Here We Go Again

And again with the minimum wage.

Preliminary data for 2011 indicates that the unemployment rate for 16-19 year olds in New York was 24.8% and for 20-24 year olds it was 12.8%. And we're going to create jobs by forcing employers to pay these people, the true target audience of minimum wage, entry level jobs, more.

I liked the claims in the papers about how raising the minimum wage will create jobs. How about making it $30/hr? Boy will that create more jobs! Everyone making less than $30/hr now will be making $30/hr, just think how much they'll be able to spend! What could go wrong?

Remember when Price Chopper noted that fewer than 1 in 25 of their employees worked for minimum wage - and they were basically part time teenagers?

The Times Union decided to roll out one of the least representative places in the nation as an example of how a high minimum wage isn't harmful...San Francisco. Except they forgot to mention the ridiculous cost of living there and how, even at $10/hr the minimum wage is still lamented as not a living wage. Perspective?

And what is this 'tied to inflation' thing? If you make it more expensive to do business, you have to raise prices, so inflation goes up. So minimum wages go up. So it's more expensive to do business, so you raise prices, so inflation goes up. Is this making any sense in a way that can be explained in a way that makes sense?

I dunno, it just makes me tired. Since when was minimum wage supposed to be a "living wage"? Almost no one is living on minimum wage (well, they weren't before the Obamaconomy), it's for teenagers and entry level jobs that most people get promoted from within 6 months. It just reminds of welfare...remember when welfare was supposed to be a brief helping hand to get people through a rough time between jobs, etc? Yeah, now it's a way of life with generations never seeing any income beyond welfare, entire neighborhoods supported by a "temporary" helping hand.

Redefining America down. Sad.