Resolved: The US government ought to raise the minimum wage.

I affirm and value morality. This implies util as the value criterion, i. e. having the best results possible is the most moral action. Sinnot Armstrong (. http://sites.duke.edu...): Of course, there are many other versions of deontology. (. .. ) deontological theories unable to explain moral substitutability. This comes out clearly if we start from the other side and ask which properties create the moral reasons that are derived by moral substitutability. What gives me a moral reason to start the mower is the consequences of starting the mower. (. .. ) This reason cannot derive from the same property as my moral reason to mow the lawn unless what gives me a moral reason to mow the lawn is its consequences. Thus, any non-consequentialist moral theory will have to posit two distinct kinds of moral reasons: one for starting the mower and another for mowing the grass. Once these kinds of reasons are separated, we need to understand the connection between them But this connection cannot be explained. If we look at any reason besides the consequences, then there is no reason to act morally. And since ought implies what someone should do, we need a standard that guides action, implying util. I defend raising the minimum wage to 10.10 an hour and adjusting for inflation from there. Contention 1 is crime/recidivism. Visher et al. : (. http://www.urban.org...) Research by the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows high recidivism rates among former prisoners in the first year after release: nearly half (44 percent) are rearrested, 22 percent reconvicted, and 10 percent returned to prison on a new sentence. (. .. ) Through multivariate logistic regression, we assessed the effect of employment on recidivism while controlling for other factors related to criminal behavior. (. .. ) the more wages earned two months after release, the lower a respondent"s likelihood of reincarceration. Predicted probabilities of reincarceration were 8 percent for those earning more than $10 per hour; 12 percent for those earning $7 to $10 per hour; and 16 percent for those earning less than $7 per hour. (. .. ) former prisoners who are able to secure a job, ideally at higher than minimum wage, by two months out are more likely to successfully avoid recidivism. By raising the wage to 10.10, everyone will fit into the 8% category, so rates of recidivism will drop by at least 20%. This is crucial to preventing problems. Ralphson: (. http://www.wiu.edu...) Rapidly expanding prison populations in the United States (. .. ) has catapulted the U. S. to the title of most punitive nation in the world. (. .. ) largely fueled by incapacitation heavy legislation. With high levels of imprisonment come high financial costs to imprison. The rate at which these costs have increased has reached a level of insustainability. The answer to America"s crime problems cannot be incapacitation centered anymore. There must be a shift to combating the high rates of recidivism if prison populations are to be reduced while maintaining public safety. (. .. ) By reducing recidivism, crime is essentially being reduced. (. .. ) if recidivism can be reduced, the overall number of crimes will decrease as well, netting an overall reduction in crime and an increase in public safety. Since crime is obviously bad raising the wage is good for this reason. Contention 2 is Poverty. Increasing the minimum wage reduces poverty. Konzcal: (. https://www.washingtonpost.com...) Dube uses the latest in minimum-wage statistics and finds a negative relationship between the minimum wage and poverty. Specifically, raising the minimum wage 10 percent (say from $7.25 to near $8) would reduce the number of people living in poverty 2.4 percent. (. .. ) Using this as an estimate, raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, as many Democrats are proposing in 2014, would reduce the number of people living in poverty by 4.6 million. It would also boost the incomes of those at the 10th percentile by $1,700. That"s a significant increase in the quality of life for our worst off that doesn"t require the government to tax and spend a single additional dollar. And, given that this policy is self-enforcing with virtually no administrative costs while challenging the employer"s market power, it is a powerful complement to the rest of the policies the government uses to boost the living standards of the worst off, including the Earned Income Tax Credit, food stamps, Medicaid, etc. Now, this is normally the part where we"d have to go through the counter-arguments, using different data and techniques from different economists, to argue that the minimum wage wouldn"t do this. But this is the fun part: Dube"s paper finds a remarkable consistency across studies here. For instance, in a 2011 paper by minimum-wage opponent David Neumark, raising the minimum wage 10 percent would reduce poverty 2.9 percent (an elasticity of -0.29) for 21-44-year-old family heads or individuals. (. .. ) Of the 54 elasticities that Dube is able to observe in these 12 papers, 48 of them are negative. Only one study has a sizable positive one, a 2005 one by David Neumark, a study that stands out for odd methodology (. .. ) (Indeed, it is nothing like Neumark"s standard 2011 study, mentioned above, which finds that the minimum wage reduces poverty. ) (. .. ) These previous studies also have issues which Dube"s new study examines. This paper uses data up through 2012, so there is much more substantial variations to examine between states" minimum wages compared to earlier studies. As this evidence says, 4.6 million people will escape poverty because of the wage raise. Poverty is bad. Varela: (. http://www.newrepublic.com...) Chronic conditions (. .. ) correlate with poverty. Not only does poverty prevent us from accessing the stuff of life that buffers us from poor health, it also creates hospitable environments for disease. People living at or near poverty have greater levels of stress hormones (. .. ) stress has a direct effect on each of the ten leading causes of death (. .. ) Poverty doesn"t only manifest internally. People struggling to make ends meet are more likely to be perpetrators of violence (. .. ) The situation may get worse before it gets better. Research recently found that countries in recession and with growing income inequality experienced jumps in HIV incidence. (. .. ) our other leaders would do well to focus on progressive fiscal policies such as a living wage, universal health care, and a basic income. These measures would lift Americans out of poverty, save money on health costs, and, most importantly, save lives. And, this outweighs negligible unemployment effects. 10.10 finds a compromise, reducing poverty and making businesses happy. (. http://www.forbes.com......): For they are recommending that the minimum wage be raised to $15 an hour: a truly absurd notion. (. .. ) this is simply an absurd demand. There would be very large unemployment effects from such a raise meaning that many people would simply lose their jobs. (. .. ) It is absolutely true that modest increases in the minimum wage have small effects on employment. (. .. ) But economics (. .. ) the fact that a small change has small effects does not mean that a large change will still have small effects. So what we"d like to know is what is the level of a minimum wage where it starts to have large effects? (. .. ) 45 to 50% of the average wage: go above that level and we"re harming low paid workers (. .. ) the median hourly wage for the US is $16.71. The proposal for a $15 an hour minimum wage will make the minimum wage 90%(. .. ) which point we know very well that we"ll be harming low income workers, not aiding them. When you weigh this against other arguments, remember killing the economy comes above most other arguments since it will kill the economy, which eventually harms other things too. A 10.10 wage is 60%, but after taking the increased wages into account, it will be in the range. The aforementioned Konzcal concurs(. https://www.washingtonpost.com...): minimum wage always had to be recognized as having good income consequences". I thought in this instance those advantages outweighed the small loss of jobs.