RESPONSES: Clinton Explains Why Raising Min. Wage is "good economics"

[PrettyPinkDonut]

http://www.occupydemocrats.com/watch...ood-economics/

Explainer in Chief Bill Clinton went on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart Thursday night and broke down in easy to understand language just how raising the minimum wage incrementally will increase employment by stimulating demand in the economy.

�I think we ought to raise the minimum wage because it doesn�t just raise wages for the three or four million people who are directly affected by it, it bumps the wage structure everywhere,� the former President said. �It bumps the wage structure everywhere. The estimates are that 35 million Americans would get a pay raise if the federal minimum wage was raised. �

Clinton noted that many Republicans claim raising the minimum wage somehow destroys jobs.

�If you [raise the minimum wage] in a phased way, it always creates jobs,� Clinton explained. �Why? Because people who make the minimum wage or near it are struggling to get by, they spend every penny they make, they turn it over in the economy, they create jobs, they create opportunity, and they take better care of their children. It�s just the right thing to do, but it�s also very good economics.�

A Dec. 2013 report from the Economic Policy Institute showed that an increase in the minimum wage to $10.10 by 2016, as proposed by Pres. Obama and Democrats in Congress, would directly or indirectly raise the wages of 27.8 million workers. The report also states that if the minimum wage were increased as proposed, affected workers would receive about $35 billion in additional wages over the phase-in period, and the economy would grow by about $22 billion, resulting in the creation of roughly 85,000 net new jobs over that period.

States that have increased the minimum wage have actually seen more job growth, likely caused in part by stimulated demand due to the increase in wages.

The workers that would be affected don�t fit the stereotype of low-wage workers, either. More than one third of the affected workers are at least 40 years old, more than half work full-time, and the average worker earns half of his or her family�s total income.

Although President Obama and the Democratic Party have stumped the country providing sound moral and economic reasoning behind raising the minimum wage, congressional Republicans have dug their heels in and blocked all progress on the matter.

It is crucial for the entire economy that Congress address income inequality now by raising the minimum wage.

[nutsy54]

He forgot to explain where the money comes from to fund those increased wages....

[PrettyPinkDonut]

He forgot to explain where the money comes from to fund those increased wages....

greedy CEO's obviously

[tnel00]

Clinton has never been someone I look to for explaining economic policy

[PrettyPinkDonut]

clinton has never been someone i look to for explaining economic policy

but he created suuuuurplus

[Stizzel]

Increasing costs = prosperty

Sincerely,

Your Gubmint

[PrettyPinkDonut]

IS THERE ANY PROOF TO BACK UP THIS STATEMENT
"States that have increased the minimum wage have actually seen more job growth, likely caused in part by stimulated demand due to the increase in wages."

[CBRob]

Clinton knows what he's talking about.

[PrettyPinkDonut]

Clinton knows what he's talking about.

explain please

[IReallyLoveOats]

The economy is driven by consumerism. Minimum wage provides for that base level of consumerism. But there is a balance obviously, don't get me wrong. Also, every city in the US and developed nation with relative higher minimum wage do NOT experience higher unemployment, as Austrian school of thought-Libertarian economists argue in theory.

[Tekkendo]

explain please

Billary klinton is a practiced LIAR. Doh?


Lol at the libs falling on theri knees to blow a practiced liar in chief.


Nothing the Clintons say is worth wiping your arse with.

[RIKTER]

He forgot to explain where the money comes from to fund those increased wages....

He forgot a lot more then that…he was actually against raising min wage as he felt it was good wedge issue to help (D) run on, specifically being against indexing it to inflation because of that..…just google, how the clinton white house played politics with the min wage..huff post had good article on it…he played politics and purposefully hurt the very same people he "claims" to want to help..

Kennedy wanted to tie the min wage to inflation way back when clinton was first elected and had both houses to do that..wonder what min wage would be today if he decided not to play politics instead??

[Stizzel]

The economy is driven by consumerism. Minimum wage provides for that base level of consumerism. But there is a balance obviously, don't get me wrong. Also, every city in the US and developed nation with relative higher minimum wage do NOT experience higher unemployment, as Austrian school of thought-Libertarian economists argue in theory.

