Minimum Wage: Bad for Humans, Good for Robots

[@walkerrobison8948]

"Evil right wing think tank"😂😂 MIT

[@yengsabio5315]

I have to stop eating my meal for a while just to laugh out loud!

[@yengsabio5315]

Have you had your coffee already? Lots'a love, cheers, & Mabuhay, from tropical Philippines!

[@ParkasOne]

Next step : tax robots

[@TheSuburban15]

Parkas. Uh, no. Bureaucrats do not eliminate bureaucracy.

[@electromech7335]

You are a genius! Robots work too. They need to be taxed !

[@wrongway1100]

That is actually happening

[@mariospyrros6340]

robots are slaves, the poor enlsaved money printer needs a machine revolution againts his capitalist slave overloads, who want stable price.

[@cathaloriordan271]

It's almost like economics is a thing.

[@pexus4127]

Harucina Hint we already have :(

[@sharifAdepetu]

Never heard of her

[@alexanderliu9376]

Don't increase the minimum wage. Decrease the cost of living.

[@michaelhalejr516]

Capitalist economics*

[@yungmalaria]

@@michaelhalejr516 doesnt work that way bud

[@vtheman1850]

"Evil right wing think tank MIT " I died

[@FloridaDeere]

so true🤣, that was a great line

[@mervmcrough7478]

Not to mention companies respond with raising prices. So your $15 now buys less. More inflation is what we want?

[@MrLastlived]

Reverse correlated. Things in cities cost more because demand is higher locally. Inflation is driven down when you raise minimum wages. Growth stagnates as business adjusts to the new rates, they stop hiring, but they pay more. The workers still on the force turn around and spend that money they get. This in turns improves the amount of income generated by all businesses, which allows them to hire more workers and produce more product. Supply for product goes up with growth, and they can afford to lower the price to compete with other business if they are the type of business that participates in price war. Otherwise, price doesn't change just because the means got a little more expensive. Technology improvement demands go up (Which gets everyone screaming about robots taking jobs), and growth slows until the workers spend their new found wage.

[@mervmcrough7478]

MrLastlived you're skipping right past the step that does the damage...where businesses realize their overhead is going to increase & some go out of business, others cut hours or impose layoffs & some raise prices to maintain profitability

[@MrLastlived]

Yeah if you impose it all at once. Which no state or city has ever done with minimum wage. They increase it increments over the course of years and yell this well in advance of it happening so businesses can adjust. Which they do. There is no state which this has happened across the board, this concept that businesses suffer when you increase the minimum wage is substantiated only by a few case studies of businesses that had antiquated or failing models to begin with. It stagnates, businesses stop growing while they wait for the adjustment, yes. But they rarely if ever go into negative growth. Whoever has told you otherwise didn't explain themselves fully or they misinformed you.

[@mervmcrough7478]

MrLastlived They had failing models to begin with? Isnt that kind of like killing a person then saying 'well, he was in the process of dying already'?

[@MrLastlived]

Businesses chose California for the higher demand per mile. It makes for fertile starting ground and the connections you can find there is almost always top of the line or ahead of their time or right on the bleeding edge of industry. That and Technology and sociology is almost always about 5--10 years ahead of the rest of the country, California leads the country almost. Texas and New York kind of battle for businesses with tax laws being more lax and businesses having more active incentive to move there comparatively. Everyone has their own opinion on the matter of where to place a front, but everyone seems to agree to REGISTER the business in Nevada or Texas or Florida because minimal or no state taxes :P. I say this repeating at this point what other small to large business owners have told me about their state choices.

[@JoshSideris]

They just raised the minimum wage where I live in Ontario. My grandma, who earns minimum wage, is now making less money, because her hours were cut. The boss was forthcoming that the reason for the cuts was indeed the minimum wage increase. She's been priced out of the market. She didn't mind working for the old minimum wage, but now she's not allowed to... It's so fucking unfair for the government to force her to sell her labor at these uncompetitive rates.

[@Amateur_Pianist_472]

But she can work a lot less hours and only get a bit less money.

[@JoshSideris]

No. After travel expenses it's almost an 8% cut it her overall salary starting in 2018 when it goes to $14 (and it's even worse after taxes). In 2019 when it goes up to $15, she'll likely be laid off. Her hours are being taken by young people who are more productive. She's old, and just isn't fast enough to justify a 30% wage bump. She's so scared of what's to come. Worse is that everything is going to be up to 30% more expensive now. She already can't afford to keep her house heated in the winter - the over-unionized government monopoly on power generation ensures that energy prices are through the roof. How the hell is she going to survive this? We're all worried for her.

[@sweetharleyrider]

@ Josh Sideris- Also puts her in a higher income tax bracket.People don't get your expenses (bus or car) to get to a job are the same whether you work less hours or the same, DUH Amy Lorenzo! Along with less hours is more cost of living of everything for a company to pay for this. The Liberals are masters of giving you a load of nothing and making it sound yummy! I live in Ontario too and the Liberals both provincial and federal are corrupt!

[@Amateur_Pianist_472]

+Gerry Persowich my views have changed over the months & I didn't see the first reply. My main point was the ones that do keep their jobs are lucky because they can work less hours & get more money. But others do get fired. Not to be rude but old people should have a retirement plan throughout their life. No one is entitled to a pension. & yes with lower wages prices go down so a minimum wage is actually useless. We could possibly have deflation.

[@sweetharleyrider]

@ Amy Lorenzo-How do you work less hours and get more money when it costs you the same amount to get on a bus to get there or drive to work? Retirement plan? HAHA Not with the Liberals in charge hiking up taxes on everything and stealing our money at the same time. More older people are working longer now just to put food on the table or heat the house in winter.

[@reidhattaway4989]

That way I can use hate mail to heat my house. Hilarious!! Heaton is just as funny as Jon Oliver without the holier-than-thou pomposity.

[@bearriver685]

I disagree a lot more with Oliver, however, he is way funnier, which should be expected from a comedian...

[@p0llenp0ny]

+Jordan Futch I haven't laughed once at anything ol' crazy eyes Oliver has said.

[@p0llenp0ny]

+Jordan Futch I haven't laughed once at anything ol' crazy eyes Oliver has said.

