Creeping prices, an effect of the raise in minimum wage in the future?

The tiresome justification for slave wages. But let’s step back and consider for a second the Walmart heirs now worth billions from the simple tactic of routinely paying employees a wage insufficient for them to feed themselves. And this is no exaggeration. If you qualify for food stamps, it is the Federal Government that openly declares that you don’t earn enough money to eat. So you work for a so called living, but are fed by taxpayers. Profits are privatized while expenses are socialized. Get it?

It’s called “inflation.”

@stanleybmanly But let’s step back and consider for a second the Walmart heirs now worth billions from the simple tactic of routinely paying employees a wage insufficient for them to feed themselves.
Not all business owners have it like those who own Walmart. If Larry Lunchmeat who owns a mid-sized restaurant has to pay a min of $10.00 per hour an employee, if doing so with the amount of employees he has will not leave enough to pay the utilities, insurance, etc. what will he do, close his doors and no one works, cut hours the diner is open, gutting any wage increase because those hours are not being worked, raise the price of some or all dishes to cover the payroll, if he has to raise the cost of dishes isn’t that making someone else less likely to afford to eat there

It’s hopefully that the citizens in a country are better and worth more per hour. Larry Lunch meat can hire more teenager’s for less than minimum wage and survive. In Canada under 18 years olds can be paid under the minimum wage

^ Larry Lunch meat can hire more teenager’s for less than minimum wage and survive.
Doesn’t the minimum wage go for all workers legally able to work regardless of age?

@Hypocrisy_Central No. Maybe the states can follow Canada. Under ages workers don’t have to be paid full minimum wage. Usually they are entry level jobs. It also helps employing students who would have difficulty finding jobs.

If the Walmart employees can afford to visit Larry Lunchmeat’s Deli once in a while, maybe he won’t be too bad off, either.

@Hypocrisy_Central you say that prices have gone up already, but there has been no wage increase yet. That means there are other factors, not just wages.

There is much evidence that increasing wages leads to greater demand and businesses do well. Demand has a greater effect on prices than wages.

^ [..you say that prices have gone up already, but there has been no wage increase yet. That means there are other factors, not just wages.
If it is not officially installed I guess businesses here have fast-forwarded it to get ahead of the curve, because most I know working fast food, or big box floor jobs say they are getting $10.00 an hour min wage as of the 1st of this year.

http://www.workforce.com/2004/01/30/labor-and-benefits-expenses-in-supermarkets/

So labor cost is 10% of sales. That is being generous. And then then the min wage goes up 10%. It is so piddly it is laughable. Fuel and electricity and water cost more. And if you want to go balls deep….........

That factors in management. People stocking the shelf are a rounding error.

If Larry Lunchmeat is operating a business in a land with the collective wealth of the United States and cannot afford to pay his employees enough for them to survive, it is the system itself that’s fkd up. If a man or woman has a full time job and cannot afford to eat, it is the responsibility of the government to either mandate that the individual be paid enough to subsist, or assume the obligation of feeding said employee at public expense. If the government provides food stamps to Larry’s employees, Larry is in effect subsidized by the taxpayers.

As long as there are people willing to work for such low wages there will be jobs that employ said people. It is as simple as that. Raising the minimum wage is by nature inflationary because the cards are still out of the hands of the wage slave. People standing up and refusing to be wage slaves need not be inflationary. I’m no fan of corrupt unions but smaller more directed barganing units can still be effective in wrestling some of the cards back into the hands of the worker.

Without having read the answers, price are forever creeping up.

@stanleybmanly If Larry Lunchmeat is operating a business in a land with the collective wealth of the United States and cannot afford to pay his employees enough for them to survive, it is the system itself that’s fkd up
If the wage slaves stocking shelves and flipping burgers want to eat, maybe they should forgo those concerts, fancy Smartphones, designer labels, and other such spending and direct those savings towards better food.

You’re batshit crazy.

Food doesn’t come for free with a two year service contract. And you can’t get second hand designer sandwiches at the thrift store for $5.

@Hypocrisy Central The myth that the low wage work force is restricted to vacuous teenagers of frivolous habits is the mindset endorsed and hooted by the Chamber of Commerce.

^ @Hypocrisy Central The myth that the low wage work force is restricted to vacuous teenagers of frivolous habits is the mindset endorsed and hooted by the Chamber of Commerce.
I am not saying it is, but if Willie Lump Lump finds himself in that situation, he had best use wisdom that some of the so-called luxuries need to be axed from the budget or cheaper alternatives used. Then he may have some coin in his pocket at the end of the month.

Do you seriously believe that the plight of bottom wage workers is due to their extravagance?

@Hypocrisy_Central – Specifically, which extravagances should be cut? The running water or the bus pass?

@stanleybmanly Do you seriously believe that the plight of bottom wage workers is due to their extravagance?
Not saying everyone does it but all of the US would fare better if they lived within their means, if you have to go into debt for things unneeded you are trying to live above your means. I have seen people spend money on their hooch then have to go begging for gas to get to work, or begging for diapers because the money went to a weave and a nail appointment. If you can’t afford the bass boat, the insurance and the gas for it, then one should not have it, even if they can manage, if it is only to be used three times a year it is an expense that is not providing good dividends.

