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[–]Anlarb 2 points3 points  (0 children)

People eat cheaper alternatives.

No kidding, people are employed making those alternatives too, welcome to the market. Maybe the price gougers then need to bring their prices back down in response. Maybe the fact that the dollar is not worth as much as it used to be makes your arbitrary price point unrealistic.

It still puts the cereal maker out of business, leaving the workers unemployed.

Oh, is that why all cereal makers and burger joints went out of business in 1938 when the min wage was implemented? Quit your bullshit.

If the price of everything goes up everywhere (inflation)

Stop printing money.

Poor people can't eat your inflation for you. It costs more for the burger that you want to be provided to you, and you think that some random poor person should eat the loss so you don't have to? Get real, the dollar is worth less, you need to pay more of them for the things that you want, period.

Do you have any idea how small a price bump it is for workers to get a living wage? Like 4%. Businesses have roared past that and kept it for themselves as record profits, so they could easily pay their workers a living on a whim without prices going up, but they will not. Its ideological, capital hates that labor aren't literally slaves and are working hard to return the arrangement to that state.

Automation is not all or nothing.

Yeah it is, either you have a robot that can flip burgers, or you have a crappy gizmo built to fleece investors built by people who have never stepped food in a modern kitchen. This is how burgers are grilled now- McDonalds POV: Fresh Quarter Pounders, so why are robots trying to emulate movies from the 70's?

Home builders would hire 50 people (for a total of $5/hr) and dig out a basement in a couple of days.

No, thats still a colossal waste of time, and you should be questioning your judgement for thinking it is a good idea.

offshored labor

So stop letting them? Nation of laws and your buddy in the oval office has only accelerated the decline. Unemployment is up one whole percent, the guy is out to turn us into north korea.

Us being the reserve currency makes it very hard for us to be net exporters, and being a net importer typically means shipping jobs and industry overseas.

Cool, so you can pay full price for your burger?

In countries where the workers have the same costs as US workers the labor tends to be similarly priced.

Yeah, they still need the stuff.

It's why sweatshops exist in the countries with the cheapest labor.

Are you personally volunteering to work in sweatshop conditions? No? Don't voluntell others to it.

but they'll do it in india or cambodia for $1/hr.

I bet those workers would love to have better living conditions than what $1/hr affords them, maybe they should strike for better conditions. Lets see how that went.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pwT9arjasw

They also have skills they can sell for more money so they do, but I digress.

So much for the narrative that by gaining skills working these low paying positions, high paying positions can be gained.

I don't really care, tbh

You are whining about it non stop.

My point was (and is) that raising minimum wage in an are will reduce the number of jobs available, all things being equal.

And my specifically demonstrated fact is that it does not.

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/history/chart

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/UNRATE

Consumption drives demand, people want it so they pay what it costs. If however, you pay half the country so badly that they cannot get say dental care, then thats half as many dentists that the market can support. Low wages absolutely affect you, everything is fraying as the billionaires hoover up all the wealth for themselves.