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Will increasing minimum wage cost significant job loss?
(CNN) - Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a top legislative and political priority of Democrats, a bill to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.
The measure failed to gain enough support in a procedural vote to open debate.
In framing the issue ahead of November's midterm elections, Democrats have portrayed the GOP as insensitive to the needs of low-wage workers.
Polls show a strong majority of Americans surveyed back raising the minimum wage, which currently stands at $7.25.
Even if the Senate had moved ahead with the legislation, there was little chance the House, which is led by Republicans, would have taken it up.
Still, Democrats are vowing to return to the issue, which would boost the wage over time.
"This is an uphill fight, but it isn't over yet," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren after the vote.
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Author, documentary filmmaker, historian, Speaker of the House (1995-1999), and 2012 Republican presidential candidate
Fmr. Obama Deputy Campaign Mgr. and W.H. Sr. Adviser, founder of Precision Strategies, fmr. Sr. Adviser to Maj. Leader Reid and Sen. Kennedy
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Minimum wage should have been increased years ago to $10.00.
According to the Bureau of Labor & Statistics, In 2013, Almost 80 million in the U.S. were paid hourly wages. One and a half million of those earned minimum wages. Another 1.8 million earned below minimum wage.
When FDR signed the first minimum wage bill into law (1938) it was a quarter per hour. In 1968 minimum wage had it’s largest purchasing power which adjusted for inflation would be at $ 10.56 today. Many would argue that raising the minimum wage would hurt small businesses who cannot afford the costs of labor at a higher wage. They feel that it would cause those businesses to lay off workers and make cut backs causing further trauma to the economy and workforce. However, states such as New Mexico and San Francisco have sucessfully raised their “living” wages( Santa Fe $10.66) (San Fran $10.74) Both saw no affects from businesses either way. In fact, employee production and business activity positively increased especially in retail. What does this demonstrate when individual cities can take matters into their own hands and increase living wages above the federal standards? It clearly suggests that doing so nationwide should likely have no ill affects on the labor force meaning labor demand. Can businesses really expect to keep turn over down and productivity up if they can’t afford a decent living wage for employees? A low retention rate will only yield higher overhead costs in regards to recruiting and training. The argument should not focus soley on businesses that will ultimately pass the costs of higher wages to their customers anyway, but rather the argument should be among each establishment can an individual legitimately live off the current wage? Can I expect a decent healthy well minded employee? Low skilled workers have to live as well. Higher skilled workers who shun the idea of an increase may very well have to examine their own worth of labor and decide if it is befitting of their wages. There is no easy fix to the debate but a step in the right direction would be to meet the current labor price with some inflation adjustment and gradually adjust as fit.....
Great article!! One of the few Americans still concerned with fighting for the workers. I'd like to see every executive living in the US provide for their family and lifestyle on $8.25/hr or even $15/hr for just 1-year. Good Luck! Oh and let us see them find a new job while being worked to death. I am still confused as to how the minimum wage is not an anti-trust infringement. The minimum wage is basically pricing fixing the labor market, with the government as the controller and companies following suit. The American consumer is just as much at fault, buying crap in exchange for their hard earned work money. Rendering a vicious cycle to $0.00/hr. As the US citizens are becoming wiser through this decades long experience, the worker will be relevant again. Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying "A society that does not value work/labor, is a society that is failing"
From reading the comments I've determined a good few of you are economically illiterate and should read an econ book before commenting.
I recommend "economics in one lesson" by Henry Hazlitt.
For example, a very blatant and repeated fallacy "if we don't have minimum wage we'll all be paid $.50c per hour!!" incorrect, if this were true, no one would be paid over minimum wage. There is competition for labor, that sets labor prices.
Another serious fallacy is thinking that government can improve labor in any sense. Beurocracy by definition adds red tape and increases cost, this is paid for by taxes (from both employees and employers.) it will also limit job creation (there is a plethora of data supporting this.)
Singapore has no minimum wage and some of the highest wages in the world.
No, I'm not a Republican, Democrat, libertarian or any other political party. So good luck vilifying me for being in the opposing cult.
Violence is wrong, I will not support a system that cannot exist without violence. You shouldn't either.
