this post was submitted on 23 Feb 2024
703 points (77.6% liked)
Memes
45655 readers
2529 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
You need to learn a skill that leads to a living wage. Demanding politicians to directly do that is pointless, they are absolutely unable to give you that. The only thing they can directly do is set a minimum wage, which is essentially a lie. It doesn't actually give you a minimum/living wage, instead it makes you completely unemployable if your wage level is between 0-(minimum wage).
As u/nomad mentioned, demanding structures that make getting an education easier or give you safety nets when things go to shit, or basic income/negative tax rates for low incomes is something politicans can do. But don't demand stupid things like minimum wage, they might actually do those.
Not sure what you have against minimum wage, it works well in other countries (I'm from the Netherlands). Obviously it doesn't solve everything by itself, but it's definitely a valuable part of a range of measures to treat people fairly. It's a fantasy that everyone can be educated to a level above minimum wage.
Having bit more than basic education in economics, I suppose.
Is it more or less a fantasy than the fantasy that every employer is able to pay the minimum wage?
If company can't pay it's workers a living wage, that company shouldn't exist.
Indeed. That's exactly what will happen. And then people whose wage level is below the minimum wage will be unemployed.
Ah, got it, so all our problems are the fault of those pesky workers wanting to afford to survive, and not those who refuse to function unless they're exploiting others..
Makes perfect sense, "economist".. 🙄😂
And should be given welfare check.
Or UBI as we seemed to agree on other part of the thread. Either of these are better solutions than minimum wage.
Minimum wage works. Here is an article from the german newspaper FAZ (leans economically right) that presents a study that shows the low income sector has shrunk since the implementation of minimum wages.
Germany before had one of the biggest low income sectors in the western world.
And no, the unemployment rate did not skyrocket. In fact, Germany is as close to full employment as it gets.
Good counterpoint, thanks for that.