The most severe problem is that democratic socialists propose a raise in the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour. Again, this sounds great in theory. We’ve all heard the argument that everyone deserves a living wage on which to raise their family. The problem with that argument is that these jobs are not and should not be designed to support a family. Minimum wage jobs are designed to give workers new to the job market training and a job to get by. An economy cannot function without some jobs that are worse than others. If every job could support a family luxuriously, there would be no reason to attempt to go further in a career. If a $15 minimum wage is enacted, many jobs would be destroyed. Through simple supply and demand economics, an increase in wages and thus the supply of labor must yield a decrease in demand for labor. The result of this would be an unprecedented increase in unemployment. This hurts the population that the minimum wage is trying to help. Ask yourself, would you rather make $7.25 an hour or be out of a job while some people are making $15 an hour? Another effect would be an increase in prices on goods for everyone. We cannot assume that business owners would accept the increased cost of doing business and just continue pricing it regularly, thus taking a profit hit. Businesses will raise prices and pass this increased cost onto the consumer. These problems affect the population as a whole, thus offsetting the benefit that the minimum wage is supposedly creating for the
The most severe problem is that democratic socialists propose a raise in the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour. Again, this sounds great in theory. We’ve all heard the argument that everyone deserves a living wage on which to raise their family. The problem with that argument is that these jobs are not and should not be designed to support a family. Minimum wage jobs are designed to give workers new to the job market training and a job to get by. An economy cannot function without some jobs that are worse than others. If every job could support a family luxuriously, there would be no reason to attempt to go further in a career. If a $15 minimum wage is enacted, many jobs would be destroyed. Through simple supply and demand economics, an increase in wages and thus the supply of labor must yield a decrease in demand for labor. The result of this would be an unprecedented increase in unemployment. This hurts the population that the minimum wage is trying to help. Ask yourself, would you rather make $7.25 an hour or be out of a job while some people are making $15 an hour? Another effect would be an increase in prices on goods for everyone. We cannot assume that business owners would accept the increased cost of doing business and just continue pricing it regularly, thus taking a profit hit. Businesses will raise prices and pass this increased cost onto the consumer. These problems affect the population as a whole, thus offsetting the benefit that the minimum wage is supposedly creating for the