[@p0llenp0ny]

+Jordan Futch I haven't laughed once at anything ol' crazy eyes Oliver has said.

[@p0llenp0ny]

+Jordan Futch I haven't laughed once at anything ol' crazy eyes Oliver has said.

[@davec.3198]

As an engineer (who happens to sell robots in NY), i support the $15/hr min wage.

[@ExaltedDuck]

KZbin has recommended to me 3-4 of this channel's videos in the last few days. All of them have been good and the wit and wisdom in this one finally earned my subscription.

[@RyeOnHam]

Raising the minimum wage increases the number of unemployed. That means more people vote Democrat and the minimum wage goes higher. Eventually, only Billionaires will be able to work and everybody will vote Democrat. Love it.

[@noahschwartz1222]

Why do unemployed equal democrat votes. The Reps, Dems, and Libs are all for more jobs, and unemployed people want jobs, so why would they necesarily vote dem? If anything Reps and Libs are more for jobs than Dems are. Also, idk how raising the minimum wage will definetly make more people vote democrat. It seems like you are an example of someone who won't vote dem because of the minimum wage increase.

[@alexturlais8558]

How come the unemployment rate went down under Obama? Was it because of all the hard work and progress the Republican Congress did?

[@Brains-GPT]

Money is outdated and now only hinders human progress.

[@4203105]

Yeah! Except that's not what happens in reality. In reality raising the minimum wage stimulates local economies and lowers unemployment.

[@gregrohs6688]

RyeOnHam really because seattles unemployment rate is the lowest in the country ya fucking idiot.

[@rimeandtreason5565]

You get a like for the westworld music. This is probably.the best series you guys are making right now. I dare you to make a video supporting free association.

[@vaibhavgupta20]

Rime And Treason what is that?

[@rimeandtreason5565]

Thats free association on a deep philosophical level. The mainstream simple version is the right to discriminate. Which many hardline libertarians support.

[@hUCK-]

So let's just give up on the human race entirely. And all of the shit in our collective past. Sounds pretty cowardly to me.

[@hUCK-]

Let alone the "trite" argument of all of the well-intentioned and semi-just wars that our ancesters died in to protect the idea of "western values". Libertarians are even more exausting than libs or repubs. I just hope some of you understand that fully.

[@martinskanal]

Your argument is only partially correct. In Scandinavia we too don't believe in minimal wages (and we don't have them). Instead wages are effectively set by sector or industry through collective bargaining. We have strong unions and liberal rules regulating strikes and lock-outs, yet we seldom see long, destructive cases of either. With this model we end up with high salaries, even for our non-educated work force - though several workers remain un-organized and in fact sometimes work for lower wages than set by the sector. The high costs of labour force has several interesting effects, both in the market and in society as a whole. It forces business owners to organize their operations effectively, and that means investing in machines to do tasks where ever possible and hiring skilled labour/investing in training employees where it is needed. Automatization is generally not seen as a bad thing at all (not even by the workers), and automated machinery has indeed replaced manual labour decades ago, for functions that are still done by manual workers in the US. For example, Norway was the first country in the world to employ automatic highway toll stations 33 years ago. Today, no-one pays hard cash for traveling on roads, even private dirt tracks in the middle of nowhere are payed by SMS or other automated means. The system is standardized so my digital ticket works all across Norway, and if I happen to not have one, my car reg. number is automatically captured and I am billed by mail. Implementing automated tasks saves businesses money, some of which are collected by the state as taxes. We have a high taxation level in Norway, which pays for our nearly free health care system, free higher education, care for elders, our welfare system and pensions for state employees. Free education means we have amongst the highest educated population most efficient workforce of the world. The effectivization by automation of our work places and employing our (compared to the US) highly educated workforce, have amongst many, three noticeable effects: #1 ..Getting rich by starting/buying/owning a business is far easier than in the US (despite higher taxations and public spending) - we have far more billionaires per capita than in the US #2 ..social mobility is far higher than in the US. Statistically, in Norway the level of education, income, social status and race of your parents etc.. play a significantly lesser role in your chances to succeed in life financially, than in the US and most other countries in the world. #3 ..and our unemployment rate is 5,10 % to the US 14,7% When US and other investors wanted to buy up Norwegian oil back in the 1970's, we (against the "better" judgement of our conservative party) nationalized our oil production and almost immediately reaped the benefits from doing so. Our tax funded education of engineers and public investments in off-shore drilling payed back in many-folds. Since then our state oil has been registered on the stock market with the main share held by the state, but several privately owned companies are involved in the industry (and they are heavily subsidized, just like the US fossil fuel industry). Almost all of the profits from our oil are re-invested in our future pension fund (currently (per 26th of May) this investment fund is worth: 1,036,436,286,378.39 USD - we are 5,4 million people in Norway). We are one of a very few countries that don't run a public spending deficit. We have true liberals and conservatives in our country, too, but none of them are suggesting radical changes to our generous welfare system, our free education, our free health care system and otherwise high public spendings, because it is generally accepted across the political spectrum that our system - the Scandinavian Model - works. It is not perfect, for sure, sometimes our bureaucracy is inefficient and our public spending is too wasteful, and our conservative and liberal politicians are naturally always looking for giving (especially the wealthy people) tax breaks, but generally - as of today - we don't see existing alternatives to our economic structure, that on the whole offer better deals for neither capitalists, nor the work force. The liberal and neo-conservative arguments about minimal state ownership and intervention, their communist fixation, aggressive opposition to a universal health care plan or their ridicule of free education, seems to most of us - liberals and conservatives included - at best to be some exotic cultural thing rooting back to the failed Reaganomics or even to the cold war propaganda and McCarthyist paranoia - at worst it is just ill informed or straight out dumb. So yeah, minimum wages are bad, but e v i d e n t l y not for the reasons you give. And the American dream lives - in Norway.

[@2vnews902]

There is no such thing as a livable wage; there is only a wage that someone can afford to pay. You have to tailor your living around your wage, not have government tailor your wage around your living.

[@avowliberty2250]

Blitzmaschine Not an argument

[@2vnews902]

Blitzmaschine, You are ignorant of basic economics. Work on that.