Ciao
Why don't democrats just agree with OWS like they did before and have $100.00 an hr jobs?
This article has a misleading name. It does not talk about job loss at all.
Pretty simple.. If you pay more, you have to charge more, if you charge more you will sell less, and without selling your product, where does that leave minimum wage ? At the bottom.....
Not that simple actually.
There are three factors to consider.
1. Expense
2. Revenue
3. Profit
Businesses try to maximize revenue and minimize expenses in order to get the most profit. Pretty simple right?
But the thing you have to understand is that revenue is a factor of price and volume of sales. In general, when you raise the price, the volume of sales goes down... and vice versa. Expenses also work that way (the larger the volume produced, the higher the variable expenses are... though the fixed expenses don't change). There's a sweet spot where the total amount of profit (revenue minus expense) is maximized.
Raising the minimum wage could cause it to be unprofitable to remain in business... but it doesn't change the price you can charge to sell a given amount of product. Because of that, there's NO impact to the amount of volume sold to maximize profit... and no change to the price to sell that volume.
So where does the increase in expense come from? It comes from the profit. Revenues are flat. Volume is flat. Price is flat. Revenues go up... and profit goes down.
The thing you have to realize is that companies are going to charge as much as they can for their product to maximize the profit REGARDLESS of what they have to pay employees. They aren't going to leave profit on the table. The only way for the price point to change is for demand to change. If demand goes up (because people have more money), then the profit maximizing price point could increase. But the factor that prices rise by due to increasing income is much lower then the increase in earnings. Those who don't get a wage increase (already making more) do suffer a small decrease in purchasing power, but it definitely helps those below that line significantly.
You are incorrect, most of what you said is close however. When the wages increase, your variable costs go up, since most minimum wage jobs are per hour and are needed to be paid only while your product is being produced. Most minimum wage jobs are not fixed costs. So it would be more profitable for many companies who just had an increase in minimum wage to increase their prices, sell less total volume, but not work their employees as long of hours. Yes they would have total revenue that was lower, but the total profit would be higher.
Of course each company is different and this decision wouldn't be the same for each company.
So just to clarify by your point of view,..... Then lowering the minimum wage to $0.50/hr would create a huge financial boom time for American workers. Got it.
I was going to be condescending in my response to you, but I feel it would be rude considering the circumstances.
If your logic is correct, why is it that so few people have minimum wage jobs, and the majority of employed people are hired above minimum wage?
Shouldn't everyone be getting $7.25/hour, since that's the legally required minimum? Why pay more??
Giving 25 employees a $2.85 raise will cost $160K.
75 employees will cost $480K.
160 workers will cost over $1 million!
So, do ALL employees get the same $2.85 raise, or just the lowest level ones? Is it fair to give long-term employees an effective PAY CUT just to satisfy election-year politics? Where will small businesses, the ones without multi-billion profits and CEOs with golden parachutes, get the money?
----------------
Here are the numbers with no fudging (FICA payroll taxes are currently 7.65%):
25 workers * $2.85 raise * 40-hour week * 52 weeks + FICA payroll taxes = $159,537.30 additional payroll expense
75 workers * $2.85 raise * 40-hour week * 52 weeks + FICA payroll taxes = $478,611.90 additional payroll expense
160 workers * $2.85 raise * 40-hour week * 52 weeks + FICA payroll taxes = $1,021,038.72 additional payroll expense
A small business with 25 employees must "find" an additional $160K in its budget to give everyone a $2.85 pay raise.
25 workers * $2.85 * 40-hour week * 52 weeks + FICA payroll taxes = $159,537.30
5 entry-level employees @ $7.25/hour
15 mid-level workers @ $9.00/hour
5 top-level workers @ $10.00/hour
The top-level workers get an "automatic" pay raise of 10 cents. The mid-level workers get $1.10 raise. The entry-level workers get a $2.85 raise. Turn all 25 employees into "minimum wage" employees? Doing that would only raise payroll by $89K dollars.
But is it fair for the employees who were making $2.75 above the $7.25 minimum wage to suddenly be "equal" with entry-level workers again? Of course not. That's why they must also get a $2.85 raise to maintain some semblance of fairness.
Where can small companies "find" $160K just laying around?
