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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRaising the minimum wage is the right idea for the right
Raising the minimum wage is the right idea for the right
By E.J. Dionne Jr.
<...>
The policy in question is raising the minimum wage. The only mystery is why so few conservative politicians see the issue this way. Rank-and-file conservatives know better. A December Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 53?percent of self-described conservatives supported a minimum wage increase. Republican politicians who are so solicitous of conservative opinion need to follow the moral and practical intuitions of those they say they represent.
One conservative, at least, is speaking for this majority. Ron Unz, a Silicon Valley millionaire and one-time Republican candidate for governor of California, is championing an initiative to raise his states minimum wage to $12 an hour...Unz has argued that a minimum wage hike would function as a massive stimulus package. He told ABC News that if the national minimum were increased to $12, probably between $150 billion and $175 billion a year would go into the pockets of the lower-wage families that spend every dollar they earn. It would cause a tremendous boost in economic demand.
<...>
One of the strange things in our society right now is that we have all these low-wage workers who are getting $7.50, $8 or $9 an hour, Unz said, and because they earn such small wages, the government subsidizes them with billions or tens of billions of dollars of social welfare spending that comes from the taxpayer. Its a classic example of businesses privatizing the benefits of their workers while socializing the costs.
Now the truth is that inequality has grown so much that various programs to improve the living standards of the working poor are absolutely essential. Some should be expanded. Both Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and President Obama have suggested that help received under the earned-income tax credit be broadened to support workers without children (although Rubio has an ill-advised proposal to restructure the EITC and cut some of its benefits). A nation that proclaims its reverence for work should agree that nobody who works full time should fall below the poverty line.
- more -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-jr-raising-the-minimum-wage-is-the-right-idea-for-the-right/2014/02/16/b83cf4f0-95dc-11e3-8461-8a24c7bf0653_story.html
By E.J. Dionne Jr.
<...>
The policy in question is raising the minimum wage. The only mystery is why so few conservative politicians see the issue this way. Rank-and-file conservatives know better. A December Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 53?percent of self-described conservatives supported a minimum wage increase. Republican politicians who are so solicitous of conservative opinion need to follow the moral and practical intuitions of those they say they represent.
One conservative, at least, is speaking for this majority. Ron Unz, a Silicon Valley millionaire and one-time Republican candidate for governor of California, is championing an initiative to raise his states minimum wage to $12 an hour...Unz has argued that a minimum wage hike would function as a massive stimulus package. He told ABC News that if the national minimum were increased to $12, probably between $150 billion and $175 billion a year would go into the pockets of the lower-wage families that spend every dollar they earn. It would cause a tremendous boost in economic demand.
<...>
One of the strange things in our society right now is that we have all these low-wage workers who are getting $7.50, $8 or $9 an hour, Unz said, and because they earn such small wages, the government subsidizes them with billions or tens of billions of dollars of social welfare spending that comes from the taxpayer. Its a classic example of businesses privatizing the benefits of their workers while socializing the costs.
Now the truth is that inequality has grown so much that various programs to improve the living standards of the working poor are absolutely essential. Some should be expanded. Both Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and President Obama have suggested that help received under the earned-income tax credit be broadened to support workers without children (although Rubio has an ill-advised proposal to restructure the EITC and cut some of its benefits). A nation that proclaims its reverence for work should agree that nobody who works full time should fall below the poverty line.
- more -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-jr-raising-the-minimum-wage-is-the-right-idea-for-the-right/2014/02/16/b83cf4f0-95dc-11e3-8461-8a24c7bf0653_story.html
Crossing Borders and Changing Lives, Lured by Higher State Minimum Wages
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024511661
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Raising the minimum wage is the right idea for the right (Original Post)
ProSense
Feb 2014
OP
They go up too, but less so as you move higher. Probably no change for people making $20 an hour.
reformist2
Feb 2014
#6
What about all the people without jobs? We need to address that issue - simultaneously.
reformist2
Feb 2014
#5
shenmue
(38,506 posts)1. It's a win for everybody
It rewards work, which the right is supposed to support. We'll see if they actually do that.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)3. Yup. n/t
Prophet 451
(9,796 posts)2. But that would mean heling people
And that's anathema to the right. When they see wages so low that the state has to give out subsidies, they look to remove the subsidies.
aikoaiko
(34,185 posts)4. What happens to other wages higher than min wage...
... When the minimum increases?
Compression? Proportional expansion?
I'm curious.
reformist2
(9,841 posts)6. They go up too, but less so as you move higher. Probably no change for people making $20 an hour.
reformist2
(9,841 posts)5. What about all the people without jobs? We need to address that issue - simultaneously.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)7. Yes, and unemployment benefits.
All necessary.