john edwards wants to raise the minimum wage to 9.50 a hour, why not 19.50? why not 29.50 a hour?

$9.50 an hour...why that's $380.00 a week...and $255.00 after taxes...and $155.00 if they have health insurance through their job...what is he thinking??? Who needs that kind of money? You can sponsor a child in Africa for .69 cents a day...

I always find the debate about the minimum wage to be comical because most of the people making the minimum wage or just above it are teenagers and college students. Almost all of these people will not be making this wage for most of their lives so why do we fight about something that impacts only a small portion of the population? Edwards is just a poverty panderer.

Personally I think we should be more concerned with the excessive taxation of the middle and upper classes. Why should anyone have 40% of their earned income taken away in taxes?

Because raising the minimum wage to the point where it exceeds the worth of a job will cause the job to be eliminated and small business to close. If McDonald's had to pay $29.50 an hour for the rocket scientists they have working there how much do you think a burger would cost.

Raising the minimum wage does not help low income families. It just drives inflation.

When going to Mickey D's have you ever noticed that the "cashier" has to often hunt for the picture to ring up your purchase ? This requires a $9.50 an hour wage ? Give me a break . And as to the elderly working there, they are usually relegated to cleaning tables or sweeping the floors , I'd say they are more deserving than the others.

The real problem facing small businesses is not the idea of paying a higher minimum wage which is at least a fixed cost you can plan for.

The problem for small businesses is the rising costs of employee health care or at least it would be if the minimum wage workers could afford to get insurance.

Because there is always a balance between helping people earn enough to pay their own bills, and raising the threshold too high for businesses to survive.

Given that many states have minimum wages in the $8 range, raising the federal minimum to $9.50 is not anywhere near as dangerous as increasing it to much higher amounts.

Whether even that increase is too much is something for accountants and statisticians to argue about.

But much higher amounts would clearly unbalance the system. That's the answer to your question of "why not".

$9.50 an hour? Wow inflation...

Does anyone realize how much that would hurt skilled and educated workers making $8-$15? What it would do the economy of states that don't have insane real estate costs? Probably not the people who support it..

Well, as long as you can buy lower-class votes by taxing the working class...!

This is a question a lot of people don't understand. People think "oh - raise the minimum wage so i can make more money."

however, this causes businesses to shell out more money to their workers which causes layoffs (because they can't afford to pay everyone 25 dollars an hour). inflation goes up and the economy goes down and all hell breaks loose. businesses start to close because they can't pay workers, taxes, property costs, electricity bills, etc. (and no one wants to pay 30 dollars for chicken nuggets).

so yeah - hope that helped.

I agree with Coragryph, why not? Oh, I forgot, you worship Rush Limbaugh. He pays more than $9.50 for one pill he pops. So if he had no health insurance, for one hours work he would be 50 cents short for a Vicodin. (Street cost of course since no legitimate Doctor will write him a narcotic prescription anymore.)

Well, sure! It won't affect the price of goods and services, now will it? Employers won't pass on their costs, will they? And why should there be entry level jobs, anyway? People shouldn't have to work hard to advance, should they? They should just be given what they want and need so they can stay at McDonald's until they retire. The cost of a Big Mac will be $50, but so what!

liberals have a strange way of allowing people to have more money. they dont support tax cuts or spending cuts, yet they do favor raising what was never intended to be a living wage in order to appease people who blindly think that raising the minimum wage is always a good idea. inflation and basic economic theory seems to escape these people.