With people now making more money due to the increase in the minimum wage they will now have more money to spend on goods and services thereby increasing the small business owners influx of money which will pay for the increase.
I like numbers too. Try this formula for figuring out whether or not the value of your time is adequately compensated.
A human working 40 hours a week at 7.25 per hour.
8 hours per day of their life
5 days a week of their life
to make you profit.
At the end of the year that is $15,080. Let's say the human pays rent of $1000. Most people take this and multiply by 12 and say whoa that's a lot per year of what they got. I'd like to take a different approach.
Pay: 7.25 x 8 x 5 x 52 = 15080 / 365 = $41.315 per day to live on
Rent: $1000 x 12 / 365 = $32.876 per day for shelter
Low estimate of electric bill : $50 x 12 / 365 = 1.643 per day for power
Let's throw in a phone to be extravagant, but nothing fancy = $50 x 12 / 365 = 1.643 per day to be able to communicate
Now we may need transportation but let's not go crazy now! $50 x 12 / 365 = 1.643 per day to get to places like say a low paying job.
What's left? Let's see.... 32.876 + 1.643 + 1.643 + 1.643 = $37.808 per day to survive at a bare bare minimum
From our fat budget of $41.315 – 37.808 = $3.506 that should help with food but probably nothing much else.
Is that all our time and effort to make others big profits worth?
Before you attack the logic or math – think before you speak. There are countless reasons to be in a minimum wage job. No one scenario can nullify the numbers. No single group of people or the things you have to say about others can render the truth irrelevant. People are working to barely survive. Don't bring in Public Assistance because it's a chicken and egg distraction with no finish line. Strip that away and you see exactly what some elected officials and bosses feel your time your life is worth. Oh – and don't forget they put you in the group that they call lazy.., etc
All the while your pay is telling you that that's the least that can be done. The very minimum they can carve out for your time. And only because the law says they have to pay you that much. Don't like it? Go elsewhere.
Meanwhile actual politicians are treating you like the scum of the earth for being in such a low paying job. They rally their constituents to do the same. To actual living human beings who are citizens of this nation just as they are. The world is just hunky dory and if you are in a minimum wage job you don't deserve much because it's the bare minimum to motivate you and make you feel like you can conquer the world. But if you complain – then we'll spit on you and humiliate you publicly and nationally.
Did I get the numbers wrong? Well a good way to communicate and really discuss would be to help fix the numbers to get a realistic view of what human time is worth.... at the bare minimum... while making others profitable.
1000 dollars for rent? They could at least get a roommate, or compromise and live in a less expensive apartment. 500 dollars is what most of the cheaper ones where I live cost. I would be grateful for a minimum wage job like the one you described. It will be a lot harder for companies to hire people and give them hours. It's already hard enough to find a job.
NO it will not, all everyone has to do is look at the States that have raised there M.W. in say the past 3years you see the answer that in fact it increased the number of jobs.
Another win for Republican/Corporate America, another loss for the American people. Any company that thinks it is justified in paying just the minimum wage doesn't value its employees. If the company thinks it cannot pay more, then maybe it deserves to go out of business because it probably is not making much to start with. It should raise its prices and share with its employees showing up loyally every day.
Of course not and you know why???
Because democrats say so.
So then by your point of view, lowering the minimum wage to $0.50/hr would create a huge financial boom time for American workers.
Minnie Mouse
Businesses will have to do something to offset the huge wage increase in payroll. Businesses will hire less people, hire no more people, reduce hours, and or consolidate jobs to where people are doing the jobs of two or three people for the same pay, raise consumer prices, small businesses could flat out go out of business ect.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Minnie – I prefer to look at it like this: Businesses will have to do something to deal with the increase in sales caused by working people actually being able to afford to purchase things other than the bare necessities. They will have to hire more people or increase their workers hours to handle the increased business – these people will in turn have more money to spend, which will cause an even greater increase business, which will cause businesses to hire even more people, and so on and so on.....................
Once again as a nation, we have been GOP-blocked!
Only money spent and circulated within our economy creates jobs which is why the middle class must be grown for America to grow again.
It saddens me that republicans spend so much time talking about democrats that they dont even have a clue what republicans have accomplished?