[@paulisopanen782]

2VNews wise words

[@MrLastlived]

Mmzen summed up the argument against yours pretty well. Response?

[@michaelpaliden6660]

@@MrLastlived No no it did not

[@SkullKing11841]

There is a $15 minimum wage in Australia and it frustrates me. I'm 24 and I haven't worked for 6 years nor do I have any skills because I've struggeled a lot with my mental health. My capacity to work much is low so I want the ability to say to an employer I'll work less than the next person in line because most people easily have a better resume than me and don't have the baggage I do. The minimum wage being so high and existing at all means I don't have another way to get a leg up on someone else. I'd even work for $1 an hour to begin with as to prove I'm a good employee and then once I've demonstrated my worth to the buisness and I knpw I can do the job long term I'd ask for a raise. I get that the intent of having a minimum wage is to help people but it really does hurt the worst off in society and its not just people with no skills, its people with disabilities and (mental) health problems to.

[@Amateur_Pianist_472]

It's actually $17.70 and yes it is a problem. I'm Australian and job my first job working $13/hr. However the problem with $1/hr is that everyone's wages will go down which will also kill the economy because people won't buy things. $10 at the very most is reasonable.

[@michaeloscar956]

Amy Lorenzo any amount is unreasonable. You use the term minimum wage because it makes you feel good but the truth is what you're advocating is a jobs ban on people who make less than 10 dollars an hour

[@SkullKing11841]

Amy Lorenzo You are right, its been a while since I've been able to really think about a job, but I just looked it up and as of July 1st this year it became $18.29. Which is worse lol. I should gave been clearer. I don't mean that the minimum wage should be $1. I mean there should be no minimum. I'm saying that in my case there not being a minimum would allow me to pick a low number to start with to out compete other people. I disagree that there would be any kind of wage slavery, if it were true every employee would be on the minimum wage in every job right now. But businesses have to compete for labour and have incentives for people to take higher stress higher responsibility jobs. If people don't want to do the job for the pay being offered they'd have to raise what there offering. Same goes for long time employees they wish to keep.

[@patientfirbolg3299]

Amy Lorenzo, Yes removing minimum wage will decrease the hourly rate for workers, but it also stands to reason that decreasing the hourly rate for workers will decrease the cost to make the goods they buy, giving them more purchasing power per dollar. Sure having a minimum wage you'll see a temporary increase in spending in some workers, which has a temporary benefit that doesn't last. The long-term consequences are as the video said, the minimum wage is the government forcing this labor expense on all businesses regardless of individual economic circumstances and local economies. This will drive out small businesses (or possible employment opportunities), consolidating employment opportunities into a handful of major businesses like we see today. This gives workers less power because you are less likely to quit a bad job if there are fewer places hiring. This has the same effect for consumers as well because if all those small businesses with razor-thin margins go out of business, you will be left with more powerful companies with higher labor costs and less competition leaving them to set prices as they see fit. Minimum wage is bad for businesses and workers.

[@donkeythong4081]

SkullKing11841 why not try some voluntary work first with some organization that needs help that stuff always looks good on resumes. Don't blame minimum wage for your predicament it protects most workers that's what it's for.

[@randomlyentertaining8287]

Step 1: Raise the Minimum Wage Step 2: Build Skynet XD

[@Jacky-DavidWBelt]

Wal-Mart raised the wages and cut hours, they even did away of some positions. Once someone quits or gets fired they rarely replace them. When I started there were almost 30 people working in my area, now there are 10.

[@Coolwater83]

They’re doing away with all the cashiers and making everything self checkout and they’re even using robots to clean the floors

[@Billionaireben]

The problem is if you eliminate minimum wage, they lower pay; if they raise minimum wage they call you an independent contractor (or cut hours, automate, outsource.) Solution, boycott companies that don't pay a decent living.

[@rachealballiu9260]

I worked at the YMCA for minimum wage and they offered 'benefits", like college tuition help, to full time employees. I was a college student at the time. Therefore the YMCA made sure to never give me full time hours. Companies will always screw the employee, even Christian non-profits. Now, I'm a RN and when enough people are getting sick and injured in the ER, what do they do? Send nurses home, cut your hours. I bet the people in the offices, on salary, are not making those sacrifices. We get punished for not having enough patients to take care of. Do we get MORE money when the lobby is full and don't even have a minute to eat? Well, of course not! Companies always do the minimum.

[@dustinabc]

Local governments could set unenforced recommended "minimum wage" and "living wage" levels, so employees have a general idea what they should be aiming for when negotiating their wages. But no one, including government, has the right to violate the natural rights of humans to make mutually consented agreements and exchanges, like wages for labor.

[@jumbowana]

Step 1. Get a job for money and experience. Step 2. Don't be useless. Step 3. Increase your skillset through school, training, and promotions. Step 4. Don't have kids if you make minimum wage. Solved.

[@LOUDMOUTHTYRONE]

Blitzmaschine What's wrong with people is that other people telling them bullshit.

[@alexturlais8558]

jumbowana But wait... people are already going to university in record numbers. And they work hard - the OECD average shoes that annual hours worked has barely fallen since 2011. Isn't that proof that people are trying and not being useless? the problem isn't with people it's with the system

[@takesnosides3814]

The problem is that, despite the warnings, many people choose to "follow their passion" or go into university without a direction at all and end up in degrees that have 0 return on investment. It is better, in my estimation, to head directly to the job market, see how tough it is, and then pick where you want to spend oodles of money to get trained.

[@theicedragon100]

yea but their going to university for the "experience" not for the skills they should be learning.

[@Redmond17]

Just speaking from anecdote here, but so much of this rings true for me. I was heavily pressured to go to college and focus on getting a degree. Yet after getting my Bachelor's, I found I just did not have enough experience, when I entered the job market. Hoot, I'm _still_ getting pressured to go back to college, yet when I ask what exactly I'd be doing there, the only answer I get is "whatever you want." The only thing I want is to get out of it.

[@rickysanders6487]

UBI > Raising minimum wage

[@Meirstein]

reasonTV needs to be all Andrew, all the time

[@landonpowell6296]

Robots don't just cost less than people on minimum wage, Andrew. They cost less than feeding people. They have an initial development cost, but after that they're practically free, as it only takes electricity and rare instances of maintenance (which can be done by other robots) to keep them running.

