https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/02/amazon-raises-minimum-wage-to-15-for-all-us-employees.html

How can they do this? This is going to doom them. Prices will have to double for everything they sell. They are going to have to layoff huge amounts of employees. Everything will be done by robots. This is actually bad for the workers.

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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!

You can thank Bernie for that.

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He's not all bad. He would have been a horrible President though.

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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!

He would have been great

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Best part of the article:



Only $1.7 million! Of course, when you include stock performance, Bezos's net worth is up $95 billion this year.

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We could do worse than Bernie.

Oh yeah ... we did.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

Hey Brick, if $15 an hour is great, why not $16 to really help them out. Everyone, regardless of skill, should be able to afford a car, so $20. But they need a house, so $30 makes more sense. And vacations are necessary, so $40.

Why is $15 the right number? Why not more? Amazon has a Trillion dollar market cap. Bezos is one of the wealthiest guys in the world. Why stop at $15?

It should be more fair—to each according to their needs, from each according to their means.

You tell me. Why is the current level correct?

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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!

large corporations like amazon are going to $15 per hour hoping it becomes the law. The large corporations can take on that new cost much easier than small businesses which will allow them to either buy them up or let them go out of business thus allowing more corporate rule in our marketplace. exactly how bernie planned it out.

I was gonna say...$1.7mil? Per hour?

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Yup. This is a pretty transparent, cynical move by Amazon. Not surprising though.

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Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

This does deserve an answer though. I'll give two.

1) The minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation, and it certainly hasn't kept pace with productivity or economic output.
2) I believe as a society it should be a priority that any person who works a full time job should make enough money to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves. I would compare it to how we let companies do a lot to the environment but we do set limits for the good of society on how much damage they can do. We don't live in a country with unrestricted capitalism.

So, $15/hr(with the idea we would adjust it going forward) gets us either to where we need to satisfy those things or a lot closer to satisfying those things.

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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!

So those people who talked about a Big Mac doubling in price were wrong?

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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!

1. How do you know the original minimum wage was set correctly?
2. Correct. When I was 16 bagging groceries at Jewel, I deserved to make more. I was full time during the summers. That is your criteria.

I believe the attempt was to try and accomplish the second point but for whatever reason that was chosen and it should at least keep up with inflation if not coming closer to productivity gains.
Sure. Anyone who is working full time for minimum wage isn't doing it for the enjoyment of it. They may be saving for college, or helping their family, or they may just be a hard worker who wants to make money early on. Let them make a decent wage 3 months out of the year too.

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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'm perfectly OK with companies raising wages as market forces dictate and right now it's a competitive job market so good move by Amazon. Isn't it nice how wages are going up on their own without government interference?

That is precisely how it is supposed to work.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Wow. Ok, so an 18 year old working at Starbucks should make at least $15 per hour? And the Jewel bagger? And your landscaper? Gutter cleaner? Maid?

Holy inflation!

It makes most of the excuses look stupid on why we can't have it be raised.

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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!

Does Amazon turn a profit? Or will their profit come when they are the only retail business left?

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Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

There would be some inflation but that is mostly because minimum wage should have been matching inflation already.

You aren't going to convince me I am wrong by stating that the people that provide me a service are going to be able to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves with the wage they get. I would be happy with that.

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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!

You proved my point. At best, you are a socialist. At worst, a communist.

Amazon loses money on the retail side and makes faaaaaaat stacks on the CDN side.

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I don't think so. I just think that capitalism needs relatively minor controls like I mentioned with the environmental example.

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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!

Brick gets yelled at me to be more of a socialist and yelled at by this dude to be less of a communist. Can't win.

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I am actually an environmentalist. So I’m on board with not letting manufacturers dump toxic waste in rivers. But, we all use their products.

But you are not a free market capitalist. You seem to want a great deal of control over wages, benefits, healthcare, etc.

Who you crappin?

Why shouldn't they pollute the environment as much as they want?

I understand any wage floor is not a true "free market". What should the minimum wage be?

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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!

When you are designing stores that eliminate most employees $15/hr is no big deal. Also Amazon hires most of it's warehouse workers through staffing companies at a fraction of that rate. It's a nice PR move for them, but it's mostly bullshit.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

Most companies probably cannot afford to pay $15 an hour for entry level wages. Your mom and pop shops sure can't. Amazon can and wants to attract better employees so they have voluntarily opted to pay that wage. that's how it should work. Amazon's competitors cannot keep up and thus won't employee the best entry level employees.

Amazon is banking on getting better/more productive employees out of a constrained labor market.

Supply is low and demand is high for labor right now which means the price of labor is naturally going up.

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

Shit if you can find a good cleaning person for $15/hr, give me the contact!

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest