Random Politics & Religion #14

The Department of Labor is a political organization. "Mythbuster" pages like that where every answer is tailored to promote a cause should be a red flag that they're not actually fact-checking but rather pushing a one-sided narrative. It's about as unbiased as the obamacarefacts.com website.

Here.

Musk has plans for a city sorta like that thing Ram posted.

Or maybe it was Peter Thiel I get my billionaires mixed up.

Must be the other guy, Musk is doin' that ***on the moon, yo.

I didn't know the DoL was a political organization.

I guess we should update the Wiki then : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Labor

When we build stip clubs on Mars then I'll be interested.

Isn't he the one that is colonizing mars?

They both believe in total state authority. You sir are ignorant of what communism is/was.

I have shown my analysis. I'm guessing you didn't read the individual responses I made on specific quotes of "myths being busted."

I mean, a lot of what they argue wasn't even addressing the "myth" they responded to. How can you determine the effects of a $2.13/hr change to whatever they decide if you base your analysis only on the happenings of states that don't have $2.13/hr tipped wages?

My argument is that they are using real studies and their conclusions as basis for a strawman argument. Meaning that they are answering the question "Why is the sky blue?" by answering "Oranges are grown in Florida."

Also remember that the larger companies do not make up a majority of the workforce. Small businesses account for a vast majority of employment in America. Meaning, what you think is an "only large business argument" is really made by a lot of smaller businesses in America.

I'm not going to lie. Businesses would benefit from lower minimum wage because it directly effects their bottom line, where a lower labor cost increases their Gross and Net Margins proportional to the difference between labor costs. That's a no-brainer.

I'm also not going to lie about this: Removing minimum wage laws will in effect hurt everyone (businesses and employees) in both the short and long terms. There will not be a "reverse inflation" to correct the differences wage increases did to the economy. And, as I pointed out to Candlejack, real wages have actually not increased at the same rate as minimum wages, it reality minimum wages have increased at a rate exceeding real wages. So basically, a reverse effect.

So, the answer to the minimum wage question is: Instead of double downing on policies that are actually counter to their solutions they try to create, how about leaving things well enough alone until we get to the point where we will need to increase minimum wages to offset natural inflation caused by situations other than forced wage increases. In nearly all cases, if not all cases, minimum wage increases causes inflation, and we have a policy right now to prevent inflation from occurring, otherwise we will have the economic shock that we actually really need but nobody wants to be brave enough to say that we need to get it over with.

Ok settle down. I'm really trying to have a discussion here.

Are... you being serious right now? It's a cabinet-level department. Whoever runs it almost always aligns politically with the President. Lesson #1 of Washington: Everything is political.

Don't be surprised if the DOL has a very different viewpoint in February of next year.

I've seen some pretty trippy ***going on in the lawns at the Smithsonian.

If that's political I, uh.

Don't tell Tipper it's going on or she'll make a government shut down happen.

(Yes I'm keeping my own 25-year-old-reference joke going and I don't care.)

So am I, which is why I asked.

I'm not addressing that issue at all.

I'm saying that in doing some reading -- including some ill-advised, but nevertheless enlightening time spent on both Tumblr and The Red Pill on Reddit -- there is a lot of crossover in the entitlement issues and way that both extremes present their arguments and the way they generally behave.

I mean, I really despise generalizing people by generation, but TL;DR: millenials have some really, really serious problems and older people are criticizing them for entirely the wrong reasons.

Free Luke Skywalker "I Wanna Rock, Don't Stop, Get It Get It" Campbell!!!

dear satan,

my soul is yours for one of those and enough gas to last me the next 70 years.

Inquiry: what determines a business is "small" in the fashion you're discussing?

I was having some thoughts on this yesterday as I drove through Pittsburgh (important) yesterday and got to thinking about a few related issues.

Reply: The same size standard dictated by the US government, or, depending on the industry, 500 employees or smaller.

The Dow broke 19,000. Yay Boeing stock.

done...

also, you may want to be more specific next time... heh heh heh...

I'll just leave these here for you...

You forgot the *:

*: In major cities across the country.

Except party loyalty and also the entire democratic system of voting.

If the election results were turned over based by what a few cities decided because of feels, just imagine the outrage by the rest of the nation, including in those very cities. It would completely undermine all future presidential elections going forth.

I read every retort. I just didn't read anything of substance from them. Instead of offering a counter argument you just questioned the premise of theirs.


Strawmen would be a bit incorrect. It is either "a Hasty Generalization" or they are "Stacking the Deck". In order to prove that though you need to offer studies that show the opposite of what they are claiming.



This depends on what Window you use to represent the data. Here is Pews research data about minimum wage:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/07/23/5-facts-about-the-minimum-wage/

The first chart shows the buying power of minimum wage compared over time.

As you can tell the buying power of the current minimum wage is higher then what it was in 1990 but lower then what it was in 1970. Your assertion is correct in that matter.



I do think there are a lot of aspects that need to be considered when it comes to minimum wage but ethically it may very well be the right thing to do. How do you think people are living off of 15k a year? Do you really believe that some people need to work multiple minimum wage jobs to live their life? Do you really think there are enough non-minimum wage jobs to provide everyone with a high paying job?


Lastly


Do you have a source for that? Even if I look up "Minimum wage increase cause inflation" I find two types of articles. One that provides facts that it doesn't and one that provide speculation that it does. Do you have a factual source that we can work off of here?

Okay. Wasn't sure how we were doing this; by employees, by income, by business done in volume of product, dollars, whatever.

Anyhow, the thought I was having was -- and I think this is something you'll be on board with -- is that I don't think sometimes people realize the sheer volume of businesses out there. Like, as you yourself have pointed out, there's the super giants out there. The Walmarts, the Verizons, the Comcasts, the Targets, the Tysons, The big automakers and their subsidiaries. And there's the mega-conglomerates, sure.

But there's also just ***...so many small/medium businesses. 500 seems like a lot to still call it "small" to me, but still. Just driving through Pittsburgh you see signs for buildings saying what companies are inside and it's like "I don't even know what the sam *** you people do and you afford significant rent in a major city building for your business."

I begin to see some merit in points you have made on the effect of policy on them vs. the aforementioned huge groups. The latter continue to be a major problem, imo.

But here's the thing.

You can't say that the fears of rural folk are more valid than those of people in the cities either. Which is sort of what we're seeing. Which is what we always unfortunately see in these situations.

The people crying that they weren't getting equal representation get power and they don't give equal representation either, they just give favored representation to someone else.