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Debating the minimum wage

Whenever I debate the minimum wage, they always ask me “what about the small businesses that can't afford to pay $15 an hour and will go under within a few months if you do that?”. My answer: This argument does not justify paying employees a starvation wage. You don't justify one person's exploitation with the possibility of someone else suffering, and suggest a person making $10 an hour should deal with poverty because if they got paid another $300 a week the business would go under and “then they'd have no job”. At that point, they will go get another job. Tough shit. Capitalism is cut throat, and this is the bed you made. Now you lay in it. If your profits are so thin that you can't afford to pay 20 employees $15 an hour instead of $10 an hour, maybe it's time to go back to the drawing…


Whenever I debate the minimum wage, they always ask me “what about the small businesses that can't afford to pay $15 an hour and will go under within a few months if you do that?”. My answer:

  1. This argument does not justify paying employees a starvation wage. You don't justify one person's exploitation with the possibility of someone else suffering, and suggest a person making $10 an hour should deal with poverty because if they got paid another $300 a week the business would go under and “then they'd have no job”. At that point, they will go get another job.
  2. Tough shit. Capitalism is cut throat, and this is the bed you made. Now you lay in it. If your profits are so thin that you can't afford to pay 20 employees $15 an hour instead of $10 an hour, maybe it's time to go back to the drawing board with your business ventures. It's okay, they love to tout the fact that 95% of businesses fail and that's no reason to give up. You can pull yourselves up by your bootstraps.
  3. They love to pull on your emotional heart strings and ask “don't you care about Main St and supporting local small business?” The answer is yes. Absolutely. And it's for that reason we should band together in a bipartisan effort to break up these monopolies like Walmart and Starbucks. Actually give small businesses a chance to succeed by your city declining the building of these major stores on every street corner. And stop forcing us to subsidize the starvation wage they're paying their employees. If you remove these stores, more people go to a mom and pop shop for coffee. More business = more profit = being able to afford paying a living wage. Most people SAY they're happy to support small business, but will go to Walmart 100% of the time if they can save 20%. If the Walmart isn't there, they have to buy their supplies somewhere.
  4. But then a burger will cost $15! Inflation! This is happening anyway. My old company quickly responded to this situation and raised wages across the boards. The lowest paid customer service position starts at $18.75. It was $14 a year ago. I think it should be $20, but kudos to them. In 20 years when it costs $130 to fill up your tank and $8 for a gallon of milk, are you going to still pay $10 an hour because muh inflation?

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