12-25-2016, 09:10 PM
(12-25-2016, 06:21 PM)TnT Wrote:(12-23-2016, 08:42 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Studies that I have heard of say that higher minimum wages increase jobs, because when people are paid better, they buy more and thus create jobs for the businesses.
The problem arises in the difference between macro-economics and micro. Sure, at the macro level, macro demand "trickles down" to individual businesses, creating more demand, maybe, if the particular business has something to sell that is aligned with the larger economy.
The trouble is, in an individual business, paying out more money for the same amount of revenue in the short term simply brings pressure on the business. If the business is doing very well, it may have enough slack to watch its higher-paid wages to come circling back in the form of higher demand, someday. If it's a struggling business, not.
Forcing business, expecially small to medium sized business to pay out more is likely not the best answer. The better answer is to drive demand into the system using the government as employer of last resort, and as a stimulus supplier. This works better ... drive up demand for all goods and services, which in turn drives up revenues for business which drives up demand for labor which finally and most best ... drives up wages.
Simply, and only, increasing wages is the same thing from the labor side as supply side is to the business side. Demand is what finally drives the system. And stimulating demand is the best solution.
It's got to be both. You're probably right that imposing higher wages on struggling small business by itself would hurt business unless there is also government employment and stimulus. With both together, both will work, and that has always been the Democratic Party platform.
There is no justification for any business not to pay a living wage for work. The minimum wage, accounting for inflation, is nowhere near what it used to be. And this brings all wages down. The minimum wage raises are a necessity. I think you have seen a possible problem with them though in the short term, because minimum wages can be and are being raised on a local and state level, whereas national stimulus is not going to happen.
The problem of course is that the voters are not smart; they fall for a liar like Trump, and liars like the Republicans, so these solutions have to wait unless and until the voters wise up. These solutions will not be possible again until sometime in the 2020s.
I'm looking at 2022 as an especially good year for the Democrats, whether Trump is still in office or not. If Republicans are re-elected to the White House in 2020, then 2022 is the 6th year of the term, which always benefits the opposing party. In this case, progressive winds will also be blowing.
The question is what happens in 2020, and I'm not ready to make any kind of prediction yet about the White House. But if Trump is re-elected, or there is a GOP successor elected, the Democrats could still make a lot of gains in congress that year.