Reply to Minimum Wage = Living Wage?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

If you are the pp, you did not answer my question. Why do you feel entitled to tell private business owners how to allocate the money that they have worked for? Why do you feel that private businesses are "community property"?

I would add to that, where does personal responsibility come in? The min wage is there- you know what it is when you go to orientation. So where is the responsibilty on the individual to get what they need? Plenty of people work 60, 70, 80 hours a week. Perhaps more time should be spent on finding an additional job, working towards getting promoted, or starting your own business as opposed to sitting around complaining about what you feel entitled to.

Nobody is paying you $15 an hour to wrap a sandwich or answer a telephone. Sorry.
[/quote]

Not the PP, but why do I feel entitled to tell private business owners how to allocate the money that they have worked for? Because we live in a society. [b]Society pays for the transportation, communications, education, defense, and legal systems your business needs to succeed. And society says that, in return, you have to pay taxes, pay at least minimum wage, provide a safe and healthy workplace, not discriminate, and so on. 
[/b]
As for what people are entitled to -- I think that if people work a full-time job, they are entitled (yes, entitled) to have enough money to pay for

1. food
2. shelter
3. health care
4. transportation to their job

And perhaps instead of saying, "Nobody is paying you $15 an hour to wrap a sandwich or answer a telephone," it would be more accurate to say, "I won't pay you $15 an hour to wrap a sandwich or answer a telephone, unless the law requires me to do so."

[/quote]

Societal obligations are not met by compelling businesses to pay at a level that enables those obligations to be satisfied. If society feels there is such an obligation then government should provide the assistance whether it is subsidized food, shelter, healthcare or transportation. Whether society wishes to take on such an obligation is up to the voters and will doubtless result in higher taxes. But that is still up to the voters to decide.

Businesses should not be expected to meet societal obligations in these areas especially as it pertains to the level of compensation. Let market forces determine the amount that a business should pay. For example,[b] I think it is ridiculous that I pay the exorbitant amounts that plumbers demand for relatively simple work involving very little time but that is the going rate for a plumber and so I pay it.[/b] I don't understand what is so difficult about the concept of letting the market decide what a specific job is worth rather than prescribing an artificial rate based on the obligation that an employer has to meet societal needs.

Yes, there is a role for government and regulations in certain facets of how a business operates: environmental standards, safety issues, child labor, equality of compensation between genders, non-discrimination with regard to race, creed and ethnic origin, sexual harassment, etc.[/quote]

You pay the "ridiculous" rate plumbers demand, because you want a plumber who is trained and licensed to fix your pipes. You value quality work.

Clearly, if you actually do own a business, you do NOT value hiring people who can give your customers the same quality experience. Instead, you pay as little as you possibly can to as few as you can get away hiring and with as much disdain for your employees as you can muster.

I'm guessing your business is not wildly successful.[/quote]

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