Isn't the best way to combat poverty is to abolish the minimum wage?

yes

if the govt stopped printing money-5 bucks an hour would be worth something

Obviously not.

How would people earning less than the minimum wage afford to use the shops and services that they work in? Custom would be immediately reduced, and soon fewer people would have any job at all. Those left working would have another wage cut due to ever reducing custom until they were paying no tax or insurance contributions. More people would need more state benefits but fewer would be contributing through tax or insurance contributions. People would keep getting poorer and businesses would not survive the lack of custom making the problem of low wages and no jobs even worse.

Low pay rather obviously is a major cause of poverty and social injustice, and this inevitably leads to increased crime and ill health. Employers should be able to provide a fare days pay, if they can not do this then their business is perhaps not tenable, and will be contributing negatively to benefit costs and social deprivation.

Reducing the wages of the lowest paid people in a society could not possibly end poverty. It is utter nonsense to think that it would.

The 7.95 you quote as a "terribly low wage" is higher than the current minimum wage in many US states.

Not according to history, no. When we had no minimum wage there was far more poverty than there is now.

Yeah sure there were jobs to be had, but they didn't pay anything. People starved while working 14 hour days.

I suppose if you want to look at nothing but the number of jobs and ignore how the people in the country are actually faring, that might be enough for you. But if the only way to "save your economy" is to condemn your people to slavery, I say it's better to let your economy fail.

And then you can scratch in the dirt alongside the rest of us. Maybe you can come up with another theory while you're at it.

Your premise is based on absurd assumptions without supporting evidence. You offer no evidence that companies are unable to hire skilled labor because there are too many minimum wage jobs.

If you want to play the libertarian game, then why not take it to the next level? Why should companies be forced by government to pay wages in actual money instead of just bartering credits to the Company Store?

No. If you look at history, wages have a habit of falling, not rising. When a new industry is established, such as the textile industry, wages are high because there is a shortage of workers. But once the industry is going strong, there is a tendency to cut wages because there will always be people desperate enough to work for less money.

A good way to fight poverty is through education.

it is a pipe dream. I never have confidence an financial argument it is long on idealism and short on specifics. Abolishing the minimum salary could only carry approximately greater crime with the aid of fact large company provider and retail marketplace gamers could collude with one yet another to push wages decrease for working type peoples. additionally, it is as much as business enterprise vendors and executives to layout the path of artwork for minimum salary workers so as that those workers are best. minimum salary jobs usually do no longer enable any freedom related to alternatives of ways artwork is to be accomplished. Any company who's so incompetent that they can't devise an useful business enterprise plan that enables them to locate the money for to pay the minimum salary should not be in business enterprise. The minimum salary contraptions a minimum familiar for employers-and enables to do away with marginal supplies of employment that do no longer make a contribution to larger time-honored financial enhance.

Minimum wage is dictated by the cost of living that can vary from state to state. By abolshing it and paying based on education, skill, or performance, you will have more people living under the poverty line. People who tend to make minimum wage do so not by choice but because their current skill or education level don't allow for advancement. You mean to tell me that a company who doesn't have to pay their employees minimum wage wouldn't just lower their pay in order to make more profit? That's as dumb as allowing politicians to vote to give themselves raises instead of basing that on their performance too.

while I understand what you're saying... I don't think the minimum wage is high enough now to do that much damage to "combat" poverty in any effective way...

in other words, if the minimum wage was $30... yes, I agree with you... but as the current minimum wage is basically in poverty now... I don't think that taking it away is going to create that many jobs or do much at all to combat poverty...

in other words, I don't' think the current minimum wage is high enough to do enough damage to see a big impact if you did away with it...

No.

Labor is global and any industry hiring labor would not be in the United States. Those Americans working in the US need to be competitive. Wages are not just labor costs they are also creators for product demand. You would be missing most of the social value of work if you just looked at labor costs and not the consumer demand gains.

That would greatly increase poverty.

I didn't read any of your rant.