The Republican Approach to the Minimum Wage

[Suzanimal]

The Republican Approach to the Minimum Wage

Senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio oppose the president's plan to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 from the $7.25 it's at now. But should the federal government set a minimum wage at all?

The three—all possible Republican presidential candidates—were asked that question Sunday night at a private donor event for the Koch political network. The panel moderator, ABC's Jonathan Karl, framed it as needing a "simple yes or no answer." But as Rubio later joked, brevity is impossible with three senators on the stage.

Their answers—Rubio was the most direct, Cruz referenced his famous charts, and Paul got philosophical—serve as a preview of debating styles that will be on display if any or all of them seek the Republican nomination. All three had already blasted President Barack Obama and Democrats for fostering income inequality.

Here's what they said when it comes to government-set wages:

"I'm not for repealing the minimum wage," Rubio began. He said he'd rather people be making $30 an hour, wages he said could be achieved not through a law but through a growing economy that creates such jobs.

"My problem with raising the minimum wage is not that I want to deny someone $10.10," he said. "I'm worried about the people whose wages are going to go down to zero because you've made them more expensive than a machine."

Cruz picked up that theme. "I think it's important to look at who loses out," he said, mentioning charts (he loves charts) on this topic that he'd printed up for his Senate colleagues. One chart said $0.00 was the "real Obama minimum wage" because so many people would lose jobs under his plan. Another chart had the number $46.98, he said, which is the average hourly wage of an oil and gas worker in North Dakota.

Karl pressed Cruz on whether to have any minimum wage at all. He answered, "I think the minimum wage consistently hurts the most vulnerable."

Paul took the question even deeper into the philosophical realm. "What is our attitude towards work?" he asked. He said he has the opposite view of Michelle Obama, who he said recently stated that she wants her daughters to get minimum-wage jobs so that they can see how terrible it is.

One of his own sons works at a call center and the other delivers pizza, Paul said. Both make minimum wage. "I'm proud of them. I'm proud of them when they go, 'Dad, I've got money and I want to pay for it.'"

The line drew big applause but didn't answer the question—which Karl tried to call him on. So should there be any minimum wage? Paul said, "Minimum wage is only harmful when it's above the market wage."

As if to underline the fact that he was the only one answering Karl's question, Rubio piped back up. "As a practical matter, I'm not calling to repeal the minimum wage," he said. "It is what it is and that's a disruption we don't need."

Rubio closed out the topic with a money quote: "All this focus that the president has on the minimum wage as a cure-all for the problems being faced by working Americans is not only a waste of time, I think it shows how unserious he really is about dealing with the challenges of our time."

The donors—who spent some $400 million in 2012 trying to oust Obama—applauded.

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/ar...e-minimum-wage

[presence]

*facepalm*

This is what republicans have to offer?

No... The government should NOT BE INVOLVED in wages.


END DISCUSSION

The system of apprenticeship first developed in the later Middle Ages and came to be supervised by craft guilds and town governments. A master craftsman was entitled to employ young people as an inexpensive form of labour in exchange for providing food, lodging and formal training in the craft. Most apprentices were males, but female apprentices were found in crafts such as seamstress,^[1] tailor, cordwainer, baker and stationer.^[2] Apprentices usually began at ten to fifteen years of age, and would live in the master craftsman's household. Most apprentices aspired to becoming master craftsmen themselves on completion of their contract (usually a term of seven years), but some would spend time as a journeyman and a significant proportion would never acquire their own workshop.
In Coventry those completing seven-year apprenticeships with stuff merchants were entitled to become freemen of the city.^[3]
Subsequently governmental regulation and the licensing of technical colleges and vocational education formalized and bureaucratized the details of apprenticeship.^{[citation needed]}

Now we have generation after generation of "under employed" academically "educated", mostly incompetent dipshits living in mom's basement.

[phill4paul]

*facepalm*

This is what republicans have to offer?

No... The government should NOT BE INVOLVED in wages.


END DISCUSSION

This of course includes ending the monetary monopoly of the Fed Reserve and regulatory bull$#@! that gives incentive to off-shore labor.

[presence]

This of course includes ending the monetary monopoly of the Fed Reserve and regulatory bull$#@! that gives incentive to off-shore labor.

END THE FED
END THE LICENSING SCHEMES
END THE WAGE AND PRICE CONTROLS

= Thriving Economy

...FREE from "come save me", "I'm so feeble", "only the government can help" bull$#@!.

[Mr.NoSmile]

*facepalm*

This is what republicans have to offer?

No... The government should NOT BE INVOLVED in wages.


END DISCUSSION

That's not going to happen.

[presence]

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।

मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥ २-४७

Paul said,


"Minimum wage is only harmful when it's above the market wage."

Sir, you need to step back and recall the intellectual revolution your father started; ask yourself if you want to be a part of it or not.



Chapter 2, Verse 47.
You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.




In my heart of heart... soul of souls... minimum wage (labor price control) is satanic.



only to Work are we entitled

[ThePaleoLibertarian]

What needs to be hammered home is the catastrophic effect that the minimum wage has on small businesses. Both Democrats and the GOP claim to be pro-small business, but it's a contradiction to claim that position and be for a higher minimum wage; a fact that's rarely ever mentioned. This is one pretty rare example of a truly black and white dichotomy that needs to be driven home to get people to understand the issues at hand.

