Could raising the minimum wage prevent thousands of suicides?

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Small businesses won't be able to hire as many workers if they can even stay in business.
Not all suicides are because of lower wages.
 
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St_Worm2

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Hi @Johnboy53, I just glanced at the article you posited for us. It talked about the possibility of a $1 per hour raise in the minimum wage resulting in a 6% decrease in suicides among high school grads, during periods of elevated unemployment.

I assume that means a 6% decrease in the suicide rate among those who are employed (I don't believe the article mentioned the details about the group its study was looking at, but that seems logical). Also, it speaks of this advantage occurring during times of "elevated unemployment", which is not now.

Two other problems are these, no one is talking about raising the minimum wage by just a dollar per hour, they're talking about doubling it, or more. That will create two things, 1. higher paychecks AND 2. fewer paychecks, because doubling the minimum wage on many businesses would put them out of business unless they fired some of their staff (raising the minimum wage normally affects EVERYONE's salaries, IOW, not only those who are making minimum wage, but those who are already earning more than that, so the cost of doing business would be GREATLY increased).

I am wondering why that fact isn't considered in the article, because I'm guessing that the number of people who will commit suicide due to the loss of their job (if the minimum wage doubles) will be significantly higher than the number of people who will decide to not commit suicide because their paychecks went up a bit.

--David
 
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timewerx

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Maybe yes, maybe not.

The ramifications of increasing minimum wage would actually NEGATE the benefits if talking of economy as a whole! (Prices of good would increase for example). The purchasing power of minimum wage earners may not increase at all.

A MUCH BETTER solution is simply tax the poor less and tax the rich more by %. This way, market demand will remain more or less the same or may increase slightly.

More dollars would be kept at home too instead of being spent elsewhere as min wage workers travel much less than the rich and spend less on imported goods.

The alternative solution would not only help the poor, it would also improve national economy. It will only cost the rich a bit more.... No more Ferarri's. No more Lears I guess Porche's and Cessna's would have to do.... Is that a horrible thing?? :)

That is of course, assuming the rich won't cheat their taxes!
 
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Sparagmos

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Two other problems are these, no one is talking about raising the minimum wage by just a dollar per hour, they're talking about doubling it, or more.

What are you talking about? We’ve been winning minimum wage increase all over the country, and none have involved doubling the MW. More like raising it less than a dollar per year on average. Here in Oregon we voted to go to $14.75/ hr - over six years. And that’s just in urban counties. It’s gone up either $.50 or $.75 each year. And there are plenty of jobs.
 
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Sparagmos

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Maybe yes, maybe not.

The ramifications of increasing minimum wage would actually NEGATE the benefits if talking of economy as a whole! (Prices of good would increase for example). The purchasing power of minimum wage earners may not increase at all.

A MUCH BETTER solution is simply tax the poor less and tax the rich more by %. This way, market demand will remain more or less the same or may increase slightly.

More dollars would be kept at home too instead of being spent elsewhere as min wage workers travel much less than the rich and spend less on imported goods.

The alternative solution would not only help the poor, it would also improve national economy. It will only cost the rich a bit more.... No more Ferarri's. No more Lears I guess Porche's and Cessna's would have to do.... Is that a horrible thing?? :)

That is of course, assuming the rich won't cheat their taxes!
We don’t have to guess at what might happen, just look at the cities and states where we’ve raised the minimum wage. The cost of goods has not gone up at the same rate as the MW has.
 
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blackribbon

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Maybe yes, maybe not.

The ramifications of increasing minimum wage would actually NEGATE the benefits if talking of economy as a whole! (Prices of good would increase for example). The purchasing power of minimum wage earners may not increase at all.

A MUCH BETTER solution is simply tax the poor less and tax the rich more by %. This way, market demand will remain more or less the same or may increase slightly.

More dollars would be kept at home too instead of being spent elsewhere as min wage workers travel much less than the rich and spend less on imported goods.

