[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')img]http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/11/11/nyregion/MINWAGE-web1-sub/MINWAGE-web1-sub-master675.jpg[/img]

New York Governor Raising Minimum Wage for State Employees

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo joined a throng of union workers and other supporters of a $15 minimum wage in lower Manhattan on Tuesday and formally announced he would be using his executive authority to make sure it went up for at least one group of workers — state employees.

"This issue is very simple," he told the crowd, whose cheering and enthusiasm was in no way diminished by being outside in cold, damp weather. "This is about basic fairness and basic justice."

Cuomo's announcement came on a day of nationwide protests and rallies, as fast-food workers and other low-wage workers called for the $15 wage and for the right to unionize. They also made it clear that their political support in next year's elections depended on candidates taking on their issues.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/york-governor-raising-minimum-wage-state-employees-35109075

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')img]http://www.trbimg.com/img-5642c77b/turbine/la-fi-1111-minimum-wage-protests-photos/900/900x506[/img]

Thousands march in L.A. as part of nationwide call to raise minimum wage

Several thousand low-wage workers and their supporters marched through downtown Los Angeles to drum beats and whistles Tuesday afternoon calling for a $15 minimum wage and a union.

The march was part of a nationwide "Fight for 15" protest in which workers from 270 cities were expected to walk out in what organizers hoped would be the fast-food industry's largest ever strike.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fight-for-15-protest-20151110-htmlstory.html

[Plantagenet]

Governments don't have to worry about keeping their costs low---they can always just raise taxes.

But the private sector is different---they face competition and they are constantly tinkering and streamlining to cut their costs. The fast food industry is going to see massive disruption by technology over the next 10 years. You can already see it starting----the counter clerks are going to replaced by robots, and the food preparation is going to become more mechanized and automated as well.

[Cog]

enjoy your unemployment because here it comes

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'T')he fast food industry is going to see massive disruption by technology over the next 10 years. You can already see it starting----the counter clerks are going to replaced by robots, and the food preparation is going to become more mechanized and automated as well.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'e')njoy your unemployment because here it comes

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', ' ') We can't let ourselves and our families and our children just wear rags and starve and go hungry in the future, all for the robots, we have to take care of the people regardless of robot workers.

[Tanada]

Time to wake up Six, we are on the edge of Peak Oil, once the decline becomes obvious everyone with a job will be lucky to keep it. The simple fact is, unless you are in a vital industry your job will rapidly lose its importance to your neighbors and government. Wasteful consumption supports about 80 percent of work in the USA. All that waste gets squeezed out of the system once we pass world peak.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'T')ime to wake up Six, we are on the edge of Peak Oil, once the decline becomes obvious everyone with a job will be lucky to keep it. The simple fact is, unless you are in a vital industry your job will rapidly lose its importance to your neighbors and government. Wasteful consumption supports about 80 percent of work in the USA. All that waste gets squeezed out of the system once we pass world peak.

[ROCKMAN]

Six - I don't philosophically disagree with raising the min wage to $15/hr. Likewise I don’t disagree with doubling the current govt tax on motor fuels. In both case there will be loser and winners. But upping the min wage will certainly mean some employers who can’t pay it will lay workers off or cut their hours at least. How many? I couldn’t guess and I don’t think one else can put forward a credible number. But some number will lose their jobs. And that might small enough to justify the improvement of the remaining workers. But that statistical fact isn’t going to make the newly unemployed feel good about their sacrifice.

And as far as: “And there will always be some kind of jobs in the USA”: I don’t think the current 7.9 million US unemployed folks, as estimated by the govt, would agree with you.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'W')hy settle for unemployment or welfare or a job as a fast food worker?

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ROCKMAN', 'B')ut upping the min wage will certainly mean some employers who can’t pay it will lay workers off or cut their hours at least. How many? I couldn’t guess and I don’t think one else can put forward a credible number. But some number will lose their jobs.