Miss-leadership, Phony scandals like Benghazi and IRS, phony ads with actors misinforming the masses about ACA–the Republican way. The coalition of the rich and the stupid won this one.
It amazing that after three failed presidencies, Republicans still have no better economic policy than to give more taxpayer money to the wealthy and corporations.
There may be better days ahead for Democrats, but, for now, it is the old guys such as Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and the Koch brothers who hold the nation’s future in their hands, “GOD HELP US ALL”!
Wake up people both parties are selling us out – This minimum wage stuff is just meaningless tokenism by the Dems – President Obama was just in the far east. Do you think that he even once brought up tariffs and protective measures that we need to put in place to protect American jobs and industries or did they just make things even worse by secretly working on pushing through the new disastrous and traitorous TPP "Free Trade" deal?
We need to fix the root of the problem first.
I noticed you did not mention any of the democrat fat cats giving to democrat candidates, hum wonder why. To the point here is what will happen. If the wage is raised people will lose hours, jobs, the union wage will go up, cost of living in all areas will go up so even though a few may have a couple more dollars in their hands it does no good. The way to help everyone is to create jobs and educate the populace, something dems care nothing about.
Just to clarify your point of view.... Lowering the minimum wage to $0.50/hr would create a huge financial boom time for American workers. Got it.
Sorry I missed the phoney scandal bs. Really no I mean really. With all the evidence that is out now, even libitard supposed news agencies are actually reporting on the phoney scandals, and you are ignorant enough to believe there is no substance to the allegations. You really need to get off the medications.
Businesses will have to do something to offset the huge wage increase in payroll. Businesses will hire less people, hire no more people, reduce hours, and or consolidate jobs to where people are doing the jobs of two or three people for the same pay, raise consumer prices, small businesses could flat out go out of business ect.
There will be drastic and huge consequences that we all will have to pay in one form or another, from our government not keeping up with the cost of living wages for years.
"Will increasing minimum wage cost significant job loss"? No, corporate greed and corruption, has and always will be the main reason for the cost of significant "job Loss" in this country! 🙁
No.
The reason it won't is that the business of a business is to maximize profit. Because of that, businesses hire as few employees as possible to get the job done. They aren't in business to stimulate the economy, create jobs or be good corporate citizens... they want PROFIT.
So, they are already constantly evaluating their workforce to keep it as small as possible so that they pay less for salary expense and keep more for profit. Raising the minimum wage would only cause jobs to be lost if the increases in minimum wages can't be passed on to the customer and causes the business to be unprofitable or to become such a low profit as to not be worth the effort.
There will be a few businesses that were on the border of being unprofitable that could fold because of this. But it will be statistically a very small percentage.
Now at some point it WOULD have a big impact... for example 40 dollars an hour would make a LOT of businesses unprofitable. But 10? Very few would be impacted.
Keep in mind... 10 dollars an hour today would convert to about 3.05 an hour in 1979 using the CPI inflation calculator. Minimum wage was 2.90 back then.
Exactly.
Minimum wage is driven by cost of living alone, which has gone up substantially. Companies won't fire workers because that means less product sold and less money made.
Minimum wage workers have more money, so they contribute more to the economy, allowing more workers to be hired at businesses and more money to change hands. Thus a significant population is now happier, and has been put to use in the economy. This creates a positive feedback loop, and allows for prosperity for all citizens of America.
If labor costs more then employers will have to cut their labor force and or raise prices to make up for it to stay solvent. Higher labor prices makes us less completive in the international market place. Raising minimum wage is inflationary and such inflation hurts the middle class. Those receiving the minimum wage pay increase will do better for a time but the induced inflation will soon catch up to them Inflation hurts all those who try to better their lot by saving their money. The rich can afford to invest in inflation hedges but not the poor and much of the middle class. For example the federal government has been doing all it can to keep interest rates low which hurts middle class savers but funnels money into the stock market which is a boon to rich investors.
The problem with this kind of thinking is this:
If employers are capable of raising prices or cutting labor costs, they already do that. That's the entire point of business... maximizing profit for the owner. This is done by lowering expenses (such as payroll) and raising revenue (through price increases) to the extent that greatest maximizes profit.