Minimum wage laws create unemployment and higher prices. It's an idea so stupid even europeans won't touch it.

[Mr Beer]

Raising minimum wage cuts the need for welfare. So it effectively shifts the burden from the government to the employer.

[...Rousseau...]

in Economics we measure the deadweight loss created by non free market economic policies or by large monopolylike companies. normally yes raising wages above the market clearing wage causes too much deadweight loss but a lot of nobel laureates now think that higher wages are the missing part of a full economic recovery and support raising wages to at least keep up with inflation.

[jmoney05txst]

IS THERE ANY PROOF TO BACK UP THIS STATEMENT
"States that have increased the minimum wage have actually seen more job growth, likely caused in part by stimulated demand due to the increase in wages."

No. There is none whatsoever. If there is an increase, it is not correlated to the wage increase.

Raising minimum wage cuts the need for welfare. So it effectively shifts the burden from the government to the employer.

Which shifts it to the consumer by higher prices. What ends up happening is othe business has to cut corners to keep their bottom line, which means getting rid of those employees.

Minimum wage is not meant to support a family. Thats what people fail to forget. If you want more money, then you need to take steps that will allow you to earn it. People do it all the time, from all walks of life. This is another way that people can skirt personal responsibility and blame someone else for their shortcomings.

If you have been working minimum wage jobs for 10+ years and are still making minimum wage, the problem isn't the money, its you.

[nutsy54]

Raising minimum wage cuts the need for welfare. So it effectively shifts the burden from the government to the employer.

Except, of course, for all the newly unemployed because employers can't afford to pay them anymore...

PS: Your statement only highlights yet another failure of establishing such a prevalent Welfare State.

[JB05]

IS THERE ANY PROOF TO BACK UP THIS STATEMENT
"States that have increased the minimum wage have actually seen more job growth, likely caused in part by stimulated demand due to the increase in wages."

Have you tried looking? In my region at least, it's pretty apparent. Ohio has a relatively high minimum wage for the region that is indexed to inflation, and also a fairly low unemployment rate

Ohio's minimum wage: $7.95/hour (increasing every year automatically because it's indexed to inflation)
Ohio's unemployment rate: 5.5%

West Virginia's minimum wage: $7.25/hour (federal minimum)
West Virginia's unemployment rate: 6.2%

Indiana's minimum wage: $7.25/hour (federal minimum)
Indiana's unemployment rate: 5.9%

Kentucky's minimum wage: $7.25/hour (federal minimum)
Kentucky's unemployment rate: 7.4%

[CBRob]

[PrettyPinkDonut]

A lot of articles I've been reading seem to support this idea? Are they actually correlating? Are there outside, unrelated factors? If yes, then what are they?

[Tekkendo]

in Economics we measure the deadweight loss created by non free market economic policies or by large monopolylike companies. normally yes raising wages above the market clearing wage causes too much deadweight loss but a lot of nobel laureates now think that higher wages are the missing part of a full economic recovery and support raising wages to at least keep up with inflation.

The same nobel laureates who failed to see the great financial crisis arriving? The same nobel laureates who got hooked on the failed Keynesian school of economics?

And now they are getting hooked on CENTRAL PLANNING?

[Stizzel]

Have you tried looking? In my region at least, it's pretty apparent. Ohio has a relatively high minimum wage for the region that is indexed to inflation, and also a fairly low unemployment rate

Ohio's minimum wage: $7.95/hour (increasing every year automatically because it's indexed to inflation)
Ohio's unemployment rate: 5.5%

West Virginia's minimum wage: $7.25/hour (federal minimum)
West Virginia's unemployment rate: 6.2%

Indiana's minimum wage: $7.25/hour (federal minimum)
Indiana's unemployment rate: 5.9%

Kentucky's minimum wage: $7.25/hour (federal minimum)
Kentucky's unemployment rate: 7.4%

Do you really think this is a valid way to evaluate the effects of minimum wage laws?

[...Rousseau...]

The same nobel laureates who failed to see the great financial crisis arriving? The same nobel laureates who got hooked on the failed Keynesian school of economics?

