But the minimum wage increase won't matter in a year anyway. It will just inflate everything and, in a year, the minimum wagers will be back to square one. That's just one of the tiny little inconsistencies of capitalism as an economic system.

george, this is what you said earlier and for once I agree with you on this. Minimum wage is for workers just entering the work force. You aren't expected to support a family on this. Once a worker gets more experience and training then he gets more money. That is the way the system works. If the worker is working for someone that can't afford to give him a raise, then he moves to the next job. He has a choice.

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An informed voter scares the Goverment lackeys.

An American first and always a Conservative.

I dont know if you noticed my disclaimer on the bottom of my post #5. If you dont think my scenrio is plausable then please tell us why

I am going to sound like a Socialist here but this is the problem that I see with the Capitalist formula (always have). This might be for a thread we did a while back but like you say Rob, the idea of wages and a minimum is very relative depending on what the driving forces at the top are doing. If CEO salaries and stock options stayed the same then the minimum wage would actual matter.

ofcourse rasta goes silent. whats new

I have so many examples of this! In some cases I have asked rasta to respond to his own arguement and given him the link so he can respond! that is the beauty of this fourum! You can always bring it back up! Like most extream liberals rasta is a cut and run type of guy!

Rasta's Mintality>

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"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem." Ronald Reagan http://www.arguewitheveryone.com/war...bout-iraq.html

BREAK UP THE MONOPOLIES AND QUIT LETTING THEM CONTROL THE MARKET, TAKE AWAY THEIR CORPORATE WELFARE AND IMPORT GOODS MADE FROM COMPANIES OTHER THAN AMERICAN CORPORATIONS AND WATCH THEM CAVE IN LIKE BABIES...

AND WATCH MILLIONS OF PEOPLE GET FIRED! UNEMPLOYMENT AT AN ALL TIME HIGH! THAT WOULD BE GREAT FOR THE ECONOMY!

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"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem." Ronald Reagan http://www.arguewitheveryone.com/war...bout-iraq.html

Here is where I am. I own a small family run(independent) restaurant. It sits in a small retirement/tourist community (though more younger people are moving here). I have to compete with franchises that have more buying power than myself. I employ 8 people and of those most would have a very hard time finding other jobs because of age/disability. I have given my cook 2 raises that equal 1.10 an hour in less than a year because he and his wife (who has worked for me less than 5 months and has recieved .35 per hour raise already) they helped me grow my business.

My dishwasher has received 2 .30 cent an hour raises because he is a hard worker.

If the minimum is raised to 7.25 an hour it will severly hurt my business. It's not only a matter of wages. The taxes I pay out for my employees will go up, and my suppliers will raise their costs to me. The simplistic answer is to raise my prices accordingly. However, the people that will recieve the hike in wage are not those that eat out generally speaking. Nearly half of my customers are seniors on set incomes, who will not be getting raises (ergo, they will eat out less). The workers that make over $8.00 an hour will not be getting the raises (ergo, they will eat out less). Basically, I'm screwed.

The only way a hike in minimum wage will help is if it large otherwise the extra will be eaten up in taxes. Add to that the price hike in everything else and the workers we're trying to help, may end up in worse shape than they are in now.

I believe, though I can't prove it, that small business's will go out of business. I also see fewer small business's opening (which is where a majority of our "new job growth" jobs come from. The reason fewer will start up is very simple. The start-up and operating costs will be too high.

Freedom, sounds like small business is between rock and a hard place.

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An informed voter scares the Goverment lackeys.

An American first and always a Conservative.

Yes, I think independent small businesses are screwed. But so are their employees. I love my employees, but the truth is, most of them won't find other jobs. My cook and his wife are slow, either my husband or myself work with them, so we can pick up the slack. There is no corporate restaurant or store that is going to do that. Don't get me wrong, they are hard workers, just slow moving. My dishwasher is in his fifties, recovering drug addict, on parole. Not even Wal-Mart will touch him. My hostess/baker is a senior citizen also with bad knees. We make sure she gets a break whenever she needs it. Who else is going to do that? Sometimes there are better things you can do for people besides money.