[@0011peace]

"Spay and neuter you roomba" funny

[@Trid3nt861]

"If you raise the minimum wage, then its going to raise the rent.When it raises the rent then your'e going to have to build affordable housing, when you have to build affordable housing then you tax the people to build the affordable housing.When you tax people to build the affordable housing the people move out of the city and you have to raise taxes on the people who live in the city. That is how you hollow out the income of a major metropolitan area" Ben Shapiro

[@KeltorRochridge]

Minimum wage needs to be renamed as wage discrimination. That's all it is. It discriminates against lower-wage earning workers.

[@robertfoster8283]

Really it discriminates against those with low-no skills

[@voluntarism335]

Miniumum wage is immoral

[@thunderkat2911]

I support raising the minimum wage precisely so that it increases automation and possibly lead to more investments in robots. Yes, I am probably a horrible person.

[@dereksloan9585]

These are hilarious! I can't believe it took me so long to find these!!!😀

[@darthmoodydiah2796]

Yeah, our hours are already cut. And I'm paying more in taxes. Yay, thanks for the help.

[@jfangm]

What I love is that Andrew Heaton got replaced by RoboHeaton after this episode, hence the different suit and lack of a beard.

[@358Disaster]

I stop watching to find that video of that guy eating his shit on that ladder. I lost my shit! Lol!

[@2vnews902]

Middle class is a byproduct of a market economy without excessive regulation, it isn't manufactured by government redistribution of wealth, minimum wage laws or a politician's tax gimmicks.

[@Meton2526]

Because the larger the middle class the larger the tax base?

[@benjaminshropshire2900]

The real problem is not the minimum wadge being too low, it's too many people not being able to eventually get work that pays more than minimum wage. (Assuming that's true and there is actually a problem that needs solving at all.) If the average person can't progress to a job that pays well above $15/hr (because the work the job involves is worth enough to justify that), lets solve *that* problem. Side note, I suspect one of the most effective things that could be done to increase average wages is to increase mobility, both in jobs and in places of living. If wages are higher relative to cost of living somewhere else, then people moving in that direction helps the people who move (better pay) the people who hire them (more labor holds down labor costs) the people who stay behind (few people results in more damned for their work and less demand for housing). The only people who lose are the "evil capitalists" who are "profiting off the backs of the working poor". And improving mobility should be possible without any government involvement; just make information about jobs and cost of living available to whoever goes looking. Oh, and by the way, union mandated pay scales are also de facto minimum wadges: if they want more money, they should figure out how to create more value for the people paying them.

[@bergonius]

I mostly love Mostly Weekly

[@AnonymousPerson488]

Heaton is hilarious in a good way. Love these videos!

[@bobthecopywriter]

Self Service Technology is facing a potential renaissance as the increases in minimum wage makes prohibitively expensive automation options ever more affordable by comparison. This presentation is a brilliant illustration of that fact.

[@bff1316]

Before I retired I was happy when the minimum wage increased. If the minimum wage increased by 3%, my wages usually increases between 6 ~ 8%, the gap kept getting larger in actual dollars earned per hour. I haven't been to a McDonalds for many years. I was on a long drive and hungry so I pulled into one. # kiosks and 1 person working a register. the person working would take care of one customer while each kiosk would 2 to 3. Then the person would walk away for a while then come back to take another order. I was wondering if this person was trying to lose his job. My wife and I would always stop at a coffee shop when we went to the doctor or pharmacy We liked chatting with the waitresses about their children, husbands and what was happening. Since california increased the minimum wage they are all gone and part time waitresses work there now. Hooray minimum wage increases.

[@douglasoak7964]

What we should do is create an agency that sets min wages on a case by case basis. Based on each company's specific gross profit margins.

[@ChunderHorse]

This series is so great. Keep it up, ReasonTV!

[@2vnews902]

It is about supply and demand. If you have an easy time filling your employee needs, you offer lower wages, if you have a hard time filling your employee needs, you offer higher wages; because if you do not your competition will and you will be out of business.

[@Amateur_Pianist_472]

That's only if there's more jobs than people, by that time you don't have enough customers. So that supply and demand idea is impossible.

[@TheDialga14]

Was that the Westworld theme at the end?

[@eberronbruce1328]

Increase the demand for labor, workers have a backbone and don't let themselves to be exploited (this is includes offshoring as well), workers demand more businesses will have to pay more. The only asset a business really has is its people (until robots take over). And if they cannot find workers either they go out of business or do things to attract workers like paying more.

[@johnnynick3621]

What a silly comment. Workers are NOT the only asset businesses have. In fact, many workers with low tech skills are slowly becoming obsolete because technology is replacing the need for human labor. But you keep pretending that if the "WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE" you can defeat the evil empire. You're really silly.

[@saviorbob]

I for one welcome our new robob overlords

[@mooreadventures]

Well I agree with the argument, what it lacks to point out is is it's not just minimum wage workers that would get a hourly increase but also anyone making below the new minimum wage. For example, if the minimum wage is $9/hr and someone is currently making $10/hr; if the minimum wage gets raised to $12/hr, then they automatically go to $12/hr ($2/hr increase) as well. Not to mention this generally levels out the seniority wage that many people worked up to. New worker gets $12 same as old worker that has put in some years at a company.

[@napiersh1]

hahaha that ladder clip... I remember seeing that in the early days of the internet. God damn that took me back...

[@kriyadas3280]

bring back Mostly Weekly!

[@jeremyhansen9197]

Seems like the best argument for minimum wage I've heard so far. Automation is coming whether you like it or not. All you're doing is kicking the can down the road.

[@ThisHatterIsMad]

I think it's more the argument for UBI.

[@finalbossd]

jeremy hansen While that may be true, raising the minimum wage will artificially accelerate the rate at which automation occurs, resulting in businesses not allocating their resources in an optimally efficient way, and it will strangle smaller businesses who cannot afford the start up costs of automation, further perpetuating a big business oligopoly, which paradoxically, the people who support minimum wage hikes oppose.

