House Passes Minimum Wage Increase

[WoodPeckr]

I called out payroll taxes explicitly in my post so I'm not quite sure what you point is. I also made the point that we're talking about 500k workers and that it would have no real effect so I'm not quite sure what the point of your last paragraph is.

OTB

It was a response to this nonsense you posted earlier:

You don't pay income taxes in the US if you make 5.00 an hour.

It was shown above that these 500K workers do in fact still pay all kinds of taxes.....

 

[papasmerf]

It was a response to this nonsense you posted earlier:


It was shown above that these 500K workers do in fact still pay all kinds of taxes.....

now you defend the rich????????

 

[Never Compromised]

From an economist friend at UCLA:

I don't think that the minimum wage is going to change things at all. A
bunch of Senators have proposed a "blue card" program for agriculture.

I think that this will push the next round of mechanization because the
problem isn't getting undocumented workers to cross, it is getting them
to work in agriculture.

Remittances to Mexico are no longer growing. Banco de Mexico says all
the growth was because they were improving the methodology; I think that
there is also a factor of once you get your family here, you don't send
as much back.

 

[papasmerf]

I have no problem with minimum wages going up. However reality is if you want to raise people from poverty, you do not raise the poverty level. You work to create economic opportunities where living wage jobs are created.

Upping the minmim wage will not have that effect.

 

[papasmerf]

Creating better paying jobs while we
import more manufactured goods we
used to make here that did pay living
wages?

Please explain.

Seems you just did. Me thinks it is time for FAIR TRADE

 

[onthebottom]

Creating better paying jobs while we
import more manufactured goods we
used to make here that did pay living
wages?

Please explain.

I think you will find wealthier economies tend to have a majority of their economy driven by services sectors.

OTB

 

[onthebottom]

We must be talking in different languages.

The $5.00/hr workers pay plenty of taxes,
not just payroll. All those taxes comes out
of their wages. Ergo, they actually pay a
higher tax % of income than you do, OTB.

Valid point, I should have said income tax.

OTB

 

[papasmerf]

not necessarily true. Wealthier Countries have a higher number of service sector in their economies driven by the consumer but you will find that newer services and products are what continue to drive wealthy economies. A Microsoft, Apple, Intel, Cisco Systems etc., do not tend to manufacture outside their home base until they are very mature Companies. You dry up these new manufactured products and wealthy countries become poor.



bbk

BB stick to the blues


the you know

 

[onthebottom]

Then why are the US service companies flooding China?
Could it be they have the manufacturing engine creating
new jobs?

Because it's cheaper than India?

Take a look at the top 20 economies, you'll find a lot of service dominated economies. Don't listen to Lou Dobbs, it will destroy your brain.

Here are the top 15....

Top 15 economies in the world (by size) - % Services Economy

US – 78.7
China – 40.3
Japan – 72.5
India – 53.8
Germany – 63.8
United Kingdom – 79.5
France – 76.4
Italy – 68.8
Russia – 57.5
Brazil – 51.6
Canada – 68.4
South Korea – 56.3
Mexico – 70.2
Spain – 66.5
Indonesia – 40.8


OTB

 

[onthebottom]

Your point is well taken.
We are living in the post-industrial
information age, no doubt. I guess
I'm outdated because I continue to
believe its in the production and service
of those goods where real profits are
realized.

A question, are Apple and Microsoft
service sectors businesses or they
manufacturing goods. Fact is, are
any computer industries manufacturers
or service sector economies?

When I buy a tax preparation software
product am I buying the product or is it
a service? If you say service, then we
should consider parsing the manufacturing/
service distinction.

Apple would be both a services (software) and industrial (hardware) company, Microsoft is a services business. You and I both work in the services sector as well. Another example is financial services, banks in 2005 made 200b in profits, a third of all corporate profits in America. As "stuff" gets easier and cheaper to produce more effort, and reward is found in the services sector. The simple minded think of services jobs as "would you like fries with that" but most of the highest value professions (medicine, legal, education, intellectual property, entertainment....) are all services sectors.

The key to our continued success in the world economy is our entrepreneurial economy and education.

OTB

 

[onthebottom]

I don't think it's all of one and none of the other.

If you're going to put boots on the ground, like we have in South Korea, you need a heavy infrastructure, superior airpower.... I don't think there are many cyber battles happening in Iraq right now.....

Having said that, we have a military designed to stop a large tank advance from the Soviet Union, one that's not coming. One of Rummsfeld's thrusts was to lighten the US military and make it more nimble - lighter forces, special ops trained and stationed at home. All of that sounds right on to me given our current and future threats. Generals being old men trust what they know and are experts at fighting the last war, thus our current deployment of expensive hardware and 200k troops in

JMO

OTB