The Minimum Wage Should Be Abolished

Regarding the burden of proof; my opponent is attempting to change the status quo. His assertion MUST be beneficial; meanwhile (I have made this assertion several times) that the US has the largest economy on the planet in terms of consumption. This should be more than enough to vote con, so I'll try and keep this round short for two reasons: the aforementioned, and because my opponent no longer has the ability to respond, for this is the last round. I. Responses II. Conclusion III. Thank you I. _2a) I would hope that an abstract of the economy isn't as accurate as taking a real-life study from working businesses in the economy we're studying. I'm not sure who, but this quote best explains it. "The endless ponderings of a philosopher are worth less than a simple plan put to work." b) "Discretion in employment is retained by both parties; my opponent wrongly claims it resides only with the employer." That's a ludicrous claim; I have no discretion as to whether or not my employer wants to hire me. Then he says only .2% of workers earn minimum wage, but provides no source. Lets look to a government database. http://www.bls.gov... Around 1/20 people earn at OR BELOW minimum wage. That is a significant number, considering the size of the US economy. c) "He showed nothing more than that the families were paying more for goods. In other words, he kicked the ball in his own goal." Uhmm... What? "families were paying MORE for goods" ==> consumption is therefore higher... I'm not sure what I missed. d) Too many arguments my opponent didn't directly refute; I'll leave this issue up to the judges. I made the promise to try and keep this short. 3a) The lower wage worker doesn't get hired, right. But again, if they are both hired to the same position, their wages would be divided between them, which is another point I made that passed ignored. b) Sure, supply drives down price. So does price do the same to supply. And again, I point to the economy realistically, which has the highest consumption rate on the planet. For heaven's sake, we export $700billion less than we import, as of 2006!! It's even worse now... http://www.globalpolicy.org... c) I know promotions happen. But employers wouldn't have any incentive to do so if minimum wage weren't enacted, and workers wouldn't have the initial motivation anyways because they're being paid so little. d) Okay... II. At the end of the day, we continue to see that the US currently has the largest consumption economy on earth. The only way we CAN go is down, and that is, again, why my opponent does have the burden of proof. Furthermore, my opponent didn't exactly make the best arguments in round 5; I hope I addressed them adequately without saying too much. Again, I have the last word. And here is the second to last word: I contend that, given our current level of consumption (#1), we couldn't really have any higher consumption, which is what the purpose of the debate was (look to round 1). III. Final word Although the redundancy department of redundancy fined me for my round 5, I think my redundancy made a point with my redundancy. Haha, humor. Thank you readers, happy voting =)