Exactly. And the real point is a minimum wage is a civil precedent. Do you want to live in a society where a chunk of the population works full time yet cannot afford to live, therefore creating problems like government aid and crime? Because that's what you get when you decide it's ok to allow underpaid workers to live in your city.

The inflation argument is bullshit because we're not talking about a lavish lifestyle. It's $15 an hour. It's within the margin of error of most our economics. We have set the minimum wage according to basic needs before, and it worked great. There is no excuse to not have it.

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

If the $15 minimum works then why did Seattle do a 180 so quick? Most Seattle businesses that supported the idea ultimately couldn't figure out a way to work it (you think they would have had that figured out before supporting it), panicked, and basically resorted to the Amazon talking point in saying they would need to leave the county or state. Some didn't expect Seattle to go back on it so they were actually setting up a headquarters moves to different states.

Part of the issue of the minimum wage arguments are that they are based on flawed research that mostly focused on restaurant workers. When researchers were looking for low-wage industries, that seemed perfect to them and they applied it to every industry. It's obviously not that simple and newer research does a much better job of showing where you might help someone, or where you might drive a business into insolvency. Unsurprisingly, big government, blanket approaches rarely work in a country as large as the US. If a business can afford to pay more they should. Often they do to attract the best workers (shockingly simple concept). And if you want to incentivize that then perhaps allow for tiers of local tax breaks for businesses who work on streamlining costs to pay their employees more. Let the business work towards something they know they can achieve.

Almost nobody is working with the massive profit margin that Apple is. When I got a job in tech manufacturing I was shocked to learn the profit margin on expensive PC parts. There are some video card makers that might squeeze out $10 on a $1000 sale. It's often less than that.


Also, people have more money than they think they do. It's in rubbermaid containers in their garage that they likely have never parked in. We have awful spending and saving habits in this country. It sucks to feel like you are just surviving but the level of just surviving compared to just 30 years ago is a lot different. That doesn't happen if everything has remained stagnant. It hasn't. It's nice to think that you have done everything right but still cannot get ahead. Chances are good you own a significant amount of that. And the level of advancement, in the areas it has occured, makes it much more difficult to just appreciate what we have. What the new standards of living actually are, even if you are just treading water.

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"Mattress technology has come a long way"

- Dan Bernstein, 2016

Look out, dude just solved the economy

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Where did Seattle give up on it?

However of course it is going to be harder for one city to do it. Other cities will happily undercut them.

I guess we should have training courses for minimum wage workers on not buying things for the garage and we can set the minimum wage to $0.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

In the garage, I feel safe
Tubs of cash up to my waist

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Weird, I just had a garage built and I do park my truck in there. Haven't come upon any tubs of money yet though, I'm waiting for someone to put them in there so I can pay for that garage.

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You never miss your wealth, till your well went dry
Seem like only yesterday, you were here smiling
Now you gone away, but I know you in a better place
No traces of you, what can I do?
Alone and confused

Board outing: break into everyone's garages to steal their money tubs

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Dibs on Dr Ken's.

Stay away from Leashes.

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“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”- JD Vance
“My god, what an !diot.”- JD Vance tweet on Trump
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy”- JD Vance

So I did a more comprehensive search and I don't see anything about Seattle doing a "180" on the raising of the minimum wage. If that information was made up, could it be possible that rubbermaid containers in the garages of poor people are not actually the reason they are poor?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I thought that the 180 was on the per-head employment tax, not the minimum wage. It was either Amazon or Microsoft which ordered construction of an office building in Seattle halted after the law originally passed.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

That looks correct. mrgoodkat must have been confused.

That does seem like a stupid tax but it had nothing to do with the minimum wage.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I do remember a couple restaurants and small business owners coming out and saying it was ruining them. A couple closed and those who are against the $15 wage immediately declared victory.