Quote:Are people not free to select where they work?  If they're not making enough money at a job, they are not prevented from seeking employment elsewhere for a higher wage.  I know any time I've wanted to improve my financial situation, I've taken it upon myself to take the initiative to do so, and I haven't relied on the government to make sure I'm making a living wage.  I'm addressing that on my own. 

 

A company will pay low wages to those willing to accept them.  If they want to improve their situation, there's nothing preventing them from doing so.  As objectionable as liberals find it, the purpose of a company is not to create jobs for people.  The primary purpose is to create profits and to generate a good return for investors.  The goal of any company is to minimize costs in order to maximize profits.  Why liberals begrudge companies for making profits is beyond me, but somehow it's considered greedy.  I always enjoy it when libs try to vilify big oil for profiteering.  In the end, the profit margin these companies see on the revenue they generate is about 3% or so.  The government actually benefits more than these private companies do because of the taxes they generate, but you don't hear anyone complaining that the government is profiteering.  They shred Walmart for not paying people $15 an hour, but they ignore the fact that Walmart has created more private sector jobs in 1 year than the federal government has in probably 50 years.

 

Companies aren't obligated to pay anything beyond what is currently the minimum wage.  Someone mentioned the need for a thriving middle class.  Unfortunately, for someone in that category, the tax burden they have to endure creates almost a disincentive.  Those who are living at or near the poverty level get all sorts of tax credits.  In the end, they don't pay a dime in taxes.  Those on the high end of the scale have all sorts of deductions at their disposal, and an income that allows them the ability to minimize their tax burden.  Still, they're paying the lion's share of taxes.  The bottom 50% of taxpayers pay 3% of all income taxes.  The top 10% pay nearly 70%.  The progressive tax structure we have currently punishes those who achieve more at a much higher percentage than it does those who do not. 

 

The middle class has almost disappeared under this administration.  He talks a good game about income equality while the disparity between haves and have nots has grown wider and wider under his watch.  That's a simple fact.  Liberals for whatever reason can't seem to distinguish between lip service and action when it comes to their messiah.  They're told who to hate, and what to say, and they simply act like good little lemmings, chirping the talking points they've been fed.  These are the same people who believe it when they hear idiots like Pelosi saying expanded unemployment benefits is really a stimulus to the economy.  They hear the unemployment number is going down but they don't bother to recognize that most of the jobs being created are part time, or that the real reason behind the shrinking unemployment number has more to do with people giving up looking.  Once they do, they're no longer counted.  With the labor participation rate at it's lowest level in decades, that has more of an impact on the numbers than any fantasy jobs being created. 

 

The New Deal dragged the Great Depression out for 15 years.  The same kind of policies have made this one of the slowest economic recoveries in the history of this nation.

 

This argument ignores the fact that there are many more people needing work than there are non minimum wage jobs. That is the problem. Profits should not be more important then the lives of workers. If all that are available are jobs paying next to nothing do you not take the job? If you have responsibilities you cannot do that you must take that job even if it does not cover family expenses. How do you do justify profits going up exponentially but not wages? Cost of living but not wages? Some large companies are able to deal with this, places like Cosco. Then you have others that squeeze their employees for everything they can to make a few extra bucks. How is that ok to you?

 

Profits AND reasonable wages can coexist. 

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