From recent events in the UK & US it is clear that something is wrong with capitalism and the way current governments operate. How can we make it better? Minimum wage may be part of the answer, but what else?
Political power is concentrated among a small group of people. This happened because of centralisation of and amalgamation governments and corporations. To reverse it, logically you'd just have to reverse this trend. Break up the EU. Break up the corporations. We might sit here and think it's people like to do "dumb" things like elect volatile politicians like Trump and Sanders to upset the status quo, or do "dumb" moves like leaving the European Union. I'd like to say people are a smarter than we think. I am one of the people, and I think people will figure things out by themselves, just fine. Don't worry. Be happy. :)
I think you first have to rethink your assumption of what capitalism is. What we have now is clearly not capitalism. If it were, the biggest banks would not have gotten bigger after the 2008 financial meltdown.
Well first you need to identify the problem you're trying to solve. "something is wrong with capitalism and the way current governments operate" is completely arbitrary and meaningless.
Every time you raise minimum wage people lose jobs. You raise wages prices go up, prices go up people buy less. people buy less, you don't need as many people.
That's one effect. How about "Raise wages - people have more money. They spend more - business expands. Business expands, they hire more. Jobs are created."
Both processes happen. And more. Its not simple. But its the right thing to do, to increase the standard of living for the most vulnerable among us.
>> But its the right thing to do, to increase the standard of living for the most vulnerable among us.
Minimum wage decreases the standard of living for the most vulnerable. i.e. physically or mentally disabled persons, people who have been in prisons, unskilled labor, new immigrants with language difficulties. The minimum wage forces them to provide a minimum price for their labor services, resulting in unemployment.
You want to hire a person for a typical minimum wage job - would you pick a high school graduate at the minimum wage, or a physically disabled high school graduate at the minimum wage? The minimum wage just gave the latter the shaft because they can't negotiate to get the position for a lower wage.
For the slightly less than most vulnerable, then yes, minimum wage is a good thing. It's cannibalisation of the most vulnerable by the second most vulnerable.
When you raise the minimum wage, businesses that serve poor people benefit. As you get further and further from chicken, weed, and used cars businesses benefit less and less.
