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Comment by nvoid | Hacker News Reader

Pretty much the first thing about economics. You have/raise a minimum wage, consumer prices inflate and then it costs more to live with that minimum wage.

What do you want to do, keep raising it every year? The market will outrun the government. This kind of thinking is how you end up with a welfare state, where the only way people can live is with their pitiful stimulus check from the government. People want to earn their own money not freeload of other taxpayers whilst sitting on the couch.

I am not going to be that guy that points out a problem and doesn't propose a solution though. The solution is cut back corporation tax and regulation and make it easier for companies to hire people. This of course is what made the west as great as it is today.

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>You have/raise a minimum wage, consumer prices inflate and then it costs more to live with that minimum wage.

I've never understood why people continue to make this argument when there are easily demonstrable counter-examples to the "But you won't be able to afford anything!!!" line of thought.

Look at countries like Switzerland, or even in the US there is Washington DC where minimum wage is $15, and society isn't collapsing.

Have you been to Switzerland? If you had, you would understand that exactly what I said would happen has happened has happened there.

No society wouldn't collapse with a minimum wage, that is not my argument. Logic would dictate that if everyone in a town was making $15 an hour then prices would naturally increase. How can you not see this?

>Have you been to Switzerland?

Yes, I live in Switzerland.

Is it more expensive to go to a restaurant than in America? Yes, sure, but at least the people working there can have a good quality of life and don't rely on tips to pay rent. Prices of things that involve service are higher, true, but wages are good enough here that you can still live really well.

Maybe the average person can't afford to eat out every day of the week, but should they be able to? I feel like this is only possible if you underpay service staff.

I'm not sure whether you're joking or not. Just have a look at rich countries other than the US how they treat workers and what the rate of people having more than one job but still living in poverty is.

Not really, in countries with reasonable sized minimum wage (say 1/2 of median wage) only small percentage of workers have minimum wage.

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