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Exactly. And bringing back trade schools for those kids who don't care to get what passes for an education in the colleges and universities these days would address that problem.

Impoverishing the wealthy to deal with income inequality still doesn't solve poverty. Meaningful and useful skills and opportunities for the self-employed will.

   

The robots argument is moot.
They're coming regardless of the minimum wage. Bank tellers were traditionally paid shit wages, ATMs killed most of them off.
Are you stupid enough to buy a burger made by a robot? Not likely, you'll drop the franchise BS and go back to Mom & Pop's. Where the workers get minimum wage PLUS tips.

Matter of fact, look at the opposition to wage increases: BMO makes "only $1 billion profit" last quarter, acts like its a loss and announces over 1800 layoffs! That's where this shit comes from.

   

Do you buy your cars from companies that use people to assemble them? Do you trust people to weld the unibody frame together that your life will depend upon during an accident?

Or do you buy cars that have phenomenal fit-and-finish and perfect welds because robots do all of that work to the same exacting specifications every single time?

And yes, I'd rather have a robot-made hamburger than one that's been mishandled by someone who doesn't give a shit about food safety and then I spend my three-day weekend shitting myself blind.

   

I'll miss the days when some teenager forgets to wash his hands after wiping his ass and then makes my burger.

   

Most fast food places already have robots to cook. Burger king and Dairy Queen just has $MinWageHire put a frozen patty on a little conveyor that cooks the burger and sprays that stuff on it that makes it taste flame broiled. All that $MinWageHire has to do is put it on the bun and add toppings. A robot could be created to do that. And another one to mop floors. And one to pour drinks.

They might need someone to fumigate the bathroom though. Unless they made the whole thing out of silicone and concrete, and just got a robot to hose it down once in a while.

   

The trouble with raising the minimum wage to $15.00 is you're just going to create a larger demographic of workers making minimum wage. So, unless employers are willing to raise wages across the board this is a non starter because, if you were a skilled worker would you be willing to work for the same wage as an unskilled worker and if you wouldn't, how are you going to force your employer to pay you what you're worth in comparison?

   

http://www.real-time-with-bill-maher-bl ... s-and-lies

   

No. No one 'deserves' a job or a paycheck. They EARN it.

Maybe in the CF everyone deserves a Victoria Cross, right? Wouldn't it help their self-esteem if everyone fresh out of basic training got to pin on a VC?

Isn't it awful that some of the people who don't have a VC feel bad about it?

A business is not a social welfare agency and it is not an extension of the state. Stop acting like it is.

   

I wonder what Maher's response would be if a night club asked him to do stand-up for a reduced fee because paying him so much meant the other comedians had to be paid less.

   

A guy whose wages directly influence advertising costs...demonizing others for making profits?

Epic.

For the record, the CEO of McDonald's (Stephen Easterbrook) makes approx 1/6th what Maher does...while servicing millions more clients per year.

You know what would make a world of difference to those on a low budget? Making marketing costs a small expense...but, that would mean clowns like Maher would have to take massive pay cuts...

   

Well said.

   

The problem here is that people who wants to increase drastically (or not) the minimum wage only see the stereotype of the flipping burger guy working for an evil multinational company (read, McDonald's). The truth is that most people earning the minimum wage or just above it are working for small and medium sized enterprises. They won't be able to absorb the higher wages without increasing their prices that will decrease their sales and bring a lot of them out of business.
This is the case in Canada and specifically in Quebec. That's the example I know best since I live here. Here, about 70% of workers are employed by SMEs employing an average of 16 workers.

   

Poor analogy the "other comedians" in your example are Mahers competitors, not his employees.

   

Did 17 yr old Rensi earn his min wage job more than a 34 yo single mother does today?

   

You're not talking about the same thing. You can't even build unibody cars with hand welds, unless they're priced like RollsRoyces. And Dr Caleb has made the same point as me, those 'flame broiled' burgers have always been automated. But you've gotta be nuts to consider a robotized McD burger, they're disgusting enough already. They'll automate to self-order tills first.
It isn't really that big a deal here in Canada. Everyone already is over $10.00 an hour, you gotta add at least $2-$3 onto that to attract anyone who can walk and chew gum at the same time.
The PITA is known as "compression" when the workers making $15 - $16 an hour now(unionized grocery tellers, starting auto workers, others who've been doing the minimum wage job a couple years or more) go nutzoid over this. THEN the shit hits the fan.

   

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