Comments on: Superb Argument Against a Federal Mininum Wage

By: steve

steve — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 19:45:46 +0000

Curious, how is my dichtomy false?

By: Darwin

Darwin — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 19:09:47 +0000

Damn, how dare I undermine your false dichotomy. I’m totally not following the rules.

By: steve

steve — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:06:45 +0000

So then your not going to answer my question. Okay.

By: darwin

darwin — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 02:11:15 +0000

The problem with cutting the employer benefits for peole hiring minimum wage employees is that it encourages employers to only pay minimum wage. But, maybe there’s some way that could be worked out.
As for where the money would come from, I’d have to see how much money the government actually gets from people making minimum wage- I suspect it’s very little. But, considering that the national debt is currently at over 8.5 trillion dollars, I’m not sure that there’s always going to be a 1:1 matchup between cutting federal uncome and cutting federal expenses.

Not that I’m advocating reckless spending, I’m just saying that balancing the budget is a HUGE seperate issue, which I doubt this particular debate would have much of an effect on.

By: boose

boose — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 09:59:07 +0000

how about you remove the employer’s side of the taxes. Right now, i think for social security, the government demands that the employer also pay a tax on the employee’s income. Guess what? this means the employee gets less money. Effectively, the employee is the one getting taxed. So how about they get rid of all taxes of that nature so that everyone can see on their paychecks just how much they’re actually getting taxed.

By: steve

steve — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 19:49:30 +0000

A large chunk of those working for minimum wage are teenagers working part time jobs. They are taxed but their parents probably get a tax break for having a dependent.

Of course you’re only interested in giving a tax break to poor people making minimum wage. If we assume the existence of an actual poor person unable to get a better paying job than one that pays minimum wage then they would make $8000 a year working full time. This places them in the 10% federal tax bracket.

I fully support the elimination of this tax instead of arbitrarily increasing the value of unskilled labor. To offset the income loss would you propose an increase in the tax for all other brackets or do you favor the elimination of some federal programs? I favor the elimination of federal programs. Making government smaller on both ends is always a win-win.

By: darwin

darwin — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 17:53:58 +0000

One thing I’ve been wondering about: do people making minmum wage pay any taxes at all? I’d rather see tax breaks than hikes in the minimum wage; it seems like it wouldn’t cost the government very much, since few people make minimum wage anyway.