During one of my very rare and desperate for food visits to a McDonalds recently I observed the workers and said to myself, would I pay these people $10.10 an hour or amazingly $15.00 an hour as some workers are demanding? Then I asked myself why would anyone?
Is this outdated, uncaring thinking? I think not. One should be paid for what they bring to the job, the skills, enthusiasm, productivity, etc.
Just to be clear $15.00 an hour is $31,200 a year or to put it another way very close to the starting salary for a teacher.
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The problem is two-fold, the minimum wage needs to be raised to a “living” wage, and teachers’ wages also need to be increased. Higher wage earners have control of their lower-wage counterparts’ income, but instead they choose to give themselves large increases at the expense of others. To believe that any one person is completely responsible for the success of a business is unrealistic and those who compensate themselves under that false impression are kidding themselves.
A perfect example would be the Wall Street vandals who gave themselves multi-billion dollar bonuses. Because they “can”. The greed is disgusting. It is so out of control that the few have enough money to support themselves 1,000 times over whereas others can’t make enough money to feed their own families.
No one is THAT brilliant. It is so disproportionate that all of your rationalizing makes no sense. If we were talking of people who all made only $300k and below, it would be a completely different story.
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Well, you have one valid point. Some of the senior people at companies are not worth what they are paid, but that is the fault of the board of directors and shareholders and has nothing to do with what average people earn. Also, you are right that no one person is responsible for the success of an organization. However, your view reflects populist myths. Out of 300 million people in the US there are only hundreds of people who earn many millions each year that make the headlines. In addition, most of that compensation is not cash, but in stock or stock appreciation rights of some type which means their compensation is linked to the success of the company, albeit some are still overpaid.
As for teachers, that’s an easy fix. All that needs to happen is for citizens to be willing to pay higher taxes to pay higher salaries. And if we want to raise the minimum wage, that’s ok too, just recognize that too means higher prices for everyone. All this is connected, there is no such thing as cutting the pay of executives and magically everyone else earns more. I calculated that if the average pay of all employees at Walmart was increased to $15.00 an hour it would equal the Company’s entire profit in a year. What do you think that would do to their prices that people expect when shopping there? If you want to earn more, you learn more, you do more, you contribute more, you work more hours otherwise you are still going nowhere.
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Why would anybody…… you ask? Based upon the latest nlrb ruling this is no longer a franchisee issue… but …..the Micky D corporation itself! So efforts to unionize are well under way. Some of these workers aren’t even worth 15 cents an hour.But lets not forget many of these workers are adults (not kids) with families to support.I ask will the increase in wages produce a better , more motivated, efficient crew of employees or will i still have to wait for them to make a new pot of coffee every time i visit? With the inevitable rise in operating expenses, i think we can safely kiss the one dollar “any size” cup of coffee goodbye.
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Mr. Quinn – let me help you understand an economic principle – if the many employees of a large corporation are toiling at such a low level of compensation that they cannot afford to buy that company’s products, that company is destined to fail – see the recent earnings of Wal-Mart and remember Henry Ford
Secondly, the Republican congress members are creating a situation in which unskilled workers cannot work enough hours to survive much less have money for job training for a better future – their voting rights are also being denied by Republicans which means that they cannot pursue democratic solutions to elect people who will help them to break out of their down trodden poverty – Republicans have also slashed food stamp benefits for these poor people, however, Republicans have made it easily possible for any of these oppressed people to obtain assault rifles – what would you expect starving people with assault rifles to do? – Senator Kennedy famously asked, “When will the greed stop?” –
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Again you don’t focus on the point. Are you saying burger flippers are worth the same as teachers? As far as Walmart profits go, raising their workers to an average of $15.00 an hour wipes out their entire profit. And what about the millions of Americans who count on low Walmart prices. And as far as Henry Ford goes, that story about him giving raises so workers could buy Ford cars is a myth. He did give raises, but not for the reason spread by the myth.
The route to success is not simply raising the minimum wage (although I don’t care if they do), the route is to get out of a low paying dead end job. Liberals create the impression that raising the wage will solve all kinds of problems and help the middle class. Well, what happens when prices for goods and services rise to offset the higher wages? As I said before, they are treading water, getting nowhere. I have read too that raising the wage is supported by small businesses because it improves productivity, lowers turnover and is good for business. If that’s all true, why don’t business just pay more voluntarily? Because they would be at a competitive disadvantage? Well, if that too is true, then prices are going to go up are they not? Mr Wilson you too easily buy into the lefts ideology of naive human behavior and blindness to unintended consequences.
Dick
Richard D Quinn
Blog http://www.quinnscommentary.com Twitter @quinnscomments
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