Can someone answer my question about the minimum-wage hike?

[eniwetok]

38. nice theory...

Sure... my dad was in the CCCs and made $30 a month... kept $5 and $25 was sent home. No doubt this kept some of the economy alive. But the MW was then only 25c an hour... about $4.20 today http://money.cnn.com/interactive/economy/minimum-wage-since-1938/

There's a wee bit of difference between $4.20 and $15.

And there's ALSO a big difference between new money being given to the working poor from the outside... say food stamps, whatever... which of course gets spent immediately... that's the velocity of money argument... and expecting a town to magically do the same with the money it already has. So it's easy to say that someone may be able to purchase more... but the stores that have to pay more, aren't guaranteed all that money will come back in sales. It's just an empty claim that OF COURSE it will all work out. How many here have made the arguments that the $15 will help with school, savings, etc... things UNconnected to neighborhood stores? Yet we're also to believe that OF COURSE the money will all go back INTO those stores that have to pay more. Those stores that are suddenly forced to pay $15 might do the obvious... cut hours and fire employees. And let's not forget that when the MW was last @ $11 we had strong unions and a protectionist economy... which also served to draw wages up. Today many companies have the escape hatch of free trade.