All the minimum wage does is put an artificial floor on how low they can lower prices (as opposed to the supply of labor creating that floor). SOME businesses will not be able to be profitable without dirt cheap labor, but very few fall in that category.
The inflationary impact of a modest minimum wage increase (which this is) is minimal. It doesn't come from an increase in prices to "make up for the wage increase". Again... if the business could raise prices they already would have done so. It comes from the increased demand that comes from a well paid bottom end of the work force. But that inflationary negative is more then wiped out by the positives from that demand... which increases job growth due to industries producing more products and services that the better paid workforce wants to buy.
When adjusted for inflation, a 10 dollar minimum wage is nearly the same as the minimum wage we had in 1979. Government needs to pass a minimum wage increase and index it to the CPI or some other inflation measurement so they don't have to mess with it again. It's a net economic positive (as the demand increase spurs business development), and it's a net social positive as well by actually making working for pay even at a bottom end job be more desirable then living off public assistance.
The plan of... "we want to cut entitlements but we also want to allow employers to pay you next to nothing and we want to take away your ability to unionize to get higher wages" simply doesn't leave much room for those at the lower end of the income spectrum to prosper in this country.
The American People deserve leaders that will honor the fact that they are elected by the Citizens of the United States of America to represent the interests of those citizens and the country itself and that They are NOT Elected By or To Represent the Global Market Place, Lobbyist, Foreign citizens or Illegal Aliens.
Economic Fairness for the American People and the Real American Economy: It's called Tariffs, VAT and Protecting Our Southern Border.
Unfortunately our politicians are a joke – Only it's not so funny, because over the past several decades, all they've been doing is screwing the American people, by stalling, spending, removing protections and allowing illegal aliens to continue to pour in and American jobs and industry to pour out, and all while collecting their American tax-payer funded pay checks, benefits and whatever else they get on the side from their various lobbyist friends.
Foreign Lobbyists here in the US promote sending US jobs to countries like China, India, Mexico, etc. where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations. It also doesn't help us compete when Chinese company's factories are subsidized by China's Communist government.
Just check out the current Chinese extreme pollution issues – We all live in the same world, but not every country plays by the same rules.
Regardless of what the Free-Traitors keep trying to sell us, we can see what's real. The American People need to just trust their own instincts, common sense and what they've seen actually going on all around them versus all of the nonsense that the Free-Traitors are still trying to sell us.
The ONLY REAL FIX for our great country is to RAISE REVENUE, by Bringing Back Businesses and Jobs to TAX-PAYING AMERICAN CITIZENS.
Nowadays it's obviously not about being either lazy or uneducated as many try to profess, but about wages, expenses and regulations that are not even remotely close to the wages, expenses and regulations in our country.
Over the last 25-years, our government has allowed our country's industries to get sucked out to countries like Communist China, India, Mexico, etc and allowed illegal aliens and H-1B foreigners to come into our country and take away tax-paying Americans jobs and wages.
The bottom line is that "Our Government" has to protect American jobs and domestic industry – If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.
The American People need Our Leaders to start remembering that they are elected by the Citizens of the United States of America to represent the interests of those citizens and the country itself.
They are NOT elected by or to represent the Global Market Place, Lobbyist, Foreign citizens or Illegal Aliens.
Unfortunately we can't just raise the minimum wage unless we start improving the overall business environment and employment picture. Especially not to the $11, $12, or $15 per hour that some of these people are talking about. We can't just pick an arbitrary amount and have it really work.
We Have To Fix The Root Of The Problem First, which is that over the past several decades, all our leaders have been doing is screwing the American people, by stalling, spending, removing protections and allowing illegal aliens to continue to pour in and American jobs and industry to pour out, and all while collecting their American tax-payer funded pay checks, benefits and whatever else they get on the side from their various lobbyist friends.
I've been running a business where we haven't been able to our raise our prices or wages for several years, because of what our leaders have allowed to happen to our country. Most small to medium size businesses are just struggling to survive and have very little if anything left to reinvest.
Our real economic problems happened because, over the last 25-years, our government has allowed our country's industries to get sucked out to China, India, Mexico, etc and allowed illegal aliens and H-1B foreigners to come into our country and take away tax-paying Americans jobs and drive down wages.
