ranger-lord asked: The Congressional Budget Office claims that raising the minimum wage to the proposed amount will result in about 500,000 Americans losing their jobs. Thoughts?
I don’t think raising minimum wage helps anyone, because the prices of everything ends up being raised too.
Several years ago, I was working my first job, in fast-food. On the turn of the new year, minimum wage got raised—but so did the prices of everything on the menu. Since I worked there often, it was very much the easiest place to eat. And yet, after doing some rough math, I found that the minimum wage raise was countered almost perfectly by the raised prices.
And going to the fast-food place next door, I noticed the same pattern. Everything was more expensive.
I don’t claim to be an expert, but raising minimum wage doesn’t seem to help much—as it really only affects the poor. We need a more direct method of taking money away from the filthy and obscenely rich and giving it to the needy.
I’m almost certain that CBO doesn’t actually claim that, and it’s just another misreading perpetrated by the US right wing.
(This is why I love NPR.)