Raising the minimum wage would be good for America

[LuckyTheDog]

Notice the comments section. A staffer from the ultra-right Mackinac Center for Public Policy has apparently been assigned chime in on this blog post.

Among the biggest mistakes people make in trying to understand the economy is assuming that it operates much like their own households, only bigger.

Make some things more expensive, and you will cut back on them, right? Given that, it’s easy to assume a minimum wage increase would cost jobs and hurt the economy. However, minimum wage workers represent more than costs to employers. They also are customers whose buying power affects everybody.

A recent report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, found that, instead of choking off growth, President Obama’s proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $9 per hour (up from $7.25) would boost the economy, at least for a while. It would raise household spending by $28 billion to $48 billion in the year following the increase. That, in turn, would provide a small lift to gross domestic product.

That would happen because low-income people spend almost everything they make. We’re not talking just about teenagers blowing their paychecks at the mall. Minimum-wage workers are older and better educated than ever. Increasingly, that money pays for things like food, clothing and housing.

More here: http://blogs.detroitnews.com/politics/2013/08/09/raising-the-minimum-wage.

On edit: I should have disclosed that the writer of this piece is me.

[quinnox]

1. this is an example of a progessive issue that Obama should be giving speeches on and focusing on

instead of defending the Bush-Cheney spying programs. What a change that would be, Obama pushing hard for a progressive issue!

[LuckyTheDog]

2. He has, indeed, been working on this

And had mentioned it in speeches.

[quinnox]

4. He should be focusing all his attention on it, and giving daily speeches about the topic

That is what I mean, not a quick mention in a speech every now and then.

Imagine if Obama spent as much time as he is defending the NSA spying on this instead.

[Recursion]

3. How many more speeches should he give?

I can think of a dozen this year where he's called for Congress to increase the minimum wage.

[quinnox]

5. Daily speeches

[LuckyTheDog]

8. Gee, why not hourly?

Yeppers. Now THAT would convince the Tea Party Caucus.

[liberal_at_heart]

6. I do not support a $9/hour minimum wage. We are too far down the hole.

I love how the fourth paragraph talks about how poor people spend every penny they have. Let's raise minimum wage to $9 so poor people can continue to spend every penny they have and temporarily pump up the economy. Yeah well, maybe if they made a living wage, say $15 or $18/hour they could actually save some too. People being able to save for an emergency or for kid's college or God forbid retirement. What a sin that would be.

[LuckyTheDog]

7. Raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour sounds good - but ain't on the table

So, if support a progressive idea that has been proposed and has a chance of happening, I am still a bad person if I don't hold out for something that has not been proposed and has no chance of happening?

[liberal_at_heart]

9. I don't care what you support. You can support anything you want. I don't bully people like other

DUers do. I was simply stating what I will or will not support.