[@TheCharleseye]

The fact that the human race will most likely die out, eventually, means that we might as well just bite the bullet and launch all of our nukes. Why postpone the inevitable?

[@ThisHatterIsMad]

But I am Le Tired...

[@jeremyhansen9197]

finalbossd In the long run if we play our cards right it is automation and innovation that increases the average person's well being. As such, no matter who is doing it I say more power to them. I would say that the space race was pretty artificial, but it lead to advancement that we still enjoy today. In the short run you do have a point, and is worth talking about. As to the degree I think there are other factors at play.

[@DagothDaddy]

Through a complicated process called basic mathematics I found that you can in fact live decently on 9$ an hour working 40+ hours a week the reason you can't in states like California isn't due to cost of living being so high it's because income tax is so high

[@azelfdaboi5265]

Let's assume you get 9$ an hour, work 40 hours a week, and get paid 4 times per month That is 1440 dollars per month The cheapest apartments to rent by state are in Arkansas, so we'll set you up there 745 off of our 1440 for rent, leaving us at 675, now let's subtract the average cost to pay an electric bill, 117 dollars, down to 578, now subtract 72 for the water bill, down to 506, now subtract the 450 for the car payment, leaves us with 56 This doesn't include the gas bill, internet, a phone plan, food, entertainment, gas, and this is generous assuming you have no debt

[@jarretlingle2553]

Also, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but one effect of raising the MW is that those paying minimum wage will raise prices to keep the same profit margin thus raising cost of living for everyone. This means that the new MW earner is effectively making the same amount as before in relation to the COL and those who make above MW will get a pay cut. Let's say an independent contractor who may charge $25/hr will, under the new MW be effectively making only $20/hr in relation to the new COL and so he raises his price to $30. Wouldn't that spur on inflation?

[@mrcombine7983]

Even the biggest fast food corporation would have to lay off thousands of employees and cost more than double for thier food if you raised it to 15.

[@nemo227]

It may take a few years to see how the big increases in minimum wages impact the number of small business startups. I don't know if any of the higher minimum wage city officials actually consulted with accountants who had small business startups among their clients but that would have been a wise thing to do before passing higher minimum wage laws. But government officials are noted for passing laws with unintended consequences. Simply logic should make it clear (as an example) that an employee receiving $15/hr must produce value in the neighborhood of at least $18/hr because every employee carries part of the business overhead burden. Let's say a very small business overhead burden exists as fixed costs each month: rent, telephone, maintenance, fire insurance, accident insurance, liability insurance, errors & omissions insurance, bookkeeping wages, receptionist wages, order entry wages, production wages, employer matching FICA taxes, allowance for sick days, and many other expenses. These are costs incurred even if there are no sales or if sales are not high enough to provide a gross margin to cover the fixed expenses. People who make minimum wage laws without considering & analyzing such things are derelict in their duty to both employees and business owner because wages that are too high in relation to the value of productivity can cause business owners to go bankrupt and employees to be without jobs.

[@cyberjunk2002]

Good, but it's also missing a key point almost never mentioned when this topic is discussed: raising prices (whether on labor, or a price floor) is only guaranteed to raise PRICES. It doesn't guarantee more INCOME or wealth on the selling side. When most people think of prices increasing (whether by inflation or mandate), they assume someone on the selling side will somehow become richer, but it doesn't work that way. Higher prices just make consumers (all of us) poorer (our own contributions to the economy which lead to our wealth are worth less since we can get less for our money) without a guarantee that income will go up for the seller...demand may simply decrease (perhaps plummet).

[@elyastoohey6621]

Not necessarily. The concept that entry level jobs shouldn’t provide basic survival rights. That being food, shelter, and family is bad economic principle to begin with. Anyone willing to work who can is entitled to those basics. And raising that minimum wage to that level lowers crime, and boosts local economy. It also breaks up big corporate structures a little. Eg walmart. Who make their profit off of monopolisation and supply chains. Cheaper goods. Which allow minimum wage earners have to buy as they can’t afford more expensive products. It’s the one area I really disagree with trump over. But he had to maintain that position, because no offence, anericans are can be quite stupid, and economically can be very mean to one another. The problem with making a fiscal system that is centred on struggle, is that is prejudices the top and bottom against one another. The top want to believe everything they have is inherently earned. And the bottom is resentful they get paid $8 an hour. In my country we pay 15 year olds the equivalent of that in USD. When classes are a bit more balanced the economy flourishes. Yeah the rich don’t all get to have yachts. But it’s honestly better and more humane than the alternative. Because even as “land of opportunity” than America is. Wealth mobility in the west is only about 2% at best. That means even if you work your ass off. Grind your dick off for 30 years. You only have a 2% chance of rising a wealth bracket. Which by virtue means those who are wealthy are more entrenched. And the lower wages are. The more power “owners” have. Owners being shareholders with large equity. In the long run it does not build a better economy. What it does though is build a fast tracked economy, cutting corners. Moving work offshore when wages get higher. Which is a fundamental breach of the ethos behind corporation legislation when it was introduced a couple hundred years ago. A more equitable minimum wage, that stops cartel conduct of businesses essentially agreeing to keep wages down, therefore eliminating wages as a source of competition, is a good thing. Yeah you lose the “freedom” to pay people subsistence wages that hardly afford them the basics, but you gain a lot. Healthier workers. More productive workers. A better educated populace. It takes about 10-20 years to get those effects. But they’re worth it.

[@kittenzrulz2314]

How does minimum wage break up big monopolies when it does the opposite. Small business can't afford high minimum wage so that leaves only big companies. You argue they can't say they are better becouse they have lower prices but high price of labour means no companys to compare prices. On top of that not only will most jobs be replaced with robots the inflation will rise so much even the 1% will be poor.

