<p>I think a higher minimum wage will increase the quality of life of poor people. That’s it.</p>
<p>Depends.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say I support protectionism. I am against what most people tout as the “free market”. What having a free market does is allouw power and wealth to be consolidated into the the already wealthy and powerful. You need to have strict government enforced regulation on business.</p>
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<p>How would it increase the quality of life of poor people if it prevents them from improving their productivity, gaining skills, raises the price levels of goods and services, and hurts economic output? </p>
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<p>Explain. </p>
<p>I’m familiar with this perspective, but I often find it analytically unsophisticated.</p>
<p>(Bear in mind I used to be a Marxist-Leninist in my younger days.) </p>
<p>I’m not against taxes, but if the top marginal tax rate gets increased above 25% you start to hurt economic output more than any benefit derived from the services funded. This was Andrew Mellon’s taxation guideline, and the economy prospered under him – until an ignorant president reversed his policies and helped usher in the Depression. Remember, Andrew Mellon slashed the tax rates of the working class by even more, and yet tax revenue increased rather than decreased a year afterwards, enough to overcome a major budget deficit.</p>
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<p>Would you like to run a business under this environment, where the government dictated everything you could do? You see, business is business. There are so many opportunities for “business” that would be stifled. I bet Vehicle would agree, since he is clearly an entrepreneur. If you had an ingenious business model but found yourself blocked at every way by government regulation, I’m sure you’d think otherwise.</p>
<p>And no one would benefit from the economic output that would otherwise occur.</p>
<p>Poor people are remarkably diverse. There are lazy poor people. There are hardworking poor people. The minimum wage hurts the hardworking poor people in favor of the lazy poor people. Why not use an incentive-based welfare system instead?</p>