The alternative solution would not only help the poor, it would also improve national economy. It will only cost the rich a bit more.... No more Ferarri's. No more Lears I guess Porche's and Cessna's would have to do.... Is that a horrible thing?? :)

That is of course, assuming the rich won't cheat their taxes!

The poor don't pay income taxes. The working poor may even get paid through Earned Income Credits instead of being taxed.

Registration taxes on old cars is less than new cars. In my state, the poor get reimbursed for some of their rental costs so they don't pay the same in property taxes (I make too much so don't get this rental credit).

The only thing the poor get taxed at the same rate as everyone else is on sales tax. However, many necessities such as groceries are tax exempt. (Prepared food is taxed).

However, if we raise the minimum wage, the minimum wage earners may no longer make incomes that qualify them for the benefits of being poor ... so overall, they end of spending more.
 
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Nithavela

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The poor don't pay income taxes. The working poor may even get paid through Earned Income Credits instead of being taxed.

Registration taxes on old cars is less than new cars. In my state, the poor get reimbursed for some of their rental costs so they don't pay the same in property taxes (I make too much so don't get this rental credit).

The only thing the poor get taxed at the same rate as everyone else is on sales tax. However, many necessities such as groceries are tax exempt. (Prepared food is taxed).

However, if we raise the minimum wage, the minimum wage earners may no longer make incomes that qualify them for the benefits of being poor ... so overall, they end of spending more.
Sounds like a beautiful system to keep people poor.
 
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GaveMeJoy

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Hi @Johnboy53, I just glanced at the article you posited for us. It talked about the possibility of a $1 per hour raise in the minimum wage resulting in a 6% decrease in suicides among high school grads, during periods of elevated unemployment.

I assume that means a 6% decrease in the suicide rate among those who are employed (I don't believe the article mentioned the details about the group its study was looking at, but that seems logical). Also, it speaks of this advantage occurring during times of "elevated unemployment", which is not now.

Two other problems are these, no one is talking about raising the minimum wage by just a dollar per hour, they're talking about doubling it, or more. That will create two things, 1. higher paychecks AND 2. fewer paychecks, because doubling the minimum wage on many businesses would put them out of business unless they fired some of their staff (raising the minimum wage normally affects EVERYONE's salaries, IOW, not only those who are making minimum wage, but those who are already earning more than that, so the cost of doing business would be GREATLY increased).

I am wondering why that fact isn't considered in the article, because I'm guessing that the number of people who will commit suicide due to the loss of their job (if the minimum wage doubles) will be significantly higher than the number of people who will decide to not commit suicide because their paychecks went up a bit.

--David

Great observation and example of how someone can write an entire article with imaginary numbers to advocate for a particular agenda and so many people just eat it up
 
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Nithavela

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Why? I would rather make more money and not qualify for the tax credits.
Why would you do that, if you are left with less money at the end of the day?
 
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jimmyjimmy

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Why? I would rather make more money and not qualify for the tax credits.

Progressive lunacy, like a "minimum wage" is a disincentive to be productive.

If you really hate people, give them crumbs rather than encouraging them to earn bread.
 
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blackribbon

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Why would you do that, if you are left with less money at the end of the day?

All artificially raising the minimum wage would cause a person to have less money because everything will just self-adjust up. And since taxes are not adjusted, the higher income will cause a person to be taxed at a higher income level.

Learning more skills and getting a raise without changing the price of entry level positions (minimum) will allow you to have more real money to spend, even with more taxes.
 
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derpytia

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That is of course, assuming the rich won't cheat their taxes!

The rich will most certainly find ways to cheat their taxes or pass off their loss of income off onto the poor by cutting jobs.

Plus, it's the rich that own the government. Why would they impose more taxes on themselves when they could place more taxes on the very people whose labor they make their living off of?

No law, policy, or bill will change anything at all unless the hearts and minds of the rich are changed. And Jesus did say that we will ALWAYS have the poor. So, I think it's safe to say that the hearts and minds of the rich will never be changed.
 
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