Minumium wage is wrong and is bad

In the first round, my opponent put forward a popular myth about the minimum wage. That is reduces employment by making labor more expensive. It actually does the opposite: it increases hiring by expanding the consumer base.This is accomplished by making slightly less surplus value available from worker labor available to employers, and instead allowing it to be retained by the workers that produce that surplus value. These workers then beGlobal Data:Simply put, if raising the minimum wage reduces employment, then nations that have instituted and raised the minimum wage should see reductions in employment when compared to those nations where employers are not required to pay their employees as well. The data shows very clearly that minimum wage economies are much stronger than those with no minimum pay requirements. [1] Some examples of nations with no minimum wage laws, and no collective bargaining substitutes,are: Somalia, North Korea, Malaysia, Brunei and the small African nations of Djibouti and Guinea. None of these economies are enviable. [2]Despite tons of data, there is not even a single example of an economy that does not require minimum standards of pay for its workers that has higher levels of employment over comparable ones that do. (Not all developed nations have historically had formal minimum wages. Germany, for example, has traditionally relied on labor unions and collective bargaining to protect worker salaries instead of federal minimum wage laws.) Historical Data:The minimum wage has been raised in the US many times. This allows us a large data field to study. This abundant data tells us that raising the minimum wage has no negative effect on unemployment, and may help to encourage increases in labor utilization. This becomes obvious when we look at historical employment levels. Despite an ever increasing minimum wage over the same time period, employment trends in the US do not mirror changes in the minimum wage. http://www.bls.gov... Image URL: http://www.bls.gov... [3] Unemployment rate since 1948" /> http://www.bls.gov...[3]Further, when we look at the exact dates of the minimum wage increases by year, we see even fewer possible negative impacts on employment. For example, unemployment often seems to decrease in the years following legislated increases in the minimum wage. http://oregonstate.edu... Image URL: http://oregonstate.edu... Minimum wage increases by year [4]" />http://oregonstate.edu...[4] No matter how convincing the arguments to the contrary may sound, a closer look at the actual data does not support any argument that minimum wage increases result in large scale layoffs and workforce reductions. How Does Minimum Wage Work?Minimum wage laws allow workers to keep a slightly larger share of what they earn, they promote a healthy consumer base for businesses, and helps productive work to raise the lowest income earners from poverty.As stated earlier, few Americans who earn less than $15 and hour can be self-sufficient. Without partnering with other income earners to share living expenses, most persons who earn less than this threshold will eventually become an economic burden to the rest of the economy. These persons will require help from friends and family, as well as the taxpayers, in order to obtain proper nutrition, safe housing and provide for their children. It does not benefit an economy to accumulate too many persons who cannot survive unassisted. The minimum wage seeks to reward hard work. If workers are willing to work hard, then a public is forced to use legislation in order to prevent employers from generating too many impoverished consumers. The minimum wage works thanks to a concept known as Surplus Value. Surplus value can be thought of as capital generation; profits, income, markup, etc. Businesses combine parts and labor, and then produce goods or services that they can then resell. This surplus is harvested, and then distributed out in the form of wages, re-investment, or savings. Allowing this capital to flow back to workers allows those workers to become more valuable consumers, enriching and resupplying the consumer base with minable capital. The Dangers of Removing the Minimum Wage The primary risk that might come from removal of the minimum wage is capital restriction. The minimum wage is not the only means by which the American consumer base is resupplied with capital that can be extracted by businesses, but it is an important mechanism that helps to keep potential customers wealthy enough to support a professional class population. The wealthier the broad masses of citizens are, the more lucrative they are to market goods and services to. On the other hand, if too many employers are allowed to underpay too many workers, then an economic system runs the real risk of over-contaminating a consumer base with those who are too poor to patronize area businesses, and who may become an overall burden to the economic system. The minimum wage helps to maintain the health of businesses that need consumers, it helps to stimulate the flow of capital throughout an economy, and it helps reward hard work, by making work more lucrative than welfare.Debate Conclusion: Is the Minimum Wage "Wrong and Bad?"It is obvious that the minimum wage helps workers keep more of the money that they earn, and there is no evidence (despite generations worth of data) that it reduces levels of employment. It also helps to enrich consumers with resupplied capital that in turn makes it possible to market to them. It also helps to prevent economic anemia that might result from too many citizens who are not self-sufficient economic participants. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org... [2]http://www.slate.com... [3] http://www.bls.gov... [4] http://oregonstate.edu...