Minimum wage

"The funny thing is you arguing against Milton Friedman and he has a Nobel prize in economics."It is true that Milton Friedman won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences (actual Nobel Prize categories are only for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace). However, just because he won this prestigious prize, often associated with the Nobel prizes, this does not mean that Milton Friedman is infallible.After all, Milton Friedman also came up with the notion of the negative income tax. This is a social welfare program that would pay poorer families the difference of a minimum income to survive, regardless of employment. Most economists believe that instituting this proposed policy would skyrocket the unemployment rate. The reasoning is that poorer families would actually be given an incentive to quit and rake in a similar income without working.Now I know that this goes off on a tangent, but I had to bring up the Negative Income Tax to prove a point. That point: Milton Friedman is not infallible! Even he can be wrong, despite the Sveriges Riksbank Prize."And you also say all he talks about are teenagers, but he is talking about minorities too so you need to listen more clearly."He mentions minorities towards the end of the video. But the only numbers he gives apply to teenagers. There are no numbers given to back up his other claims.Furthermore, at the end of the video, he is asked if there are ANY benefits to a minimum wage. He says that there are "none whatsoever." Even those articles from people that oppose minimum wage often weigh the pros and the cons, and the pro side of the column is never blank. Extreme viewpoints on either side of the spectrum are pretty much always wrong. And Friedman stating that there is absolutely no benefit at all from minimum wage is definitely an extreme viewpoint. Because the view is so extreme, we must conclude that it too is wrong.On Teenage UnemploymentThis is an article from the New York Times:http://www.nytimes.com...This article shows that there are other explanations for teenage unemployment.Two of the best reasons given:The recession has recent college graduates taking jobs that would've typically gone to teenagers. That leads to less teens having a job.Dean Baker, the Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, claims that teenagers' abilities to rely on family allow them to be pickier about jobs. I think this is true. Times have changed over the years, and people rely more and more on their parents for a longer period of time. This trend is obvious now, but was not obvious back when Friedman made that video. So he attributed the teenage unemployment rate to minimum wage. But, as I stated before, correlations DO NOT show causation. "you use the example of slaves. that was much earlier then this film, so your example is very improbable."When I speak of people working for "slave wages", I hope the voters are intelligent enough to realize that I am not taking about slavery.On your "pizza parlor" exampleIf you could make $10 in an hour while you work, and could pay someone $7.50 to sweep, so that you bring in $2.50 profit, this is something any intelligent businessman WOULD do. Making $2.50 is better than making zero. That is a basic business principle. If, after all expenses, you wind up with a total profit of one penny or more, you do it. Your reluctance to take the $2.50 profit only shows a flaw in your reasoning."If they were paid 2.50$ they would pay little to no taxes each tax season, but when you are paid 7.50$ you get taxes, and when you make that little you don't want the taxes."I think you overestimate the value of $7.50 an hour. It is still barely enough to support a single person. And anyone that would rather get paid $2.50 an hour without taxes is someone that must be terrible at math."The vast majority of economists believe the minimum wage law costs the economy thousands of jobs."You then elaborate on this point, and explain the reasoning. But here is a link to a peer-reviewed journal article that shows that minimum wage DOES NOT increase unemployment.https://udrive.oit.umass.edu...Here is a quote from the article:"The large negative elasticities in the traditional specification are generated primarily by regional and local differences in employment trends that are unrelated to minimum wage policies."If you read through the study, it shows that minimum wage and minimum wage increases do not affect employment trends. On your linksThe first link you provide can be dismissed on its ludicrous claims alone. The author of that article believes that a minimum wage of $107/hour or $500/hour would follow the same type of reasoning as a minimum wage of $4.65/hour. This is clearly a ridiculous notion. His "point" of why stop at $5? Why not $50? $100? etc. is clearly idiotic and I think most reasonable people will conclude that it is NOT the same thing.The second link you claim is from "a [business] standpoint." First off, this "[business] standpoint" is from a ministry. The page is filled with bible quotes. Getting your economic policies from the bible is not what I would perceive as a business standpoint. Furthermore, it says "If you do the math, you’ll see that raising the minimum wage is not good for the poor or for businesses." Yet it gives no numbers for people to "do the math." Maybe the assumption is that some bible quotations are a good substitute for mathematics.ConclusionWorkers here are ALWAYS going to require more money than illegal immigrants or outsourced workers in poorer countries. The presence or absence of a minimum wage does not and will not change that.In fact, the "outsourced" jobs have to be over-the-phone jobs (you can't get someone living in India to clean the toilets). These over-the-phone jobs are often commission based (i.e. no salary). Without the salary, there is no minimum wage for these jobs. Americans can compete just as easily. But Americans will not work for the low commission, EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE ABLE TO. So the point about outsourcing is simply false. Commission based jobs are not required to pay minimum wage. Taking away a minimum wage doesn't affect these jobs at all.When it comes to big business, past experience has shown that they will abuse the labor market and exploit workers if given a chance. Workers need a minimum amount of income to survive.When it comes to unemployment, the peer-reviewed article shows that minimum wage doesn't affect unemployment. When given a choice between a ministry article, some guy that thinks a $500 minimum wage is the same as a $5 minimum, a YouTube video, and a peer-reviewed journal article, I go with the peer-reviewed article.The internet is filled with ideas and opinions on every topic. Anyone can always find a website that supports his or her own views. With so many viewpoints, all of them with a site, we must decipher which source is the most reliable.No matter how intelligent someone may be, or what prizes the person has won, VALID ideas accepted in a particular discipline come from peer-reviewed journal articles. They do not come from blogs, or personal websites.A minimum wage stops big companies from exploiting its workers. And when it comes to social welfare programs, a minimum wage places more of a burden on the big companies and less of a burden on the taxpayers.The negative effects of unemployment are a myth. Correlations DO NOT show causation.