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> Aside from really terrible home experiences for a tiny minority, a part time job for a 15 year old doesn’t need a “livable wage”

Said who? The same people who don't pay internships.

> but we also don’t need to make it near impossible for them to get work experience at a part time job because their skill level doesn’t align with $20/hr.

When minimum wage goes up, other more skilled labor also goes up, and adults will go somewhere better paid. Then the business will have no choice but hire the kids at the $20/hr and they will get that work experience you so want to bestow upon them. It's funny you are trying to twist it like it's gonna be a problem to find work experience for the poor poor kids, while all we know the business care about is how to exploit people at the lowest possible pay.

It's always "think of the children" with a specific crowd, an unhealthy obsession with children, I'd say.

Think of the children and ban XYZ books cause poor children can't comprehend what they are reading (allows us to ban books we don't like)

Think of the children and introduce chat control so we can track everybody and monetize their data (allows us to exploit everybody)

Think of the children and don't raise the minimum wage cause poor children can't find internships and part time jobs (allows us to exploit everybody)

There is a pattern here, not sure if you are ready to acknowledge it.



Your utopian worldview has come up against the reality of 18k people being out of work.

“We are going to increase minimum wage so you can have a livable wage!”

“Yay!…wait now I have no wages. Why didn’t this work like you said?”


> “Yay!…wait now I have no wages. Why didn’t this work like you said?”

It did. https://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/california-minimum...

"Though in the same month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics showed California had approximately 750,000 fast food jobs, roughly 11,000 more than when the higher minimum wage law took effect"

"The Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at UC Berkeley compared Glassdoor job posts and online food menu prices two weeks before the minimum wage raise and 2 weeks after. It found that wages increased by 18%, employment numbers remained stable and menu prices increased by only 3 to 7%, or 15 cents on a $4 burger."

Employment numbers remained stable, which is great, meaning the 18k people now are employed at other places at at least 20-25% wage increase. I will repeat it again: If a business can't afford to pay its workers, the business shouldn't exist.


In Europe we manage to pay fast food workers pretty well, including 5 weeks of paid vacation. Minor part timers earn a bit less but still good. And people can still afford burgers.

Fast food places have to compete with strong unions jobs like grocery stores as well.


Unfortunately Europe has stagnant growth and facing population collapse.

Of course you can offer an easy life when you are burning reserves and ignoring the future.


> Unfortunately Europe has stagnant growth and facing population collapse.

Unfortunately our US counterparts think "growth" means getting obese and dying younger than us:

- https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/ (48-th place in longevity, not bad, almost as good as Albania, one of the poorest and least developed countries in Europe that's not even in the European Union)

And being much much unhappier than us: https://data.worldhappiness.report/table (24-th place, not bad for people so invested in being #1).

I think where the US does shine is in obesity ratings, that's where we see the real meaning of "growth": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_obesity_r...

> Of course you can offer an easy life when you are burning reserves and ignoring the future.

You mean burning calories and looking forward to pension age? The first one Americans need more of, and the second one, sadly, not many Americans live to see.


You're right, we should let the rich get richer.




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