With Bernie Sanders steamrolling the hearts and minds of my generation with his empty promises of a free college education and $15 minimum wage, it is easy to forget the lunacy of these two promises. Nevertheless, a spotlight needs to be placed on his economic policy and, as I will show, a $15 minimum wage is not only ludicrous, but detrimental to society.
First, let’s ask whether the $7.25 is a ‘livable wage’ to which the answer is yes, absolutely yes. Are you kidding? If we were to cut the minimum wage in half to $4, that $9,000 dollars a year puts you in the top 20 percent of global incomes. Now unless 80 percent of the world is dying of poverty then, yes, $7.25 is a livable wage. Take note that $7.25 might not give you a good life or a comfortable life, but the Constitution doesn’t promise you a life of comfort, it promises you a life. Millions of people came to the United States before there were unions, a minimum wage, welfare, unemployment, social security and they were able to survive, so you can imagine it’s a little hard to believe that, on top of all the social programs we have, someone can’t make it on $7.25.
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These stats are almost completely irrelevant, because almost no one makes the federal minimum wage. Most states, 34, have a higher minimum wage than the federal rate, and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the rates of people making the minimum wage is fairly low. About 1.6 million Americans are on minimum wage and of those, 40 percent are teenagers or dependents living with family members while another 56 percent are adults living with a spouse who also works. This shows that the vast majority of minimum wage earners are young entry level employees or spouses trying to make a little extra money for their family.
Over the summer I worked on a demolition crew and made $15 per hour with my workers taking home $16 per hour. Do you want to know why these men made $16/hr when their entire job amounted to little more than swinging a hammer and shoveling? Primarily, it’s a physical tasking job that leaves you exhausted and generally can’t be left to teenagers. Secondly, it can’t be done by a robot and the machinery that could be used is often far too expensive for a small landscaping construction crew and would definitely be overkill. Yes, anyone can swing a hammer, but it takes a certain skill and experience to do it for an entire day without throwing out your back. Yes, standing on your feet all day in retail is tiring, but I had a several 100 pound crossbeams collapse on me, so do you really want to talk about which one of us deserves that $15 an hour? The simple fact of the matter is that a large number of minimum wage jobs require no experience, no skills, and can be done by either machines or children. Therefore, they are paid the minimum required wage.
Does the minimum wage hike help the economy? Sure, in the same way decapitation will fix a headache. The most common argument in favor of this claims that because workers will be paid so much more, they can put so much more money into the economy. There are several fundamental flaws in this idea that, luckily, are staring right at us. As a preface, if you support a minimum wage hike to get some vengeance against big companies like Walmart or McDonald's, knock it off. Yes those companies can hike their minimum wage without losing workers, but they won’t, because it’s not a company’s job to keep people employed, it’s their job to turn a profit, and that’s what they’re going to do. A minimum wage hike hurts small businesses that can’t afford to suddenly pay their workers double. For example, let’s say you have two employees that you pay $7.25, and suddenly, the minimum wage gets doubled to $15. Your $30,000 budget to pay employees now only does half the job, and since you can’t support that, you let one worker go. Now, and here’s the critical flaw, unless the remaining worker can spend the amount of money that the fired worker would have made and the amount the government is going to have to spend to support the unemployed worker, you’re going to be operating at a loss. Especially since the $15 per hour camp claims that they need that much to ‘simply make ends meet,’ it gets a little harder to believe that so much more money would be pumped into the economy.
As if the inherent economic issues aren’t enough, unions are using the raised minimum wage as unions do, corruptly. When the minimum wage in Los Angeles was raised to a $15 wage, the same camp that led the charge immediately began seeking exemptions for businesses that unionized. That’s right, mom and pop, you can stop your business from going bankrupt if you pay the union protection money. And who says they’re still run by the mob?
Let’s get down to the true root of the $15 an hour crusade, laziness. The rally cry of their supporters is “Comfort! People should be able to live a comfortable life!” To which I say, who the hell do you think you are that you are entitled to a comfortable life? We are Americans, we have a world to lead for Christ’s sake, and you, in your youth, want comfort? Comfort is for old men on their deathbeds, not for the young generation to become complacent in. You want to go to heaven on a feather bed handed to you by the government so, in case I’m coming off as too mean, let me completely candid.
You are entitled to nothing outside of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I don’t care if you can’t afford that iPhone or TV you deem ‘necessary’ to survival. I don’t care if you can’t afford to eat out. I don’t care if your choices led to you living on your own working a crappy job somewhere. Our nation was built on the spirit of industry and the virtues of hard work and ambition. The American Dream doesn’t guarantee you a comfortable life, it guarantees you the ability to pursue a comfortable life. Now, if you want to give up and live an unambitious life scanning bar codes and stocking shelves, that is your right, and I can’t do anything about that, but don’t go insisting you deserve more than you’re worth and don’t go wailing about how you’re unable to live in comfort.
If you live in the United States, you live in a free nation, which requires a certain level of responsibility and determination. If you want to define your life with complacency and laziness, I can’t stop you, but, as an American, I have a higher standard for myself.
