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Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
I'm not against raising minimum wage if it is really the best we can do. I am just saying that I don't think it really solves what are bigger systemic problems. The real questions we should be asking is why cost of living is so high and what we can do to keep it down. House prices, rent, energy cost, and food should not be as high as they are and minimum wage increases do not address those problems. In fact, the system pretty much ensures that when poor people get more money, the people that control necessities will just figure out how to take it. In the U.S., a 50% increase over a short period of time will probably also lead to more outsourcing and automation where possible.
Raising minimum wage has become low-hanging fruit for the left politicians to buy votes, similar to how tax cuts are for politicians on the right. Both do not address the major issues and negatively impact some people who are also struggling. It's a slight of hand trick that the government plays to pass on the burden to others while not actually doing anything to solve the problems.
I totally accept that there is just no will to fix the bigger issues though so if a band-aid is all you have, I guess you have to do it to buy time (or if you are a politician, pass the buck down the road). If I had it my way, I would target thing that are actually making cost of living higher than it should be like ban all foreign ownership of real estate and heavily tax anyone who owns secondary properties, and build public housing like crazy. I would nationalize all resource and energy industries to a degree. They make billion from the commons and pay back very little of it. We should try to be more like Norway. They have no minimum wage, but a very high level of nationalized industry and it works for them. And while foreigners can buy property there, there is a residency requirement so you can't just buy properties as investments to rent out. If wanting to be more like Norway makes me a conservative, then I guess I am.
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I agree with you on basically everything, except you're over-complicating what a minimum wage means and the ease with which it can offer those most in need relief with the stroke of a pen.
How many people work minimum wage jobs versus how many people own second homes? Like, should people be taxed higher on a second property? Absolutely. 50% more? 100% more? I'm fine either way as it's basically an obscene luxury to own two homes and I say that as a guy who owns two homes. But does that address the problems a guy making minimum wage of $11.95 in Manitoba faces?
So, no, it's not the best we can do, but it's an immediate and material benefit to the people who need it. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
I'd love to see some sort of cap on how rich people can get, too. There should not be any billionaires, for one thing.