[Cog]

Instead of feeding the bloated federal government, we should be starving it into submission.

[wildbourgman]

Sixstrings, I never said it was simply a job killer (which it is) I'm saying that our companies don't have the wiggle room right now. This isn't the Kennedy years, these companies of today as well as our government has a dependency to unlimited growth the margins won't allow what your asking for.

In order to get what you are talking about would we would have to have a much better economic outlook. In my view we have some real pain coming and more regulation won't help that endeavor.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wildbourgman', 'S')ixstrings, I never said it was simply a job killer (which it is) I'm saying that our companies don't have the wiggle room right now. This isn't the Kennedy years, these companies of today as well as our government has a dependency to unlimited growth the margins won't allow what your asking for.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'I')nstead of feeding the bloated federal government, we should be starving it into submission.

[frankthetank]

Just let the roads crumble. Sooner or later, a day comes when there won't be the materials, money, energy to maintain the massive amts of roads in this country. In my city they want to build a road right through the marsh...although the roads we have are in piss poor condition. Madness.

The rich will move by helicopter or MRAP from their compounds to their airstrips/yachts.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', 'J')ust let the roads crumble. Sooner or later, a day comes when there won't be the materials, money, energy to maintain the massive amts of roads in this country. In my city they want to build a road right through the marsh...although the roads we have are in piss poor condition. Madness.

The rich will move by helicopter or MRAP from their compounds to their airstrips/yachts.

[wildbourgman]

Sixstring's, first of all $15 is an arbitrary feel good number. Wage's are dictated by productivity of the worker, the labor market and the proposed jobs profit potential. No government fiat can change the fact that the real minimum wage is always zero in a free society. In countries that still have slave labor I guess you could go into a negative minimum wage territory.

I'm not for an arbitrary minimum wage at all, but since we have one it should always be less than prevailing wage in order not to have regulation price labor out of the market. Another idea would be to have the minimum wage tie directly to inflation but two things would have to happen. First workers and employers would have to be willing to adjust wages periodically which would suck if your getting paid less this month because of deflation results. Also the same folks in government that want the minimum wages to increase are the ones that hate to admit it when we have inflation due to their currency manipulation.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('wildbourgman', 'S')ixstring's, first of all $15 is an arbitrary feel good number. Wage's are dictated by productivity of the worker, the labor market and the proposed jobs profit potential. No government fiat can change the fact that the real minimum wage is always zero in a free society. In countries that still have slave labor I guess you could go into a negative minimum wage territory.

[SeaGypsy]

A few things you said about Australia are wrong. The free public health system runs in parallel with an extensive subsidised private system. Those earning over 50kpa must have some private health insurance, many medicines are copay & when you are old, aged care will bankrupt you if you become dependent on the government system. Our minimum wage system is award based & registered agreement based, depending what you are doing for who determines minimum wage, with the baseline 17.25 being only very low skilled jobs. There are still a lot of people working for free or for a safety net payment 30-50% less than minimum wage. The cities have large black market cash economies & major rorting of systems by unemployed, single parents & doctors. Last, the fuel tax I mentioned is not a carbon tax, it is a liquid fuels tax & has been around for near 40 years, indexed except for a few years, just like wages. The current government was elected with a mandate to scrap carbon taxes laid down by the previous government. We now don't have carbon taxes, but still pay 45 cents plus 10% tax per liter.

[tita]

FYI, in switzerland, we pay 0.85$ of taxes for 1 liter of gas. A gallon of gas costs actually 5.5$. It's the same in Europe in general. (it was around 6.4$ a gallon in 2013)

You may think it is stupid. But, think about it. We import much of our oil we use. When the first oil shock occurred, in 1973, we realized we were a little bit too much dependant on oil. Taxing it was a way to restrain the consumption of it. It boosted the design of lower consuming engines. Public transport stayed competitive, using electricity (which is domestic production). This helped maintaining our railroads, and the know-how of it. Our roads are not over-crowded, needing large extensions of them. AND the impact of the fluctuations of the price of oil is reduced.

The benefits are finally better. But this is 40 years of this policy. So, 10$ of taxes on imported barrels (6.3 cents per liter) looks like a joke tax to us.

[Cog]

Why do social engineers feel compelled to restrain their citizens from purchasing that which they can afford to purchase? Is it some inner urge to play mommy?

[wildbourgman]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')hat would force walmart to pay their workers just enough so they wouldn't qualify for foodstamps and medicaid -- thereofre saving the GOVERNMENT, taxpayers, money.

[tita]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'W')hy do social engineers feel compelled to restrain their citizens from purchasing that which they can afford to purchase?

[C8]

With tons of unskilled, illiterate immigrants coming to the US daily a $15 min wage is very reckless

1. these workers aren't worth $15/hr in terms of what extra value they can produce- so companies automate
2. massive unemployment and welfare costs rise as a result
3. a sub-min wage black market results which brings in organized crime

the reality is that, given current US immigration policy (anybody can come in whatever numbers they choose), the min wag should actually be going down to absorb the new influx of low value workers

we are breeding a mass of idle people primed for violence and revolution

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('C8', 'W')ith tons of unskilled, illiterate immigrants coming to the US daily a $15 min wage is very reckless

1. these workers aren't worth $15/hr in terms of what extra value they can produce- so companies automate
2. massive unemployment and welfare costs rise as a result
3. a sub-min wage black market results which brings in organized crime

the reality is that, given current US immigration policy (anybody can come in whatever numbers they choose), the min wag should actually be going down to absorb the new influx of low value workers

we are breeding a mass of idle people primed for violence and revolution

[Newfie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', 'J')ust let the roads crumble. Sooner or later, a day comes when there won't be the materials, money, energy to maintain the massive amts of roads in this country. In my city they want to build a road right through the marsh...although the roads we have are in piss poor condition. Madness.

The rich will move by helicopter or MRAP from their compounds to their airstrips/yachts.

[Newfie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'W')hy do social engineers feel compelled to restrain their citizens from purchasing that which they can afford to purchase? Is it some inner urge to play mommy?

[Subjectivist]

So basically this was all a noise and light show signifying no serious effort to accomplish anything.

[wildbourgman]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Subjectivist', 'S')o basically this was all a noise and light show signifying no serious effort to accomplish anything.

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'W')hy do social engineers feel compelled to restrain their citizens from purchasing that which they can afford to purchase? Is it some inner urge to play mommy?