Minimum wage

You start of with this:"http://1.bp.blogspot.com... shows a graph proving that every time minimum wage goes up, unemployment goes up too. (it's recent to it applies more)."The graph does NOT prove that every time minimum wage goes up, unemployment goes up. It only shows the connection between minimum wage increases and TEENAGE unemployment. Furthermore, even this correlation doesn't seem to be a very strong one. The teenage unemployment rate keeps going up and down, up and down, while the minimum wage steadily increases in a stair-like pattern. The two do not coincide."Please correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem like your goal is to prove Milton wrong, not me wrong."In Round 2, you used Milton Friedman's video as the entire basis for your argument. When that video is the argument, naturally that is what I will rebut. When you defend him, I am going to counter. The focus on Friedman in this debate is not my doing."Minimum wage doesn't mean slave wages! I have said this you aren't debunking me! Here's why you wont get them, 1. you will get paid as much as the employer thinks you are 2. you can always say NO to a lower wage."I'm not even sure what to make of this. I take it that the gist of your argument is this: without a minimum wage, the employer will simply pay you what he thinks you're worth, and if it is too low you can simply say "no."Unfortunately, this is not the case. The workers that have minimum wage jobs don't really have many options. Because of their situation, many of these workers wouldn't be able to say "no", even if the wages weren't enough to properly live. The presence of a minimum wage prevents employers from exploiting these workers that would be practically forced to accept whatever they can get."Yes making 2.50 is better then zero, but when minimum wage increases then your profit becomes lower and will eventually become negative you to fire workers, in turn increasing unemployment."Back to your pizza parlour example: minimum wage does not increase randomly. It increases with rising costs. As costs rise, the cost of the pizza in your pizza parlour would also rise. And whereas you made $10 in that hour, you would now make $12. As a result, the minimum wage would NOT exceed the profit and become negative. Simply because minimum wage doesn't increase while everything else is stagnant. It all increases together."Well yes their will always be peer-reviewed papers on either side, but there are more on mine. Here's one on my side: http://www.epi.org... i said, there's some on each side."When it comes to this article, I suppose I should thank you for not actually reading it. Because this article supports MY side of the argument.Quote from the article: "Without more examination, this observation is as useful in understanding state job markets as noting that joblessness has been on the rise in New York since the last time the Yankees won the World Series. It might be true, but it doesn’t mean one is causing the other."This is something I've been pointing out all along. Correlations DO NOT show causation.Here's another quote from the article:"Contrary to Garthwaite’s oversimplification of the employment picture in Alaska, Washington, and Oregon, some key facts about these states show that a number of factors unrelated to minimum wage increases are actually responsible for high unemployment rates."It goes on to list the actual factors responsible for unemployment. But I think the main thing here, is that even YOUR link proves my point. The minimum wage didn't cause unemployment. Unemployment was caused by other factors. Minimum wage was just unlucky enough to have a correlation with unemployment rates. But, to repeat again, correlations do not show causation.Your example with the minimum wage earners not paying taxes and getting arrested is so ridiculous, that I am not even going to bother with a rebuttal."Heres a page that says minimum wage is good for a worker (wage wise) and bad for buissnes"Yes, this is obvious. Businesses would love to pay workers even less than minimum wage if they could get away with it. But if the minimum wage (which is always very low in comparison to everyone else's salary) is enough to force a business to close, then that business must've been a terrible one. In fact, a business that makes so little revenue to allow a minimum wage to bring it down is a business that would most certainly fail regardless of a minimum wage.Businesses have already shown in the past that they will exploit workers and pay them less than is needed to survive. A minimum wage is needed to stop this exploitation."A minimum wage gives businesses an additional incentive to mechanize duties previously held by humans."The incentive to replace workers with machines is one that will always be present. A minimum wage actually plays no role in this. The cost-efficiency, quality control and speed of machines will always appeal to businesses, even if there was no minimum wage. This is demonstrated by technology replacing jobs in countries without a minimum wage.http://www.converge.org.nz..."Here's another one that says it's hard to set the minimum wage anyway. Sice cost of living is diffrent everywhere you can't really tell wat is a good wage, making it inneffecient and in some cases bad."That is precisely why the minimum wage is different depending on the location.http://www.dol.gov...So this example makes no sense. The minimum wage for LA is not going to be the same as the one in Arkansas.In short, the presence of a minimum wage does NOT lead to unemployment. Even when you presented correlations and articles, all of those revolved around TEENAGE unemployment. I have shown the real reasons why teenage unemployment has risen. Furthermore, people ages 16-19 aren't the ones that we need to focus on when it comes to unemployment. But I suppose when it came to regular unemployment, the people that are anti minimum wage didn't really have a correlation, so they had to resort to some post hoc analysis to find a correlation somewhere. That's why all of those correlations are just based on teens.As I've said before, having a minimum wage is a good thing. It stops the exploitation of workers by companies. It also helps the taxpayers. With a minimum wage, the burden of providing for low income families rests more on the shoulders of the companies. Without a minimum wage, that burden goes to social welfare programs paid for by taxpayers. People making minimum wage may still need social assistance, but at least the burden is now shared. If businesses were able to pay even less than the minimum wage, more of the burden would fall on the taxpayers shoulders.Both the peer-reviewed article I posted, AND the one posted by my opponent clearly show that minimum wage does not cause unemployment. In summary, the presence of a minimum wage is needed. That's why we have one.