Raise Minimum Wage

First of all, I will change my argument to raise it to $10.10 instead of $16.97, suddenly changing it to $16.97 is too drastic -baby steps are necessary. 1.Rebuttal Against:> Minimum Wage would exceed value of work “These workers are being paid a lot more than they're working for, and so the money being given to the workers rises above the amount of effort they are putting into the system.” Did you make that up? According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research(CEPR), the productivity of those earning minimum wage(economic value of their work) has actually exceeded the amount being paid. You can view the statistics here: http://www.cepr.net... “ . . . consider this: If the minimum wage had simply tracked US productivity gains since 1986, it would be $21.72 an hour --three times what it is now.” - billionaire venture capitalist Nick Hanauer. 2. Rebuttal Against:> Get Education, do not beg government “Consider the following scenario: a man gets a job screwing caps onto tubes of toothpaste. The man is paid bare minimum for doing his job, but it's not enough to support his family. Instead of seeking the education to get a better job, the man goes and strike and starts advocating for a minimum wage increase so that he can receive more money for doing the exact same amount of minimal work. The point of this example is to show that workers who need to earn more money shouldn't rely on the government to raise the minimum wage, but to receive a higher income they should instead work for their money and contribute to the economy instead of protesting to receive more for doing less.” Unless there is adequate public generosity and or government assistance, he would not be able to afford to attend the education to get a degree without an increase of the minimum wage. Remember, as I had said earlier(derived from the Huffington Post), $7.25 an hour is barely enough to afford life’s necessities, even when being dependent on government assistance while living in the cheapest county in the US. 3. Rebuttal Against:> Minimum Wage Increase Does Not Reduce Poverty “Pro claims that raising the minimum wage will reduce poverty, but doesn't show any historical evidence of this happening.” It will(as a theory that 600 professional economists, seven of them Nobel prize winners, agreed on when signing a petition), however there is no historical evidence that make it a clear fact that the minimum wage is to blame for economic downs or solely responsible for instances of poverty reduction -I admit. “Economists have studied whether or not a minimum wage increase would reduce poverty and have concluded that it would have no effect on the poverty rate[1] [1]http://www.heritage.org......” That economist’s* claim is only supported by one reason: job loss. See why it is one not three: “First, the only workers who benefit from a higher minimum wage are those who actually earn that higher wage. Raising the minimum wage reduces many workers' job opportunities and working hours. Second, few minimum-wage earners actually come from poor households. Third, the majority of poor Americans do not work at all, for any wage, so raising the minimum wage does not help them. The Minimum Wage Does Not Reduce poverty” Those second and third claims do not support the core claim that “it would not reduce poverty”, but of possibly “having little impact”. By the way, little positive impact is better than none. See the full argument that will handle multiple rebuttals below(busting the job loss myth): Rebuttal Against:> Job Loss///(Will serve as support for the argument above and the argument below) “Clearly this would cause businesses to cut job openings and lay off more workers, resulting in higher unemployment.” It is not that simple. Your methodology is true, but is not true for the long term. In the long run, jobs would come back and the economy would flourish. The key reason why job loss will not be lingering for the long run nor continue to plague the economy, is that raising the minimum wage would then stimulate spending, hence, stimulating the economy, thus creating even more jobs, which pushes wages even higher. According to the Department of Labor, it would expand the economy by $220 billion. This is not a theory; it is an economic law, that when more money is added to peoples’ pockets, they spend more, which in return, propels; markets, business expansion, and wages. According to the Congressional Budget Office, half a million-1 million jobs will be lost if the minimum wage were raised. However, the earnings would lift many people above the federal poverty line. This research is highly reliable, but shallow due to its projections not covering a large span of time in which the act of raising the minimum wage would replenish those jobs due to an influx of spending and create even more. “A review of 64 studies on minimum wage increases found no discernable effect on employment. Additionally, more than 600 economists, seven of them Nobel Prize winners in economics, have signed onto a letter in support of raising the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016.” -Department of Labor Nick Hanauer strongly advocates the same concept: “Raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour would inject about $450 billion into the economy each year. That would give more purchasing power to millions of poor and lower-middle-class Americans, and would stimulate buying, production, and hiring. Studies by the Economic Policy Institute show that a $15 minimum wage would directly affect 51 million workers and indirectly benefit an additional 30 million. That’s 81 million people, or about 64% of the workforce, and their families who would be more able to buy cars, clothing and food from our nation’s businesses. This virtuous cycle effect is described in the research of economists David Card and Alan Krueger(the current chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers) showing that, contrary to conventional economic orthodoxy, increases in the minimum wage increase employment. In 60% of the states that raised the minimum wage during periods of high unemployment, job growth was faster than the national average. Some business people oppose an increase in the minimum wage as needless government interference in the workings of the market. In fact, a big increase would substantially reduce government intervention and dependency on public assistance programs.” Also, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, states who raised the minimum wage faced significant job growth based on 2014 analysis. http://www.cepr.net... This source is far more reliable than your source of contradictory information since the American Action Forum(a source used by that Daily Caller article) is moderately right winged(and free market advocates) and 3 out of 8 of their economics experts have a PhD in economics while CEPR is nonpartisan and all 5 of its economics experts have a PhD in economics. Additional Notes: Focusing more of the wealth towards people who would spend it faster makes the economy grow faster, instead of focusing it on those who already possess large amounts of it. The presidents of the US who have used this concept in their economic strategies have performed very well. The Democrat presidents adopted this strategy the most while most of the Republicans placed businesses first, which explains why the top three presidents who scored best at maintaining good financial health of the overall economy were Democrats and the worst three were all Republicans. s://lh6.googleusercontent.com...; alt="CH2_FHP" width="624px;" height="277px;" /> This graph was made by the economist writers and analysts Bob Deitrick(financial planner, entrepreneur, and professor) and Lew Goldfarb(CPA, business lawyer, law professor, and entrepreneur). Their book, Bulls, Bears, and the Ballot Box, informs us that that economic strategy has been solely responsible for economic prosperity. Hence, the myth that Republicans are best at promoting business growth, is false -a common lie spread by today’s media, which are owned by the plutocrat Rupert Murdoch. Additional Notes: “This is Pro's logic: if a worker is given more of a livable wage, then that worker would be more inclined to climb the income ladder even if they are financially satisfied. This is clearly false, because dissatisfaction drives workers to earn more.” I never said that -you put words in my mouth- I said that minimum wage workers would still be inclined to move up the financial ladder even if you raised their wages to $16.97 -dissatisfaction with their lifestyle would still exist because they cannot afford middle class entertainment. See: “A budget of $15k a year($7.25 an hr) is extremely tight, while requiring government assistance and public generosity(services such as soup kitchens and church feasts, where meals are free) in order to afford cheap costs of living. Raising it to $21k per year($10.10 an hour), would still not allow the minimum wage earner to afford any cheap forms of luxury -the incentive to get a better job in order to afford more things would still exist and would not decay,” -me. “We must remember that a small minority of hourly paid workers earn minimum wage: 4.7% to be exact[3], so there a lot of businesses that would remain unaffected by whether the wage was increased or not.” It is irrational to judge impact based on the appearance of a number that seems meager. Raising the minimum wage will positively impact the economy(which includes businesses) in the long run even if less than 5% of workers earn minimum wage.