[CaptUSA]

Paul was obviously being coy and clever here, but economically, he is 100% right. Basically, what he is saying is that if the market wage for any particular job is over the minimum wage, it doesn't matter. But if the market wage is below the minimum wage, it is harmful. Basically what all of us know - just in fancier terms.

Pretty slick way of answering the question. Sorry if he didn't give you the red meat you were hoping for.

[otherone]

The line drew big applause but didn't answer the question—which Karl tried to call him on. So should there be any minimum wage? Paul said, "Minimum wage is only harmful when it's above the market wage."

The minimum wage is price-fixing. If it didn't benefit our corporatist overlords, it wouldn't exist.

[Keith and stuff]

What the Republicans decided to do in New Hampshire is to end the general state minimum wage. I don't think that's ever been done before in the nation but a few states never created one in the first place. The Democrats had a bill to bring back the New Hampshire minimum wage last session, and tie it to the federal minimum wage. The bill failed.

NH dumping own minimum wage law Sunday
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/new...aw_sunday.html

[Rudeman]

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।

मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥ २-४७

Sir, you need to step back and recall the intellectual revolution your father started; ask yourself if you want to be a part of it or not.



Chapter 2, Verse 47.
You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.




In my heart of heart... soul of souls... minimum wage (labor price control) is satanic.



only to Work are we entitled

Are you saying he is wrong?

[Vanguard101]

Repub approach: Abolish

[presence]

Are you saying he is wrong?

I'm saying minimum wage criminalizes simple help between neighbors and friends. Come on over... fix my pipes, they're leaking.

No problem, $20 and a slice of cake.

But no you're both criminals because it took you 4 hours and minimum wage is $10.10 or $7.250 or whatever.
You're both criminals because regulated work was done on a private residence without license.
You're both criminals because you accepted unreported gold instead of taxed fiat.

That's what I"m saying.

[AuH20]

If certain entities would let natural deflation run it's course, then we wouldn't even be discussing the raising of the minimum wage.

[phill4paul]

I'm saying minimum wage criminalizes simple help between neighbors and friends. Come on over... fix my pipes, they're leaking.

No problem, $20 and a slice of cake.

But no you're both criminals because it took you 4 hours and minimum wage is $10.10 or $7.250 or whatever.
You're both criminals because regulated work was done on a private residence without license.
You're both criminals because you accepted unreported gold instead of taxed fiat.

That's what I"m saying.

Exactly. It is just another way that legitimizes government regulation of free enterprise.

[Weston White]

It certainly would have been nice if they had worked together to bring to light the underlying necessity why having a minimum wage standard is necessary in the first place.

The fact of the matter is that the burdening responsibilities of setting such a standard of minimal pay within a perpetuating inflationary environment cannot be shouldered onto businesses alone to bear. The minimum wage merely intends to covertly state that this is the rate of pay necessary for your employees to make it from one payday to the next.

(To note, I would agree that a minimum wage standard is an individual state issue—also noting that most states have implemented their own wage standards, which generally tend to be slightly more than the FLSA.)

FLSA: Who is Covered.

[T.hill]

*facepalm*

This is what republicans have to offer?

No... The government should NOT BE INVOLVED in wages.


END DISCUSSION




Now we have generation after generation of "under employed" academically "educated", mostly incompetent dipshits living in mom's basement.

Well, Rand did say that the minimum wage is harmful when it's higher than the market wage. Of course it would be impossible for the government to determine what the uniform market wage is, because there isn't one. However it does raise the question of why the market shouldn't determine wage rates when minimum wages are necessarily harmful at any point above the market rate. Allow price discovery to take it's course.

[PRB]

Is it so hard to say "if you don't like your pay, you'll really hate your replacement"?

[PRB]

Well, Rand did say that the minimum wage is harmful when it's higher than the market wage. Of course it would be impossible for the government to determine what the uniform market wage is, because there isn't one. However it does raise the question of why the market shouldn't determine wage rates when minimum wages are necessarily harmful at any point above the market rate. Allow price discovery to take it's course.

the question I love asking liberals is 'what counts as WORK when people say, work 40 hours a week?'.

[Rudeman]

I'm saying minimum wage criminalizes simple help between neighbors and friends. Come on over... fix my pipes, they're leaking.

No problem, $20 and a slice of cake.

But no you're both criminals because it took you 4 hours and minimum wage is $10.10 or $7.250 or whatever.
You're both criminals because regulated work was done on a private residence without license.
You're both criminals because you accepted unreported gold instead of taxed fiat.

That's what I"m saying.

Well he did say the minimum wage can be harmful if above market wages. Lets say if the minimum wage was only $1, then in your scenario it wouldn't have been harmful (you would still have the other issues).

[Occam's Banana]

The Republican Approach to the Minimum Wage

...

[presence]

Well he did say the minimum wage can be harmful if above market wages. Lets say if the minimum wage was only $1, then in your scenario it wouldn't have been harmful

I don't care if its a penny. I should not be mandated to involve worthless fiat in my FREE association.


That's what minimum wage is all about... MANDATING GOVERNMENT FIAT, discouraging barter, discouraging labor trade in precious metals; propping up a debt based monetary system, and taxation of earnings.

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

the question I love asking liberals is 'what counts as WORK when people say, work 40 hours a week?'.

That's a funny question coming from one of RPF's few very liberal progressives. Of course, you were never known for your candidness on this board.