We have 20 employees, all of whom earn well more than minimum wage, but it isn't so easy. It's hard enough to stay in business and make any profit nowadays and take care of our hard working conscientious employees. I believe that our cross-trained employees are our company's most important asset.We have every little turn over in our company. But if I advertise one job opening (all of which are well over the minimum wage), I'd have dozens upon dozens of qualified people and some over qualified people clamoring for the job and almost all of them would be happy to come in for less than they were making, just to have a steady job. But these people and myself are just struggling to keep up with our mortgages, kids student loans, health-care coverage............etc..............
The American people need our leaders to wake up and start putting some sensible measures in place to stem the tide or this is going to continue to have a devastating effect on the United States of America and the American people.
We'd really all be better off by just cutting through the all the my team vs your team name calling nonsense in this country and really focus on America and improving the future of the American people.
Our economic problems didn't happen overnight. It's been happening over the past 25 years, but the American economy was kept going by middle class American consumers tapping into the equity on their homes to enable them to continue to buy the cheap outsourced products until they were completely tapped out, out of good jobs and or out of work.
On the US Department of Commerce's US Census Bureau website there's a graphic showing how our trade imbalance has gotten progressively worse over the entire period from 1989 to the present and how it's really accelerated at an increasingly greater rate each year since 1999.
We can thank "our leaders" from both sides and the WTO for that.
See for yourself: http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c0004.html
www(dot)census(dot)gov(slash)foreign-trade(slash)balance(slash)c0004(dot)html
Check it out and figure it out for yourself.
If these "free trade" agreements were so good us, why did our trade deficit keep getting increasingly larger and larger during this span of time.
Increasingly way more money going out of our country every year versus coming in every year.
It's Not Rocket Science.
Regardless of what the Free-Traitors keep trying to sell us, we can see what's real. The American People need to just trust their own instincts, common sense and what they've seen actually going on all around them versus all of the nonsense that the Free-Traitors are still trying to sell us.
Foreign Lobbyists here in the US promote sending US jobs to countries like Communist China, India and Mexico where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations. It also doesn't help us compete when these company's factories are subsidized by China's communist government. Just check out the current Chinese extreme pollution issues – We all live in the same world, but not every country plays by the same rules.
Trade with countries like Communist China, India and Mexico is pretty much a One-Way-Street.
Countries like Germany, Canada, Japan and other countries like them are more or less on a level playing field with us. But countries like China, India, Mexico and others like them are not even close. You don't see China, India or Mexico with anything even close to our EPA, DEP, OSHA, etc................
Also most counterfeit goods are produced and manufactured in China, making it the counterfeit capital of the world. In fact, the counterfeiting industry accounts for 8% of China's GDP.
The “Global Market Place” is not a level playing field! The whole idea of the tariffs is so we can pay our factory workers a decent wage and not be blown out by these other countries where they don’t play by the same rules.
The bottom line is that “Our Government” has to protect domestic industry and the jobs that those industries provide. If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.
We may have to pay a bit more for products made here in the USA by US citizens, but at least we'll still have jobs and a future for our children.
The American People need Our Leaders to start remembering that they are elected by the Citizens of the United States of America to represent the interests of those citizens and the country itself.
They're NOT Elected By or To Represent the Global Market Place, Lobbyist, Foreign citizens or Illegal Aliens.
We need to bring manufacturing back to the United States of America and both parties are ignoring tariffs as a way to level the playing field, raise money and bring jobs back home. Let's guess why. Oh that's right, tariff is a dirty word. Hum, maybe it's that our so called leaders (political leaders) are beholden to the same people who are exporting our jobs.
I guess we should keep letting Corp Boards, Wall Street, CEOs and Foreign Lobbyists promote sending US jobs to countries where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations.
Foreign Lobbyists here in the US promote sending US jobs to countries like Communist China, India and Mexico where they work for slave wages, no benefits, no OSHA safety standards or no real environment regulations. It also doesn't help us compete when many of these Chinese company's factories are subsidized by China's communist government. Just check out the current Chinese extreme pollution issues – We all live in the same world, but not every country plays by the same rules.
