Ukip! Ukip! Ukip!

[doodab]

The alternative is to remove minimum wage entirely. Doing so will improve the lot of the very poorest.

Ignoring that though, what makes you think that the wealth should be redistributed? Can I assume that you're currently donating the vast majority of your personal income to starving africans?

1. I am not talking about redistributing wealth. I am talking about the distribution of income.

2. What evidence do you have that removing the minimum wage will "improve the lot of the very poorest". None. It's just dogmatic bollocks.

Here is some evidence from the OECD that increasing the minimum wage might be good for the economy as a whole.

● Second, increases in the ratio of minimum to median wages appear to have a positive impact on
the aggregate level of measured productivity. In the long-run, increasing this ratio by
10 percentage points could increase average labour productivity by almost 2 percentage
points. The favourable effect of the minimum wage on productivity may be due to
improved incentives for investing in training, or come as a result of substitution of
skilled labour for unskilled labour. The relative importance of the two interpretations is
key for policy purposes but could not be assessed empirically in the chapter.

http://www.oecd.org/employment/emp/40776638.pdf

I should never have taken you off ignore. You're just a dimwitted troll.

I explained quite clearly why the distribution of income needs to change in order for capitalism to become sustainable already. Clearly following that argument or even noticing it was there was beyond you so I won't waste any more time explaining it again.

[tractor]

...

Why not just make NMW £250 per hour?

Why?

I have no view either way, my comments are quite neutral and matter of fact, I never even understand the claims that are bandied about regarding removing NMW will improve the lot of the poor and no one who makes those claims ever, ever explains how that could possibly be so.

It is quite clear however that even the most rabid right winger snorting down his cigar between courses in his London club has to agree that for a 'civilised, compassionate' society, expecting people to live on 60% of what is considered a 'living wage' does not quite add up. He may laugh at the poor, sick and dying but he would have to agree that taking money off everyone under false pretenses and still having poor, unemployed and homeless is not right. Disregard the permanently unemployable in this because whatever you do there will always be an element of feckless in any society that are happy to let other toil for their benefit.

[d000hg]

That is the most unbelievably stupid remark I have seen on this site for ages. You clearly have no idea of the knife edge margins that many small companies work on.

Oh do be quiet you ignorant buffoon.

[DodgyAgent]

Why?

I have no view either way, my comments are quite neutral and matter of fact, I never even understand the claims that are bandied about regarding removing NMW will improve the lot of the poor and no one who makes those claims ever, ever explains how that could possibly be so.

It is quite clear however that even the most rabid right winger snorting down his cigar between courses in his London club has to agree that for a 'civilised, compassionate' society, expecting people to live on 60% of what is considered a 'living wage' does not quite add up. He may laugh at the poor, sick and dying but he would have to agree that taking money off everyone under false pretenses and still having poor, unemployed and homeless is not right. Disregard the permanently unemployable in this because whatever you do there will always be an element of feckless in any society that are happy to let other toil for their benefit.

What so few of you seem to ignore is that if everyone is paid "the living wage" then prices and costs of everything will go up and the living wage will rise again.

The answer is to remove the waste of the public sector , bring the cost of housing down by building thousands of new homes and enable people to live cheaply.

[tractor]

...

What so few of you seem to ignore is that if everyone is paid "the living wage" then prices and costs of everything will go up and the living wage will rise again. Only because every element in the chain has to maximise their take. 100% guaranteed and the element with the least influence will always, always lose out. Outside of this, you are simply describing inflation.

The answer is to remove the waste of the public every sector , bring the cost of housing down by building thousands of new homes and enable people to live cheaply.

I agree entirely with the second part. It makes me laugh to see in the news today that the Help To Buy scheme facilitated mortages for <8000 people 80% of which were first time buyers. Big deal!! We need half a million new homes A YEAR to keep pace. And it will never happen because people with houses set the policies and/or control the money flow and to increase availability will reduce the 15 quid their own house made in the last 4 nanoseconds (how many of you just recalculated? ) .

[doodab]

What so few of you seem to ignore is that if everyone is paid "the living wage" then prices and costs of everything will go up and the living wage will rise again

Inflation occurs, that's a fact of life. So long as growth outstrips inflation and the results of growth are equitably distributed it's perfectly possible for wage growth to outstrip inflation. This is in fact exactly what needs to happen for an across the board rise in living standards to occur. That is to say it's only when wage growth outstrips inflation that capitalism achieves the "increased prosperity for all" that the dogmatic insist it brings.

[SpontaneousOrder]

Here is some evidence from the OECD that increasing the minimum wage might be good for the economy as a whole.

But bad for the very poorest I was talking about?

...or come as a result of substitution of
skilled labour for unskilled labour.

[SpontaneousOrder]

That is to say it's only when wage growth outstrips inflation that capitalism achieves the "increased prosperity for all" that the dogmatic insist it brings.

You know nothing of capitalism.

[SpontaneousOrder]

Why?

Well this is a question for proponents of a minimum wage. A minimum wage is good, right? Raising the minimum makes people better off, right? So why not make it £20, or £200? Why not £1 million per hour?

[SpontaneousOrder]

I never even understand the claims that are bandied about regarding removing NMW will improve the lot of the poor and no one who makes those claims ever, ever explains how that could possibly be so.

Look for the tonnes of articles (or youtube vids where they're interviewed) by Thomas Sowell (who i find more interesting as a previous marxist in his youth, and a black man old enough to know when inequality was even worse) or Milton Friedman. They'll explain very clearly if you're interested.