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

[eniwetok]

95. well we KNOW high oil prices

It's pretty obvious you were denying the fact that spikes in oil prices were responsible for most of the recessions of the 70s, 80s, 90s, and may have been the final straw in the Bush Crash.

Yet you seem to believe that going to a $15 MW... even for the most unskilled workers in the most depressed areas won't cause any problems. The simple fact is $15 is uncharted territory for such a NATIONAL MW. The highest any other OECD nation has in terms of purchasing power is $11.20 US... and I've been advocating for a return to the HIGHEST the US MW has ever been... which today would be about $11. Numbers and source below.

For that I've been accused of being a right wing shill and for advocating predatory employment. The real fact here is that some at DU are irrational, throwing out a $15 number that has no real world counterpart and justifying it by peddling monetary perpetual motion... that OF COURSE businesses will simply make the money back with higher demand. It's just as crazy as the Orwellian Right claiming irresponsible tax cuts would pay for themselves.

From https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=MIN2AVE

USD 2014 Purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2014 dollars... hourly MW

United States $7.2
Canada $8.2
United Kingdom $8.2
Ireland $8.7
New Zealand $9.1
Netherlands $9.6
Belgium $10
Australia $10.9
France $10.9
Luxembourg $11.2

Some here use a very high Australian MW but that's based on the exchange rate.. which would be $15.2 in 2014. PPP exchange rates help to minimize misleading international comparisons that can arise with the use of market exchange rates.