[ROCKMAN]

Six - Some make models as you offer and some make models that contradict those models. You're certainly free to cherry pick the ones that support your position. I, OTOH, don't accept either set of models because each makes ASSUMPTIONS to create their model. So it comes down to which set of ASSUMPTIONS you qccept. And since they are ASSUMPTIONS and not FACTS one cannot really say one is more correct then the other. You can only agree or disagree with those ASSUMPTIONS.

That is the weakness of nearly all models.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '.')... the momentum and movement is growing on the liberal side of the income disparity issue.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ROCKMAN', 'S')ix - Some make models as you offer and some make models that contradict those models. You're certainly free to cherry pick the ones that support your position. I, OTOH, don't accept either set of models because each makes ASSUMPTIONS to create their model. So it comes down to which set of ASSUMPTIONS you qccept. And since they are ASSUMPTIONS and not FACTS one cannot really say one is more correct then the other. You can only agree or disagree with those ASSUMPTIONS.

That is the weakness of nearly all models.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'W')e need more machinists and plumbers and electricians and more highly skilled workers and STEM workers and IT workers.

[Pops]

For some reason the working folks gave up on bargaining with the owners. In fact they started electing people who vowed to outlaw it, to offshore jobs, to import cheaper goods tariff free.

They capitulated to the ownership and now blame the immigrants because they can't even get 40 hours @ $7.

no wonder they are offing themselves.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'F')or some reason the working folks .... started electing people who vowed to outlaw it, to offshore jobs, to import cheaper goods tariff free.

[Sixstrings]

Pops is right.

And I'd just add -- $15 is perfectly reasonable. Don't let the onslaught of billionaire and Republican (and banker corporate establishment D) and chamber of commerce propaganda convince you otherwise.

And I feel bad for the conservatives on this forum, you're in a tough spot and you've got lousy leadership at the top -- they're just flat wrong on the minimum wage issue and it's ridiculous, they won't even come back with a compromise position like $10 an hour.

They're sticking to "not one nickel more, and if you keep complaining and I'll replace you with a robot."

Or even more concerning, Trump slipping up and saying wages for ALL AMERICANS are "too high" and they really "ought to be lower."

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')img]http://i67.tinypic.com/9i9to3.jpg[/img]

A worker campaign is shifting the 2016 debate around the minimum wage
Whether or not they turn out to vote, the Fight for $15 has moved the frame.

At last night's Republican debate in Milwaukee, the first question candidates got was something that hasn't come up yet in these presidential gabfests: whether any of them would support a higher minimum wage.

Predictably, they said no. "Wages too high," Donald Trump proclaimed, arguing that they made the U.S. noncompetitive. Ben Carson echoed him, saying high minimum wages just create unemployment, particularly for young people and African Americans. "If you lower those wages, that comes down."

...

That's how the Fight for $15 has operated: by drawing the debate toward its agenda, and expanding the range of policy outcomes that reasonable people discuss, rather than trying to get people excited about a particular candidate's platform.

"I think they’re going to be effective by pushing from the outside, pulling elected officials way further than they wanted to go," says Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, which has bankrolled the campaign.

Trump and Carson even gave their campaign a new rallying cry. After the issue came up in last night's debate, the Fight for $15 sent out a text message to supporters: "BREAKING: Donald Trump just said: 'Wages are too high.' #Fightfor15 response: See you in Nov 2016."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/11/a-worker-campaign-is-shifting-the-2016-debate-around-the-minimum-wage/

[Sixstrings]

Here's Fight for Fifteen's website, if anyone's curious:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')img]http://fightfor15.org/november10/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/599x337.png[/img]


I’m one of the millions of Americans who believe that if you work hard you should NOT have to struggle to survive.

I’m sick and tired of the rich getting richer, while underpaid workers can’t make ends meet.

I am standing up for $15 an hour and union rights.

Legendary labor leader, Dolores Huerta, joins Milwaukee strikers and protesters outside City Hall as they begin their march to the GOP Debate. Politicians ignore low-wage workers “at their own peril”



Orlando workers turned up for $15. Now they’re at city hall to take the fight to the polls.





North Carolina Child Care Worker: “Politicians Hear Me Now, We Are HERE In The Fight For $15”
http://fightfor15.org/november10/come-get-my-vote/