And now they are getting hooked on CENTRAL PLANNING?

several people warned against a deregulated shadow banking system. have you heard of minsky?

[ZenBowman]

He forgot to explain where the money comes from to fund those increased wages....

Corporate profits are at an all-time high, and bottom level wages are at an all-time low.



Not hard to imagine where the money would come from...

[...Rousseau...]

Corporate profits are at an all-time high, and bottom level wages are at an all-time low.



Not hard to imagine where the money would come from...

you're also an econ major aren't you?

[Jryt]

The issue with economics as a discipline is that it is way too politicised.
You have schools of thought like the Austrians, whose model says that an increase in a minimum wage would necessitate an increase in unemployment, and Keynesian schools which say that economies can always be fixed by demand-side policy adjustments like stimulus, and when both of these schools get directly contradicted by reality the economists and politicians who use them don't say 'oh ok we were wrong' they just try and explain why it wasn't relevant in that particular case.
Except a theory which only applies 'some of the time' isn't a proper theory, and if you are going to work with it you need to stop using its reasoning as the objections to doing things like raising the minimum wage.

If your theory says, minimum wage up unemployment necessarily goes up too, and minimum wage goes up and unemployment doesn't, then your theory is wrong. I don't get why so many people seem to be ok with working in outdated Austrian economic models that have been shown to be wrong.

Then you have a whole culture in the academic field of economics: www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSBqxwIy3mE

Who seem to be fine with conflicts of interest.

So you have large corporate bodies who lobby the government to not increase the minimum wage because they'll have to pay their workers more, and they pay economists to write papers highlighting the dangers of raising the minimum wage, and you have other corporate bodies lobbying the government to continue with the stimulus, using Keynesian evidence and paying other economists to say this, so that people will have money to buy the stuff they make.

So why are we debating decades old economic theory when the system is fundamentally broken, meaning people will never actually be able to discern correct information from that arising out of vested interests.

[Stizzel]

Corporate profits are at an all-time high, and bottom level wages are at an all-time low.



Not hard to imagine where the money would come from...

Look at how well minimum wage laws have been working. Well done statists

[Mr Beer]

Which shifts it to the consumer by higher prices. What ends up happening is othe business has to cut corners to keep their bottom line, which means getting rid of those employees.

Except, of course, for all the newly unemployed because employers can't afford to pay them anymore...

PS: Your statement only highlights yet another failure of establishing such a prevalent Welfare State.

Well, it's not magic, so yes, someone pays for it. I suspect what happens is mostly higher prices though. So here in Australia, the minimum wage is very high. Unemployment is not particularly high. Instead, costs are high. It's expensive to buy, say, a Big Mac.

What this means is that the working poor are less poor than they would otherwise be but there are less rich people because the cost of living is higher. It levels things out and is effectively a form of welfare.

Given a choice between direct welfare from the taxpayer and 'corporate welfare' by raising minimum wage, I prefer the latter. Of course, we could just have zero welfare and no minimum wage, I think that would be a hellhole of a place but others disagree. No-one really knows though because no modern successful nation runs like that.

[Mulyark]

He forgot to explain where the money comes from to fund those increased wages....

From the poor who have to pay higher prices for everything. Where else?

[Mulyark]

Have you tried looking? In my region at least, it's pretty apparent. Ohio has a relatively high minimum wage for the region that is indexed to inflation, and also a fairly low unemployment rate

Ohio's minimum wage: $7.95/hour (increasing every year automatically because it's indexed to inflation)
Ohio's unemployment rate: 5.5%

West Virginia's minimum wage: $7.25/hour (federal minimum)
West Virginia's unemployment rate: 6.2%

Indiana's minimum wage: $7.25/hour (federal minimum)
Indiana's unemployment rate: 5.9%

Kentucky's minimum wage: $7.25/hour (federal minimum)
Kentucky's unemployment rate: 7.4%

The minimum wage in New Mexico's 3 largest cities is $8.50 an hour, $10.10 an hour and $10.55 an hour respectively; and that state ranks at the bottom of every list. NM's unemployment rate is 6.7%