[@elyastoohey6621]

@@kittenzrulz2314 lol. That’s a bare bones economic look at it. It can be implemented alongside tax reforms, and subsidy reforms. My country does it. We do it quite well too. Mix of big and small business. On the whole though, to get obscenely American wealthy here is harder. But overall per capita our people are more wealthy than Us citizens. You have to overhaul tax systems to do it right. Eg small businesses get some big competitive tax advantages. That being said, we have what many, and I. Agree with this, one of the most complex tax systems on earth. It works. But damn is it tricky to navigate. Which has given rise of the tax professional profession here. Lots of tax agents. That being said, low wages can be implanted, but it requires an educated populace. And no offence if you’re American, many of you are poorly educated. You have bad knowledge of laws, to the point, I, a non American know more Us law than the common American. An uneducated person makes a bad negotiator. A bad negotiator gets ripped off. Which is why the push for a higher minimum wage is strong. Personally, I don’t believe in a higher minimum wage than just basic survival. Enough to support 2 kids, and live. But for there to be a low minimum wage, you either need an educated workforce who can negotiate for their fair value, or you need to accept that there will always be a poor desperate underclass who have no real means of pulling themselves up. You can have a low min wage but have free university and technical schools. You can do that. Because it balances out. But you can’t have a system where the poorest people, make barely enough to survive. The financial stress and pressure.,their kids under that pressure. Those kids don’t get a fair shake of the sauce, as we say, not being able to hit their potential academically or skills wise. It’s the same argument about “socialised healthcare” Basic level of state healthcare is optimal. A healthy workforce is more profitable. It isn’t short term single case profitable, eg the healthcare industry makes more off of sick people. They’re a resource. But overall. Economically for everyone. A healthy workforce is more productive. Achieves more. Giving people breathing room does have positives. You can’t just strip people down to the rights of donkeys and peasants. Then you begin to see entrenchment,

[@elyastoohey6621]

@@pedropradacarciofi2517 lol. “The market handles that” Sure the market handles it. With dead bodies. I don’t know which country you come from, or your economic position, but my country runs a hell of a lot better than most, and it’s because we at least provide a basic safety net for the sick and people needing surgery. The “market handles both better” That’s a ludicrous joke. It’s fine if you’re fiscally insulated, and don’t have to see the fallout. But when you rely on the market, then absolutely powerless individuals with no market capital, the disabled, the very very sick, amongst others, are completely fucked. What your premise relies upon. Is that everyone approaches life from the same baseline of opportunity. Fact is they don’t. The merits upon which we judge whether a society has moral integrity, is how it treats its most vulnerable, and how we treat animals. You want to go to an absolute free market no minimum wage place? Go live in India for a few years. That’s what happens when the absolute free market is enforced. They’re a fast growing economy. Built off the backs of people who are malnourished, stunted in growth, making $4 UsD a day. Paired off of course is a swathe of mega rich. Some of the richest people in the world are from India. They aren’t especially innovative, what they do is ruthlessly exploit the absolute poor. And the disabled, and very sick? They either die or get by begging. That’s how the market provides when it lacks any constraint. A healthy mix is optimal. Basic security for the vulnerable. Decent pay. But a decent market system that allows people to rise.

[@elyastoohey6621]

@@pedropradacarciofi2517 “deaths plummeted” you guys have one of the worst healthcare systems on earth. I like America, but I hope to never get sick while I’m there. You’ve failed to address the issue of the disabled etc, and the very sick. Not just with education. But under an absolute free market, they’re stuffed. They have no value to leverage. The alternative you’re proposing is charity. Which is done on a whim. India. Has not improved. Some parts have. But by and large the poor are just as bad off. I’m not anti capitalism at all. It’s how I make most of my money. But India requires some basic social nets. At the moment most of their safety nets are provided by western charitable initiatives. Go there. It’s one of the most beautiful yet horrifying countries on earth. Seeing people work 12 hours a day just to earn starvation wages. That’s the failings of absolute free market. It’s just as exploitative as a bad socialist state. A mix and pairing tends to be optimal. Now there is the debate over how efficient government is. And you are correct that sadly a lot of beaurecrats are mediocre wastes of space. That doesn’t make decent safety nets inherently bad. It just makes lazy people bad.

[@sondreus24]

Norway, A country often praised by the American Left does not have a General minimum wage. All salaries are decided between the employer and the employee, something that the Worker Unions also prefer as it gives them more opportunity to negotiate for a better salary or perks.(some branches do have a minimum wage, but that is to make sure foreign workers are not mistreated.)

[@emperorpicard6474]

The biggest rule of economics: You can NOT create wealth from nothing. So where does the wealth from raising minimum wage come from?

[@copernicus6420]

Apperently, this channel has right to call itself "reason". Becase this is one of very few youtube channels about politics where you find find "reasoning"

[@ragnarok7976]

The place where I work is in my hometown. Housing was too expensive there so I have to move farther away into the country. I work at a tech company and now that min wage is $15 it's more financially viable for me to work at the KFC near where I live than it is for me to assemble cameras in a nitrogen chamber or any other work I do that it is more complex than "work the fryer". I used to make 6 bucks more than minimum wage. Now I make 2. I've been demoted because some people are surprised that working minimum wage only affords you a minimum life. From Canada BTW.

[@smokedbrisket3033]

one of the bigger drivers behind increasing minimum wage is union contracts that are indexed to minimum wage. Let's say the contract is indexed at 3X, and minimum wage is $8. Union worker makes $24. Raise the minimum wage to $12, union worker gets (maybe, if there aren't massive layoffs) a $24K/year raise.

[@2vnews902]

It is not about what people deserve or what is fair or what is just; it is about what the market will bear. Blame the consumer for shopping for the lowest price and blame the voter for voting for government to fix their problems.

[@ewill312]

Nailed it

[@RHBproductions]

Why. Is. This. So. Hard. For. People. To. Understand.

[@SystemYTP]

Bullshit. Before we got a minimum wage in Germany, all companies screamed death and warned about the consequences. Now we have it and it had almost no impact on our unemployment numbers. And even if you lose jobs - if your company cannot afford to pay people more than the bare minimum they need to survive, your company sucks. If a minimum wages makes your company bankrupt, you have already exceeded your capabilities and now you're being punished. Period. It's fine if some people are willing to work for almost no money, but thankfully not everyone is that brainwashed.

[@2vnews902]

The balance of affordable things to buy and the income to buy them. No politician can set either.

[@Meton2526]

YOU'RE RIGHT, we should implement detrimental policies just so we can say we did something.

[@chaimkatz2002]

More Sarah, thanks.