The so called "Global Market Place" is not a level playing field. Companies may have made higher profits by "outsourcing", but they've been putting middle class Americans who are a good part of the world's customer base out of work.
It has all happened way too fast – Our government leaders should have put measures in place to make it slower, so that it wouldn't devastate our country, which has no chance when competing with other countries that don't play by the same rules or have pay scales that are even remotely close.
That's where our government leaders have to step up and put some sensible measures and incentives in place to keep jobs here in the USA or the real economy and infrastructure of the country we love will be destroyed along with the future of the American people.
* Tariffs don't work, if we don't use them. We could have proportionally decreased and monitored them rather than just eliminating them altogether, which just allowed the floodgates to pop wide open.
* Humm – Let me guess – Oh, here comes the Old Tariffs = Socialism / Trade war BS – * Sorry, they're right removing them has worked out so well for the American People and the Real American Economy. *
The cold, hard truth is that the unholy alliance between Washington and Wall Street has sold out the American worker and exported our standard of living.
Driven by the insatiable greed of Wall Street profiteers and accelerated by the false promise of free trade, our manufacturing base has been chased out of this country and along with it the livelihood of millions of hard-working Americans.
* It used to be fashionable among politicians, pundits and so-called experts to claim that free trade is actually good for us. They say it enables us to buy cheaper goods made with cheap foreign labor and this, in turn, raises our standard of living. (But, if most Americans lose their jobs or are reduced to jobs with much lower pay and little or no benefits, it really doesn't make any sense.)
* The free traitors need to ask themselves a more fundamental question: How will Americans buy those goods when they don't even have a paycheck that covers their mortgage, much less the college tuition for their children, etc....................?
Foreigners will be coming here and buying our houses after we all foreclose. They'll also be taking over our government too, after it defaults from lack income tax revenue, due to businesses in the USA shutting down and or US jobs being outsourced and everyone being out of work.
We need to bring back Glass-Steagall and start standing up to the WTO.
If Ross Perot had been elected president in 1992, the American people and the American economy would have been much better off today!
Our leaders need to start remembering that they are elected by the Citizens of the United States of America to represent the interests of those citizens and the country itself. – They are NOT elected by or to represent the Global Market Place, Lobbyist, Foreign citizens or Illegal Aliens!
The bottom line is that "Our Government" has to protect domestic industry and the jobs that those industries provide. If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.
We need to add tariffs that are proportionate to the inequities in wages and regulations in the country where the goods were produced and or where we’re importing them from. We could then use the money raised by these tariffs to help companies build state of the art manufacturing plants here in the USA, which would create more jobs here at home for US citizens, which would then in turn increase our income tax revenue.
The people with all of the excuses as to why we can’t, shouldn't or aren’t willing to manufacture products here in the US are the same people who have provided us with the very same shortsighted thinking that’s gotten us into this mess in the first place.
Over the past 15-20 years, I've seen too many of our customer's close manufacturing plants here in the USA and move those plants to different countries, decimating entire areas here in OUR COUNTRY. And I'm not alone. Returning jobs to American Citizens will provide income tax revenue to OUR Government versus our government having to pay unemployment benefits to those who would be jobless instead.
Bringing manufacturing back to the US not only gives jobs to the US citizens who would be working in those manufacturing facilities, but to the people that would be working in the businesses that would spring up all around them. This should also include the safe harvesting, production and distribution of our own natural energy here in the USA, rather than paying for fuel from countries where they hate us. Let’s keep that money and those jobs here in the US.
And for those that will say that many jobs are being replaced by robotics and automation, you still need people to maintain and service the automated equipment, warehouse personnel, truck drivers to deliver the products, purchasing people to buy the materials, managers, office staff, etc.
Also, let's manufacture the automated equipment and develop the software to be used for this automated manufacturing, etc. This not only gives jobs to the US citizens who would be working in those manufacturing facilities, but to the people that would be working in the businesses that would spring up all around them.
Many American jobs have been replaced by automation, but many more have been replaced by "out-sourcing", H-1B workers and non-income-tax-paying illegal aliens here in the USA.
The ONLY REAL FIX for Our Country is to Raise Revenue by Bringing Back Businesses and Jobs to Tax-Paying American Citizens.
