are also adjusted (and of course, they won't be) I don't need to see economic theory to prove it, I have lived through minimum wage hikes and I have see the clear result. Of course, industries that rely more on minimum wage employees will see larger increases (fast food, mall stores, video stores (are there any left?), etc.

If the goal is to increase the earnings of the lower level earnings and take away from the rich, minimum wage increases is not the right tool for the job.

If wages are increased to $15/hr, they should keep the poverty level the same. That way, these earners (assuming they work full-time and have normal sized families) will no longer qualify for subsidized housing, food stamps, etc. I'm guessing they will be worse off.
 
Would anyone here actually pay $9 for a Big Mac?

McDonalds would just have to accept lower profit margins because they couldn't hike the prices up too high without losing customers. Tough stuff, rich people will have to be slightly less rich.
 
Would anyone here actually pay $9 for a Big Mac?

McDonalds would just have to accept lower profit margins because they couldn't hike the prices up too high without losing customers. Tough stuff, rich people will have to be slightly less rich.

Great episode of Futurama, the Tricky Dick funbucks episode where everyone got a $300 surplus refund.
 
Forgot to mention, there is a direct correlation to job loss from wage increase. An increase that more than doubles wages to $15 would likely have a staggering effect on jobs available. IIRC correctly, the unemployment rate for the poorest populous increased by over 10% shortly after the minimum wage increase back in 2004. When labor costs spike, employers will look to be more efficient, and reduce labor costs. Historically, we have never had such a large increase in minimum wage.

Increasing wages takes more people out of our already weak economy. The minimum wage takes people out of the workforce due to fewer jobs. What minimum wage does it takes away choice from both sides of the equation.
 
Would anyone here actually pay $9 for a Big Mac?

McDonalds would just have to accept lower profit margins because they couldn't hike the prices up too high without losing customers. Tough stuff, rich people will have to be slightly less rich.

lol, rich people are probably not buying that many Big Macs anyways. But I am not even willing to pay the current price for a Big Mac. When I go to fast food joints I very rarely get a burger as they all suck. Rather get a quality burger or make my own.
 
lol, rich people are probably not buying that many Big Macs anyways. But I am not even willing to pay the current price for a Big Mac. When I go to fast food joints I very rarely get a burger as they all suck. Rather get a quality burger or make my own.

Rich people are the people are the upper level management of McDonalds. They are the ones who will lose money because they won't be able to rise prices that high and retain their sales.
 
Outside of franklin, that pretty much describes everyone in this thread.

Even then, the people with degrees disagree so much, you'd think they are also pulling stuff out of their asses.

I don't have any formal training in economics. I have an interest in financial markets and read economic publications. & I'm definitely spouting out my ***.


I tried to learn as I suck at this crap and got no real responses so I gave up on it.

What question got missed in the chaos?
 
Who knows exactly what will happen? All there is to know is that something might happen that makes things worse for at least one party involved because having a minimum wage does not make a whole lot of sense economically. However, in a heavily subsidized world, it may make a lot of sense. Prices are rising regardless of minimum wage, so it would seem rather unfair to take a stand against raising minimum wage. There's lots of other **** the American public can complain about, but minimum wage is always the pet argument for people with college degrees because they are often shown the inefficiencies of such an idea within the fist two or so months of Principles of Microeconomics. That being said, I don't agree with the principle of raising the minimum wage, but in the current environment, I can see why people do so, and it's hard to argue against. Labor has to keep up with all the other inefficient, legislation-induced markets.

Hopefully, we are all dead before the **** really hits the fan.
 
I just read back through Richard Sutch's working paper where he suggested that higher minimum wages force teenagers out of the market (he cites a survey of 18 papers, all with negative measurements on teen employment) and encourages them to stay in school, thus increasing human capital.

I'm guessing the loss is more from lawn mowing type jobs since it doesn't take higher skills to work fast food, and yard care seems more sensitive to price changes both mentally (what we used to do it for seems to be a sticking point) and realistically (if you want $10 you can mow my lawn all you want but if you want $30/week then I'll buy a riding mower instead).

https://www.nber.org/papers/w16355.pdf

Don't gang up on lawn boys, yo. My crew and I did 14 summers of manual labor, and I made bank. You'd be sickened by how much people would pay us. Of course, we were white, spoke English, we're clean cut, and well hung -- so I guess we may have been the exception rather than the rule.

Y'all have some kind of labor economics degree or are you just spouting ******** out of your *******?

Where else would ******** come from?

What question got missed in the chaos?

Nothing was missed, I assure you. Stroked likes to get involved in topics he knows nothing about (see "all topics") in order to look/sound smart. When the adults start using big words and such, he essentially gives up and blames others for not answering his questions.
 
Rich people are the people are the upper level management of McDonalds. They are the ones who will lose money because they won't be able to rise prices that high and retain their sales.

Ugh...it's painful sometimes.
 
Nothing was missed, I assure you. Stroked likes to get involved in topics he knows nothing about (see "all topics") in order to look/sound smart. When the adults start using big words and such, he essentially gives up and blames others for not answering his questions.

Ahh how cute. Still flinging things to see what sticks.

I said a couple pages back I suck at this and that I was trying to learn. But hey keep on with your want to be cool guy outine and throw out some insults. I hate the Stroked guy to! Worthless, casper looking mongolito.
 
I don't have any formal training in economics. I have an interest in financial markets and read economic publications. & I'm definitely spouting out my ***.

What question got missed in the chaos?

One of the questions I asked was if any of you thought that there would be any change in how upper management would view an increase in benefits v. straight wages. If so how would it change any potential price increase. Or is an increase in cost simply an increase in cost to them.
 
One of the questions I asked was if any of you thought that there would be any change in how upper management would view an increase in benefits v. straight wages. If so how would it change any potential price increase. Or is an increase in cost simply an increase in cost to them.

You had better ask Log that one...

My gut feeling is they'd rather pay cash as it's the more visible pacifier for the employee to suck on, and it's calculable. Medical prices are rising faster than the rest of the economy, so it would cost much more down the line. Unless you meant some other type of benefits.

One other point to consider is the majority of teenage earnings are disposable income that gets immediately spent. A whole lot of their wage raises would go right back into the fast food industry.
 
You had better ask Log that one...

My gut feeling is they'd rather pay cash as it's the more visible pacifier for the employee to suck on, and it's calculable. Medical prices are rising faster than the rest of the economy, so it would cost much more down the line. Unless you meant some other type of benefits.

One other point to consider is the majority of teenage earnings are disposable income that gets immediately spent. A whole lot of their wage raises would go right back into the fast food industry.

Good point.

As for benefits it could be alot of things. More time off, life insurance options, increased medical coverage, paid maternity leave, education programs, management programs, daycare support...
 
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