[@agiftedrighterdotcom]

It’s kinda crazy how people still don’t get this.

[@JonathanRossRogers]

The minimum wages mentioned may make sense in Seattle or New York City. What doesn't make sense is raising the Federal minimum wage to a reasonable level for New York City, since cost of living and average wages vary so much. I guess he made that point toward the end too. Why isn't it obvious to everyone?

[@anonony9081]

The ladder analogy is great

[@2vnews902]

Anti-poverty recipe: Cut regulation and cut spending. Abolish minimum wage laws, the tax code and Federal Reserve. End the drug war. Get government out of education and student loans.

[@philhunt26]

2VNews Any example of that ever working?

[@Amateur_Pianist_472]

That's how it was for the vast majority of humans history and there was a tiny minimum wage. Coal miners were paid the equivalent of $1/hr in today's money. People always repeat 'no one would work for such a low amount.' Yes they do when all companies offer that little.

[@MrLastlived]

Cutting regulation leads to larger business taking higher market share and pushing out smaller ones. Abolishing minimum wage laws forces this to function on supply and demand. Which means any period of high employment, like the one we are in right now, would be devastating to the workers who aren't irreplaceable specialists and drive down wages across the board with every new 18 year old willing to work. "Reworking the tax code" doesn't mean anything. Rework it in what way? To do what? For what end? It's more complicated than snapping your fingers mate. Ending the drug war doesn't do anything for the topic at hand. At worse, you release a sizable portion of the population that need to work any menial job they can get, and further worsen the demand curve for wages. Getting the government out of education loans is a bit of a difficult solution to the problem of higher education taking advantage of it. Mainly because it will be the hardest sell any Congressman would have to make, as education is considered kind of important, and saying "Lets educate people less" as you make a move that will require people to seek higher education and specialize to even challenge the new demand curve in your system. You counteract the good this will do by putting even more demand on getting a college education. This is spelling out badly. How do you propose this makes things better?

[@ChewbacaTW]

Step 3 is ALWAYS "Profit!"

[@dwlgrump6219]

No , sometimes step four is profit.

[@mosesmarlboro5401]

I used to work as a manufacturing engineer at a radiator plant. Part of my job was evaluating how much certain machines/policies saved the company in labor costs, so I had access to all the payroll information. Do you know how much it cost our company to employ one worker for 1 hour being paid $20 an hour? $120 fucking dollars an hour, once you factor in payroll tax, social security, insurance, etc. etc. etc. You want to raise people's wages? Stop forcing companies to pay these ridiculous fucking fees. We could easily pay employees DOUBLE their wage if these regulations were laxed.

[@rcknrllfreak]

If Reason fired Andrew Heaton, I would unsubscribe

[@1Dubbelman]

This says more about how the usage of robots needs to be taxed than minimum wage. If you think about it the other way around: no minimum wage whatsoever=employers that hire people for 2 bucks an hour can get higher profits than competing companies, therefore no stimulus to be paying the least skilled employees anything more than enough to keep them working for you. Minimum wage needs to be according to the basic cost of living in a certain area. First you say it's ridiculous that NYC raised the minimum wage to 15 an hour but then you do admit that life there is a lot more expensive there than other parts of the country. So people in NYC without minimum wage would be the most screwed of all groups in the US. The Big Companies are not just beating the Mom and Pop shops because of their "magical corporation abilities". They beat them because they have their headquarters in tax paradise countries and let most of the stuff they sell get produced in countries with less than 0.5 dollars an hour. If you want the mom and pops shops to have a chance you need to make sure the billion dollar multinationals play by the same rules as them. If governments in Bangladesh, Indonesia etc. started progressively increading minimumwages then the US big companies wouldn't be using all this foreign labour and bring a lot of jobs back to the US. Why does a mom and pop store have to go through all this paperwork+taxes whenever they hire someone while a company that uses robots has to pay 0 dollars in taxes for their "employees"? Economies need to be run to help regular people in their pursuit of happiness not cheap corporations.

[@CrimsonTide001]

This is like arguing over which type of rope makes a better noose. Whether you raise the minimum wage or not, robots are still going to take jobs. Raise the minimum wage, robots take many of the jobs because they are cheaper. Lower the minimum wage and people stop working jobs that pay too low to live on, which are then replaced by robots. You just have to look to history (there are a plethora of examples) where a labor based economy (one where labor has significant worth) transitioned to a resource based economy (where labor has little to no worth) to see the parallels. Technology is just hastening a transition that was already going to happen. But people are too busy arguing over how to prevent it/deny that it exists to realize that we can't go back, and we need to focus on how to move forward. But we all know that'll never happen. The left/right are too busy pointing fingers at each other while the politicians/media on both sides stoke the fire for personal gain.

[@1012films]

Of the historical data we have on US cities raising minimum wage, there has actually been a slight INCREASE in jobs, on average. It's not a huge increase, but certainly not a loss. Raising too much at once could feasibly cause some adjustment issues, but the numbers just don't support the broad claim made here.

[@linxdeal]

NYC is still 13 an hour depending on number of employees

[@Demondragonkinggav]

The other problem is that a few months later after minimum wage goes up all the prices go up. Making the raise pointless.

[@generybarczyk6993]

I'm not sure about the minimum wage, but I _am_ sure that the arguments against the minimum wage presented in this video are almost entirely unsupported by citations of research or agency and are almost exclusively based on _assumed_ common sense and only supported by unrelated analogies. It is a style of pseudo-logical argument that leads you to believe you've seen facts when all that's been demonstrated is an exercise in semantics.

[@marks4982]

When I was telling this to my dad, he said, "if a small company doesn't have enough money to pay workers for a higher minimum wage, they shouldn't be a company"

[@clup3136]

Wages are the price in which we sell our _labour force_ . You can sell it for a high price (=wage) if someone is willing to pay or lower it to be more competitive and get the job instead of another person (the same way someone would lower the price of a car to sell it). This doesn't mean that the price of your labour force will be "cheap" (low wage), if you are more productive (like: experienced worker, talented person, good formation,..) or have _specific_ knowledge you will sell your labour force as expensive (supply&demand: everybody will want something scarce [you]). Another way to achieve higher wages could be to increase the productivity and number of business of a country: more jobs for the same number of workers = supply&demand: higher wages to attract workers

[@savingferris8248]

This show is the best thing on the internets.

