But just wait until there is an election year. You would think, to hear the conservatives talk, that every corporate CEO who belongs to a Country Club will be bankrupted if the minimum wage goes up.
This lie will soon be told once too often, but you can bet it won't be before Georgie! gets through running for The United States' Most Pitiful Reason to Vote.
Economics can be used to explain how a price floor (or, in the case of minimum wage, a wage floor) causes a surplus of the product in question, in this case unskilled labor. Basically, because the employers are forced to pay their employees more than they would otherwise - that is the main reason and reasoning behind the minimum wage, after all - they hire fewer workers to make up for the extra cost. Thus, there is a greater supply of unskilled labor than a demand for it - a surplus. Aside from McDonaldization, which is not a good thing, I really can't think of a good reason to want to hire unskilled labor in the first place.
As for firms making more money from minimum-wage-workers than they're being paid, well, for one thing, that may not even be true; keep in mind that every dollar spent on minimum wage is one dollar less of profits. Second, a firm's making more money than it spends is kind of the entire point behind capitalism: profits = revenue - expenses, or the simple case profits = value of work - minimum wage. And third, anyone living in poverty while their bosses get rich from their work certainly has a right to change jobs.
There is no minimum wage that could ever solve most of the problems relating to unskilled labor - the surplus thereof, the dead end jobs, the lack of improvement available to the working poor. In my opinion, the minimum wage causes more troubles than it solves, and resources should be spent providing many more education opportunities to the poor than are currently available. A requirement for all firms to make all of their revenue and expense information public and easily accessible to everyone would allow Thomas Atkins the chance to see his true worth to the company.
The most popular intepretation is that the song simply represents the pain of being a slave to the typical, everyday minimum wage job. The whipcrack symbolizes that pain, since frequently throughout time, various indentured servants have been struck with whips to stay in line.
Intepretations have also been made about the song's short length, saying it is representative of the small reward that minimum wage workers get for working such difficult jobs.
The song has two synth lines, one very comforting and smooth, the other a bit more urgent which begs the intrepetation of some that believe the song has a city vs. country theme. Stating that while minimum wage can feel like slavery in a city. However, in the country, it's more likely to live a comfortable life on minimum wage.
The song features John Flansburgh on vocals, John Linnell on keyboards and in a guest apperance on the whip is Roger Moutenot, who mixed "Flood."
Why am I going off about my problems? Because none of my friends wants to listen to me complain anymore that's why!
But more to the point: The capitalist system of a free labor market only exists in reality if you are comfortable with the idea of being homeless. I am, but most people aren't. Most people would take that $6.00 an hour job, or even worse that $5.15 an hour job as a cashier at Giant Eagle rather than be homeless.
The minimum wage is a manifestation of the fear of making a living a different way; a fear of living outside of the capitalist wage labor system. If wages aren't regularly raised, there is a bigger chance that people might abandon the system for something that works. But that's not the whole truth, its not an exclusively bourgeoisie fear. The minimum wage is the end result of a negotiation between the owners of capital and the sellers of labor. It is the product of a mutual fear of being left in the cold outside of the system.
The homeless are here to scare you; you too can sink this low! You too can be despised and ridiculed by society! But I'm not afraid! I'll let ya'll in on a secret: you don't need a job to survive.
I won't let fear take away my dignity and work for next to nothing pushing hamburgers and frosties. What dignity you may ask? You haven't showered in weeks! You SMELL! Women won't speak to you! You eat out of the garbage! You wander around all day doing nothing! You have no dignity!
But at the end of the day, I know that my life is a choice.
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