How to Save America

[The Anti-Wisemon]

Right...into Mexico, Central America, and across the Pacific. By "deregulation", I'm beginning to think that you have an agenda to pollute, so where's Captain Planet when we need him?

Actually, msopt things like the cutting down on rainforests is done on government owned land. Why? Because no one wants to devalue their land by ripping it to shreads.

And, yes, I do think there should be some enviornmental legislation.

Yeah, they chose to have their husbands run away when they got pregnant, and they chose to not be able to afford college.

They chose to have that baby, though, didn't they? Maybe something like say, adoption could suit their needs.

By the way, why are we even disccussing this. Their money from their paychecks would still be worth the same.

[Wisemon]

They chose to have that baby, though, didn't they? Maybe something like say, adoption could suit their needs.

By the way, why are we even disccussing this. Their money from their paychecks would still be worth the same.

If you take away the minimum wage, employers will pay people less. That doesn't mean that prices will go down, and even if they do, that's not the issue. Those jobs will still get reluctantly filled by Americans, or readily filled by immigrants, which is the real reason Bush wants more of an open door policy. When companies pay their employees whatever they choose, the C.E.O.'s get richer, the lower class gets poorer, and this country gets more fucked up. I think you're just looking for ways to increase the gap between rich and poor; that's where your views fall.

[The Anti-Wisemon]

If you take away the minimum wage, employers will pay people less. That doesn't mean that prices will go down, and even if they do, that's not the issue. Those jobs will still get reluctantly filled by Americans, or readily filled by immigrants, which is the real reason Bush wants more of an open door policy. When companies pay their employees whatever they choose, the C.E.O.'s get richer, the lower class gets poorer, and this country gets more fucked up. I think you're just looking for ways to increase the gap between rich and poor; that's where your views fall.

Do you know how capitalist economics work?

When there is less money flooding the market, that money will become more valuable. Prices will adjust to fill the gap (and, no, companies do not want to keep the same prices, that would lead to people buying their products less, not to mention the inevitable price wars), and the poor will have MORE buying power. Not to mention that people who cannot get jobs now will be able to get jobs when companies expand (because they can, not to mention when people buy more, they will expand to meet this new demand). It will make us all richer.

Also, what's the incentive to hire illegal immigrants if you can pay Americans the same? The whole incentive behind hiring illegal immigrants is to get around such things as minimum wage laws.

[Wisemon]

When there is less money flooding the market, that money will become more valuable. Prices will adjust to fill the gap (and, no, companies do not want to keep the same prices, that would lead to people buying their products less, not to mention the inevitable price wars), and the poor will have MORE buying power.

Price adjustments aren't immediate, but the effects of taking away the minimum wage laws would be. Let's take Burger King, for example. If they wanted to continue to have customers, they would have to drastically lower their prices. A national price adjustment on everything on the menu would take at least several months. In the meantime, they would lose business, lots of business, but it won't matter, because they'll be paying their employees next to nothing anyway. So it evens out, right? Except for the fact that less money is changing hands, which is the opposite of your goal. Now imagine about a thousand fast food and retail chains having the same problem. The only ones who might benefit are the ones who own the companies, because they're paying their employees less. When the rich get directly richer, it doesn't "help everyone", there's no "trickling down". That's all a load of crap that wealthy people invent in order to get that kind of legislation passed. If they let that money trickle down to help the nation, they wouldn't be the smart businessmen that they are. Yes, the value of the dollar would go up, but elephant tusks are valuable for the same reason...I think I just inspired myself for a poem.

[JamesBond007]

Well, first of all, it could be for two reasons. One, interest rates have gone up in an attempt to stop inflation, causing house prices to rise. A second reason maybe because of a decrease in houses, an increase in demand, or both. In case of the first one, prices would go down if the government were to lower interest rates, and as for the second one, fixing prices would lead to shortages.

I don't know about the intrest rate part of that, I would have to look it up but for the amount of houses to the demand for them I know it's been on the news the past bit. House construction in the area is the most it's been in 20 years and no sign of going down

[The Anti-Wisemon]

Price adjustments aren't immediate, but the effects of taking away the minimum wage laws would be. Let's take Burger King, for example. If they wanted to continue to have customers, they would have to drastically lower their prices. A national price adjustment on everything on the menu would take at least several months. In the meantime, they would lose business, lots of business, but it won't matter, because they'll be paying their employees next to nothing anyway. So it evens out, right? Except for the fact that less money is changing hands, which is the opposite of your goal. Now imagine about a thousand fast food and retail chains having the same problem. The only ones who might benefit are the ones who own the companies, because they're paying their employees less. When the rich get directly richer, it doesn't "help everyone", there's no "trickling down". That's all a load of crap that wealthy people invent in order to get that kind of legislation passed. If they let that money trickle down to help the nation, they wouldn't be the smart businessmen that they are. Yes, the value of the dollar would go up, but elephant tusks are valuable for the same reason...I think I just inspired myself for a poem.

You seriously don't know economics. Why would it be a good thing if your product could not be bought? It would be disasterous for companies in your scenario. Not to mention that it will also take time to change wages.

[Wisemon]

You seriously don't know economics. Why would it be a good thing if your product could not be bought? It would be disasterous for companies in your scenario. Not to mention that it will also take time to change wages.

It's not my scenario; it's your scenario, your pay-what-you-feel eutopia. Wages change a hell of a lot faster than prices. When minimum wage went up, my paycheck at McDonald's immediately changed. If minimum wage were taken away, same idea, paychecks would immediately change. Prices, on the other hand, are sluggish. For instance, oil prices are always at least two months behind. I know economics quite well. I made $1500 in mutual funds, and some of my best friends are finance majors at the top of their class, and they share my political views.

[The Anti-Wisemon]

It's not my scenario; it's your scenario, your pay-what-you-feel eutopia. Wages change a hell of a lot faster than prices. When minimum wage went up, my paycheck at McDonald's immediately changed. If minimum wage were taken away, same idea, paychecks would immediately change. Prices, on the other hand, are sluggish. For instance, oil prices are always at least two months behind. I know economics quite well. I made $1500 in mutual funds, and some of my best friends are finance majors at the top of their class, and they share my political views.

Maybe that's because by law they were supposed to?

Though, there is a way around it. You could simply lower minimum wage gradually. Of course, the increase in employment wouldn't be so drastic.

By the way, "pay as you feel"? That's impossible. Every company has to pay a living wage so that they can get a continuous workforce.

[Gnostic Metatron Prime]

Okay, we're fucked. On Friday, the House passed a law that says that class-action lawsuits can only be tried in federal courts, which tend to favor big businesses. What does this mean? It means that the following types of cases will likely fail:

- Reparations lawsuits (i.e. lawsuits wherein descendants of slaves sue the descendants of slaveowners for compensation for their ancestor's suffering)
- Class-action lawsuits against state defense-of-marriage laws
- Class-action lawsuits against major corporations for faulty or unsafe products

The list goes on. The new law will also kill off most trial lawyers, who tend to provide a lot of financial backing for the democratic party. The government says that this law is necessary because it will cut down on so-called "lawsuit abuse", and to quote Bush, "keep America the best place in the world in which to do business." Now, I addressed this earlier in this topic. There were much better ways to cut down on "lawsuit abuse" that didn't require screwing over the common people.

[Wisemon]

If I were a congressman (D), I'd let them have this one. Those trials don't change the corporations all that often, and the real winners are the lawyers. They need to pass a law limiting the amount of money a lawyer can make (personally) on one of those cases. That way, people will stop bitching about the John Edwards' of the world.