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by jruthers 4542 days ago
Perhaps, rather than theorize about improving the American minimum wage, look to other countries that have higher minimum wage and evaluate their level of poverty (or lack thereof). Look at Australia and Norway, for example.

Granted, the lack of poverty in those countries is not solely caused by a humane minimum wage - but it's a huge factor, and a positive indicator.

I lived in the US for 7 years and could never fathom how the country as a whole could tolerate such a system.
2 comments
jedmeyers 4542 days ago
The point is that no country behaves as a whole and therefore doesn't tolerate anything. You wouldn't find even two people who agree on all the issues, so how can you expect 310+ million people to agree on one of them? Also it looks like the supply of min wage workers far outweighs the demand for them.
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ddebernardy 4542 days ago
> but it's a huge factor

[credible citation needed]

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jruthers 4542 days ago
m not sure if you'll classify it as "credible" but the wikipedia article on HPI shows a clear ranking of countries that roughly correlates to the minimum wage (higher the wage, lower the poverty ranking). Which.. Doesn't seem like rocket science.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Poverty_Index http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_countr...

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harryh 4542 days ago
Well, maybe.

Or perhaps countries with less poverty are able to support higher minimum wages?

http://xkcd.com/552/

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jruthers 4542 days ago
And how did the process start? The poverty situation in the better off countries didn't start improving because of magical fairy dust.

One end pushes the other end, sure, but you've got to start it somewhere.

People and politicians took action and improved laws, businesses still kept going and the cycle repeats upwards.

I don't see that happening in the US. I don't mind if the change isn't minimum wage (not going to happen in America), but at least do /something/ positive.

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harryh 4542 days ago
Something must be done? By people & politicians? This is the best way to fight poverty?

I agree that it isn't "magical fairy dust" that increases wages. What do you think it generally is?

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