@Seek Specifically, which extravagances should be cut? The running water or the bus pass?
Of course, if one lives that close to the grit, it is not extravagance, but not everyone lives that close, many can give up the $280 Nike for a decent Puma, Pro Keds, or even nameless brand. They can use a basic phone that doesn’t have 5g Web, and a 6mp camera or one the can take selfies, or drive a mechanically sound 2002 vehicle than needing to have the latest 2016 model.

What makes you think all poor people have all of that? If they do, it’s because they were given as gifts because obviously they can’t afford them.
I think people should stop giving poor people gifts. They don’t deserve them.

I know literally no one who spends $280 on shoes. No one. Not a single person. Nor do I know anyone who has a current-model car. Again, not a single person. My phone – and I’ve told you this before – I got for free with my $30 a month prepaid program (which I haven’t had turned on for months, since I can use my phone with WiFi with my Google Voice number.)

Fuck, if I could afford $280 for shoes I might not be in as much pain all the damn time. I could get those sweet orthotic shoes they make for people with my deformity.

^^^Right. I had no cable, no internet, no nothing except a home phone. Shoes and clothes from Goodwill.

H C I think the primary reason for our embarrassing statistics on endemic poverty when compared with other first world nations is the pervasive attitude you express here. The idea that those on the bottom are there “because they are defective.” When you are allowed to define the poor as meth addicts, alcoholics and people selling their plasma to acquire Air Jordans or tickets to rock concerts, there is little empathy for the “undeserving” poor. That you actually believe wreckless and irresponsible behavior the defining characteristic common to the poor is truly disheartening. And I would ask you to consider this: If it were indeed the case, that the poor can be so defined, do their kids come into the world (the ones who outmaneuver the abortions you decry) equally defective and therefore undeserving? It is no secret in this country that the overwhelming majority of people mired in poverty are CHILDREN. Sure we have our winos and guys roaming the streets talking to parking meters, but those are mere outliers and insignificant statistical quirks in a land with Appalachia and Mississippi.

@Seek @stanleybmanly What makes you think all poor people have all of that? If they do, it’s because they were given as gifts because obviously they can’t afford them.
H C I think the primary reason for our embarrassing statistics on endemic poverty when compared with other first world nations is the pervasive attitude you express here.
Not all of the poor have that, must many of who are classified as ”poor” have microwave ovens, heat and AC, hot and cold running water, cable, cell phones, vehicles even if it is a hoopty or a bucket, and 100% of their clothes did not come from the thrift. I would bet my dollars to any one of your donuts that I spend considerably more among the poor (or allegedly poor) and you do. How people perceive the poor usually is misapplied. You see someone wheeling all their possessions around in a shopping cart, or living in a tent, you might assume they have no money or income, but some do, they ended up on the street because of other things other than drugs, drink, etc. but they have pensions, SS, disability or a combo of such. Some use them to get back on their feet, others don’t. with so many congregations trying to do what they believe Christ wants them to do, passing out clothes, food, tents and sleeping bags, some of these people figure why spend my money when those saints will give me a jacket, bring me a hot meal, or there is a soup kitchen to go to, they might give me clothes or a new clean sleeping bag I have money to play with, I don’t have to spend nary a dime for my own maintenance. A person came from Sub Saharan Africa to speak to some of the ”poor” at a service that served food to the poor and homeless. He asked the pastor ”I thought you said these people were poor, they have shoes”. Poor here is rich in 90% of the world. Because you can’t eat steak, you are eating. This man from Africa said if you are not rich over there you are lucky if you get a meal a day, but it is more like eating a meal every other day if not every three days, have not seen any wage slaves or alleged poor having to tighten their belt like that.

@stanleybmanly When you are allowed to define the poor as meth addicts, alcoholics and people selling their plasma to acquire Air Jordans or tickets to rock concerts, there is little empathy for the “undeserving” poor.
The times one would define the poor that way is if their only interaction is handing them a dollar when they are panhandling in front of 7–11, or you drive by them on the street, you deal with them daily for more than 30 minutes you discover who is really lack of mean and who just mismanage the means that can help them.

If it were indeed the case, that the poor can be so defined, do their kids come into the world (the ones who outmaneuver the abortions you decry) equally defective and therefore undeserving?
Whatever situation the baby is born in it had no influence over, sometimes it is just circumstances, sometimes those circumstances or created by the parents

I literally spend all of my money among the poor, as I am poor.

“Owning a microwave” and “spending $280 on shoes” is a massive shift of the goalposts.

OMG. I owned a microwave! What a hypocrite I was! My God. I even had furniture and dishes and flatware.

I bought a chair at Goodwill yesterday. Move over Warren Buffet.

@Seek “Owning a microwave” and “spending $280 on shoes” is a massive shift of the goalposts.
You shifted them; I just punt points through them anyhow. If a person cannot buys Nike, Prada, etc. because they get paid too little has nothing to do with the price creeping up that effects everyone, even if they can afford it

::blink::

$280 is just crazy for a pair of shoes. I know some “wealthy” people and I’m pretty sure $50—$100 is about the going rate for a pair of really nice guys shoes. Most I have paid was like $75 and I thought I was splurging. A microwave can be had for about $8 from a thrift store here.

I have basically stopped paying retail for things. We shop thrift stores, yard sales, flea markets, scratch and dent, craigslist and the occassional kick ass coupon or promotion. The savings at the end of the month is staggering.
Aldi is the shizzz too.