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

[eniwetok]

94. hardly

First of all where have I EVER said the MW should not go up? I've repeatedly said it should go up to at least $11... the highest it's ever been. That lasted for one year... and it's depreciated ever since 1968. That number is just 20c lower than the current high for OECD nations in terms of parity purchasing power... a way to compare wages without the distortions of exchange rates. For that I've been called a shill for Heritage and advocating predatory employment. There are some real irrational arsewipes here at DU.

As to your statement "Low wages are why all the smart kids flee dumb-fuck small town U.S.A.."

Sure... but mandating businesses pay what they may not have is no solution since they can just as easily cut hours and lay workers off.

There's some magical thinking going on to believe that a poor community is going to pull itself up with its own bootstraps if the MW is just doubled. But where's the money going to come from for a business to pay $31.2k plus another $1200 FICA to all its workers when 19 states... no doubt all GOP, have a FT MW jobs now paying $15k? The magic wand theory claims they'll make it all up with increased demand. This is free lunch thinking... monetary perpetual motion. It's really no different from the Orwellian Right selling irresponsible tax cuts claiming they'll pay for themselves... or Thom Hartmann... normally a pretty bright guy, claiming if we just set the retirement age to 55... the labor shortage would raise wages so much that the extra money that it brought in for SS would pay for all those extra retirees.

Sorry... I have a working bullshit detector and I'm not going to just sit by as liberal Dems delude themselves with the same magical thinking the Orwellian Right encourages.