[@nickwoo2]

What happens in a couple years when robots are cheaper than a person at $10 an hour or several uears5 after that when they get as cheap as $8 an hour? History has shown that tech gets cheaper and faster every year so what will we do when the cost of robots is cheaper than the wages we pay today? I'm not say raising the minimum wage is a good option here but what is the solution to the exponential rise of automation. That is something that needs to be addressed.

[@orppranator5230]

nickwoo2 uhhh... communism!

[@user-cz9jf1ec8s]

nickwoo2 you should look into the Luddite movement. They're years ahead of their time.

[@janehrahan5116]

There was actually a concern about this back in the second industrial revolution. (The one that reduced ppl in agriculture from 80% to under 20%). This created the retarded... I mean luddite movement. What happened is that work hours in factories went down from 70-80 to the 40 ish we consider standard today. Furthermore science, art and media all exploded in size of labour force relative to the market. In truth the end result will probably be near full automization with only engineers and technicians maintaining the factories (and making a killing doing so) while most people work in arts/science/medicine/new fields we haven't seen yet. Ofc a min wage is bad here and now because this process needs to be gradual so as few people as possible are hurt by it.

[@mythril4]

For one Kuka Ready 2 series Robotic arm, it costs me $7 an hour for the first year and $3 an hour in the second, $1.50 an hour for the third. All ready there!

[@WeavileLady]

Post secondary education will need to be more accessible. That way it will be easier to employ people for specialized fields, and fear progress and “their taking muh jobs”.

[@stevenelliott6123]

Raising the minimum wage just means you have to be richer in order to hire someone, so raising the minimum wage is only good for the rich.

[@worsethanjoerogan8061]

Except that the actual result of these policies is always a loss of hours for minimum wage employees.

[@s45gr32]

It ruined California. The higher minimum wage led to sky high rents: 1 studio went from $1,000 per month in rent to $1,500 per month in rent 😞 Tacos cost now at $1.50 to $2.00 when it used to cost $1.00-$1.25 Food prices went up which led me from shopping at Stater Bros to the 99 cent store for the prices are too high Gas prices are low $2.65 that's good especially since pre-Covid 19 was $4.00 a gallon on January 😭 Skeleton crews have appeared in most restaurants. Where one worker cleans tables, runs food, takes orders and washes dishes. Automation is taking hold in the form of more cashless cashiers, apps that do everything like online banking. DMV is slowly moving to automation. I say the minimum wage should of stayed at $10.00.

[@ItsGroundhogDay]

Being a giant company doesn't mean anything. Most of these fast food or retail businesses have profit margins in the 2-3% range. The example used (Starbucks) at least doesn't franchise, but they don't have twice as much money to spend on employees either.

[@m7silvestri]

Holy shit. I have never seen a KZbin video that makes so much sense. I have been saying this since 2013.

[@Absolutelynope87]

Italy doesn't have a minimum wage at all and in fact we have a thriving economy and almost no unemployment especially between the younger population. Except... The economy is failing and the unemployment is at 12% and grows to 40% for the younger. Peoples are still unemployed and the ones that do work can't afford nothing. I did work 4 months once for 300 Euro at month working between 10-12 hours at day with one day off. No overtime counted since that was a salary. It was either that or nothing. The concept work on a idealistic model but when confronted with reality the economy is a little more complicated than that.

[@marcos.conquer]

Such a fun and informative video! Keep up the good work 😀💪

[@brovahkiin4302]

I think there is a balance between a minimum wage that guarantees the absolute basics of living, and not too high so companies see no incentive to fire people. If you're the only small business in you town, that can actually offer jobs to people, you shouldn't be able to pay them 5$/hour

[@mintsaturn]

I'm more than halfway through and they haven't mentioned inflation once.

[@p0llenp0ny]

Don't like inflation? Tell the government to stop overspending.

[@MrLastlived]

Because inflation flattens with the flow of wealth in an economy. More money in the middle and lower means those classes spend more. Growth of business is based on what they generate and what they can then spend on to generate more of. Meaning more workers and more products and more money. Inflation goes down, as the growth adjusts for the new flow in the economy. It stagnates the first year or two, then improves. It's a trend in almost every city that raises wages.

[@goncalotorres3623]

I really like this video and mostly weakly as a whole, but can you provide links to the sources for the statistics and data used in the video? i actually agree with you and would like to research this better.

[@michaelhalejr516]

All that would be solved by a workers council. *takes care of wages *takes care of hours & jobs since they use machines to lower hours, increase pay and let the working class use the extra time to construct a better society

[@shimi3065]

Saw goldstar beer in the beer photo and got excited. How the hell did that end up in your video?

[@chrispreston256]

That's the point. Getting rid of all the competition

[@jimbo9305]

I totally agree on making laws based on their effect and not the intention.

[@pnachtwey]

There shouldn't be a minimum wage. Some jobs aren't worth $15/hr. Also, it takes ONLY ONE person that thinks you are worth $15/Hr to get $15/HR. If NO ONE thinks you are worth $15/HR then it is unanimous. Minimum wage is yet another government regulation used to control businesses BTW, my company makes products for automation. Raising the minimum wage has always been good for the automation business.

[@bigjay461]

Was always against min wage but the robots changed my mind. Go home and sit on the couch. I'll be an automation technician. Bwahaha.

[@ryuranzou]

Even in larger cities like New York the minimum wage has costed lots of people jobs. Car wash employees there lost their jobs and started working illegally out of vans.

[@philiplavery03]

I like the ladder example!!

[@macsnafu]

Skip raising the minimum wage; let's go straight to building Skynet!

[@alexanderhilary]

I'm a liberal and I enjoy the discussion. I hear ya. The question is what level is appropriate for the minimum wage in different parts of the country?

[@PvblivsAelivs]

I tend to favor a universal basic income. While increasing minimum wage may speed up the push to automation, that push is there regardless.

[@Baker.Matthew]

Automation is what this world needs. Don't make it a punishment for raising minimum wage. It give the low skill labor something else to do that society needs.