Returning private sector jobs to American Citizens will provide income tax revenue to OUR Government versus our government having to pay unemployment benefits to those who would be jobless instead. We need our elected officials to Start Protecting American Jobs and do whatever it takes to bring back the jobs they let go. We need leaders who will actually stand up for the American people.
The “Global Market Place” is not a level playing field! The whole idea of the tariffs is so we can pay our factory workers a decent wage and not be blown out by these other countries where they don’t play by the same rules.
The bottom line is that “Our Government” has to protect domestic industry and the jobs that those industries provide. If they do that, the rest will take care of itself.
We may have to pay a bit more for products made here in the USA by US citizens, but at least we'll still have jobs and a future for our children.
Are you seriously preaching protectionism??
Please read an economics book, this is the most ludicrous nonsense I've heard.
If someone can create clothing cheaper than we can, we should not stop designing airplanes and cars in order to produce more expensive garmets in United States. Trade benefits both parties, which is why both parties agree to the trade.
Learn before you speak.
The GOP Prayer/Mantra/Solution: Dear God...With your loving kindness, help us to turn all the Old, Sick, Poor, Non-white, Non-christian, Female, and Gay people into slaves. Then, with your guidance and compassion, we will whip them until they are Young, Healthy, Rich, White, Christian, Male, and Straight. Or until they are dead. God...Grant us the knowledge to then turn them into Soylent Green to feed the military during the next "unfunded/off-the-books" war. God...Give us the strength during our speeches to repeatedly yell........TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH!!!..........and........GET RID OF SS AND MEDICARE!!!
In your name we prey (purposely misspelled, or is it?)........Amen
The problem in trying to elect good leaders for The United States of America has nothing to do with the color or gender of our politicians. It's our politician's, from both parties, lack of honesty and the lack of willingness to do right by the US citizens that they're elected by and should be representing.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a great American and his march accomplished great things, but now it may be time for a new more all-inclusive march on Washington.
Almost all of our political leaders' talk is just cheap and meaningless! – When will these people finally wake up and step up with real ideas and real action, instead of just meaningless talk and tokenism? – These idiots have been avoiding action for 2-3 decades.
As far as I'm concerned this is the bottom line: The ONLY REAL FIX for our great country is to RAISE REVENUE, by Bringing Back Businesses and Jobs to TAX-PAYING AMERICAN CITIZENS.
This is the only way that Americans are going to be able to "Get a Raise" and sustain it. The more jobs and businesses that we bring back to tax-paying Americans citizens, the healthier our real economy will be and the more likely it will be for the American people to keep up and possibly even start to move forward again.
Real Economic Fairness for the American People and the Real American Economy:
It's called Tariffs, VAT and Protecting Our Southern Border.
The 1st time it was funny maybe even the 10th. You are not helping anybody by coming into every topic and posting the same thing over and over again. I wish you would be marked as spam and filtered as such.
It's obviously not meant to be funny. This is what's really happening in America.
And yes – I'm Angry with both parties – As are most American Citizens right now!
We need more Americans, like Perot tried to be, to get some sensible measures put in place to protect America, the American economy and American jobs.
It's very important that we continue to become the unsilent majority until our message is heard and they actually start putting some sensible measures in place to stem the tide. Otherwise this is going to continue to have a devastating effect on America and the American citizens.
Unfortunately both sides are still able to polarize and distract most simple people by getting them to buy and drink their flavor of Kool-Aid, only it's just different flavors of the same brand and both flavors are making the American People and the Real American Economy sick. And right now, "Fair and Balanced – my ass" Fox is peddling the most pro-outsourcing propaganda and censoring common-sense pro-American anti-outsourcing views and all the while waving our flag in our faces.
Could it be that Free-Traitors and Foreign interests own and control our media?
Hey you stinking Free-Traitors: The AMERICAN PEOPLE can see what's been and is still being done to them!
@ dingleberry – It's the ENTIRE GOP platform in a single paragraph!!! Read the Ryan Budget to see the GOP "Love" for the Old, Sick, and Poor Americans. You should be proud of your party's platform. Now be a good GOPer and recite the GOP party prayer. You know you want to .