Re: Congressional Min Wage Failure to be Passed on to next President

Patriot Games <Patriot@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>Ignoring the silly claim that the entirety of the wages paid to a
>>minimum wage employee are "disposable income" ...
>>Assuming constant productivity, Joe, with one fewer employee, loses
>>1/4 of his business, while saving only 1/8 of his costs.  This makes
>>him a loser.  
>
>Only an idiot would assume constant productivity.  If they are getting
>PAID MORE then they must WORK MORE.

Why would someone think that?

If that was the case, then there would not need to be a minimum wage
law to force Joe to pay them more.

>>Meanwhile, the laid off employee goes to a smarter competitor, Sam,
>>who pays him the $7/hr, and increases his sales pro****tionately.
>>Sam's Hero Shop
>>1) 4 employees as $6/hr = $24
>>4) 5 employees at $7/hr = $35
>>Net increase in income is $11, more than enough to make up for Joe's
>>self-punitive cutback of $3.
>
>Joe's "self-punitive cutback of $3" allowed him to pass on a 12.5%
>price cut to consumers.

Why would he do that?  He can only serve 3/4 as many customers (and
hiring another employee to serve more customers would be at the higher
minimum wage, in which case he didn't save any wage money by laying
off, and instead lost the money required in hiring and training a new
employee.)

>Sam has to increase prices 45.83%...

Nope.  Because like most good businessmen, he knows that the increase
in minimum wage didn't cost nearly as much as the added business he
will take away from Joe will provide in profits.

>Sam will be out of business very soon.

Nope.  He'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

>Joe won't.
>
>>25% increase in business
>
>You mean a 25% increase in EMPLOYEES.

Which in a business like that is a 25% increase in productivity (which
is needed to deal with the increased business taken from Joe who can't
serve as many customers).

>His COST increased 45.83%...

Nope. Merely his wages expense.  His rent, utilities, cost of pizza
materials, etc. didn't go up.

I can see that you've never actually run a business.

lojbab
Bob LeChevalier - artificial linguist; genealogist
lojbab@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
   Lojban language www.lojban.org