# Dear (rich) people who oppose even a paltry $15.00 an hour minimum wage: **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 8, 2016, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243 "2016-12-08T23:52:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/1 "2016-12-08T23:52:14Z")
**I know there are some (misguided) “middle class” people who also oppose the $15 minimum wage. Relax, calm down, I don’t mean you. Technically. Although why you think I should work at least as hard as you do for far less money, I don’t understand.** Dear (rich) people who oppose even a paltry $15.00 an hour minimum wage: There are a lot of things that deeply suck about being one of the working poor. I’m sure you’re aware of many of them already; probably some of the big ones like no access to decent health care\* or dental care, and toxic pollution in lower-income neighborhoods. But there’s a few other, smaller things that I would like to let you know about. Not that you care, of course. It’s my own fault for never having any capital gains to not be taxed. (or whatever the hell you top-hat and monacle types squirm out of the most, taxwise.) (and want to be called “geniuses” for doing it, too, instead of the traditional word, which is “ **criminal**.”): 1. I would like to eat muesli now and again. I’ve had it quite a bit in the past, and I think it’s delicious, also very good for me. No way can I afford things like muesli if I want to eat all week. 2. I have been wearing the left lens only of a pair of 1-week disposable contact lenses for more than a year. Yes, contact lenses are cheap now. However, the law now requires that you get a **brand new fresh prescription** for contact lenses **every single year.** Period. The exam costs about ten times as much as a box of lenses. And no, medicare won’t pay for it, because apparently a refraction exam for contacts is **completely different** from one for glasses. Yup yup. 3. I would like for buying a once-a-year little feast for Christmas dinner to maybe not completely cost **every single penny** I haven’t spent on one or two modest presents for my son and my brother (–And I know my idea of modest and yours are probably **reeeeeally** different.) Not to mention the utility bills I will have to partially defer til next month, to our further detriment. 4. And, I would like to see a movie in a theater once in awhile. Just **once in awhile**. How are you wealthy investors going to make multi-millions on movies if people can’t afford 60-80 bucks for less than 90 minutes’ entertainment? \*Yes, I’m covered under Obamacare. But there isn’t a doctor within fifty miles who is taking new patients. ---
**Author:** ![IBuildEm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f475e1/32.png) [@IBuildEm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IBuildEm)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/2 "2016-12-08T23:56:25Z")
Quit with this pity party bullsh\*t, you can go see a movie when you want ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/3 "2016-12-08T23:56:31Z")
The minimum wage is bad. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/4 "2016-12-08T23:57:30Z")
> [@](#): > > “At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge, … it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.” > > “Are there no prisons?” > > “Plenty of prisons…” > > “And the Union workhouses.” demanded Scrooge. “Are they still in operation?” > > “Both very busy, sir…” > > “Those who are badly off must go there.” > > “Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.” > > “If they would rather die,” said Scrooge, “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.” _A Christmas Carol_ Charles Dickens ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/5 "2016-12-08T23:58:06Z")
\ You should just work harder, or maybe get a loan from your Daddy to start a little real estate business. \ I’m sorry for the suckage. Hope things improve a little for you in the new year. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2016, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/6 "2016-12-08T23:59:09Z")
> [@IBuildEm](#): > > Quit with this pity party bullsh\*t, you can go see a movie when you want Perhaps there are theatres near you that will take an IOU as recompense, or maybe buttons? You don’t have a fucking clue, do you? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/7 "2016-12-09T00:00:49Z")
I expect most of them think you have far too much, not too little. America is built on the belief that the poor are evil and should be punished; I recall how back during Clinton’s “welfare reform” I’d hear people go into a rage over the fact that people on welfare were allowed furniture or heat. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/8 "2016-12-09T00:00:58Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > The minimum wage is bad. “bad” as in “currently too low for anyone to actually live on” or “bad” as in “it makes it so that rich pricks have to pay decent wage, and can’t suck the profits out of a business so they can buy more useless crap, and that makes baby Jesus cry”? ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/9 "2016-12-09T00:07:49Z")
15 bucks an hour = prices going up = business going down = fewer positions available. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/10 "2016-12-09T00:09:07Z")
Wearing the same contact that long can cause permanent damage, a gradual loss of vision by your cornea (which normally gets it’s oxygen from the air) growing blood vessels to supply oxygen that is blocked by contacts that have been over worn with build up of proteins. You can get contacts from Canada w/o a script, mailed to you, google it. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/11 "2016-12-09T00:09:58Z")
I remember a few local news stories about some middle-class suicides and/or murder-suicides in our last depression. I’m very sorry they had to find out the hard way how a $15 an hour job would deplete their life budget and how they had to stand in line for one. I’m also pretty damn sure their friends who didn’t lose their jobs didn’t jump in to help. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/12 "2016-12-09T00:11:02Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Perhaps there are theatres near you that will take an IOU as recompense, or maybe buttons? > > You don’t have a fucking clue, do you? When they start paying all the help 15 bucks an hour, even the rich will have to mortgage their homes to take the family to the movies. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/13 "2016-12-09T00:15:22Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > I expect most of them think you have far too much, not too little. America is built on **the belief that the poor are evil and should be punished** ; I recall how back during Clinton’s “welfare reform” I’d hear people go into a rage over the fact that people on welfare were allowed furniture or heat. My bold. I proposed this point in this [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=784740&highlight=Calvinism), “…Republican notion that if you are poor, it is a sign of God’s disfavor.” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/14 "2016-12-09T00:18:40Z")
The current MW is $7.25/hr. We know that during normal times, small changes (~ 10%) in the MW have little to no measurable impact on unemployment. Upping the MW to $15/hr is a more than doubling of the MW and is not a “small change”. That will very likely have a significant impact on the unemployment rate Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/15 "2016-12-09T00:19:32Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > When they start paying all the help 15 bucks an hour, even the rich will have to mortgage their homes to take the family to the movies. No, when the start paying “the help” (I imagine the monocle dropped out of your eye when you uttered this phrase) 15 bucks an hour, the rich will get a little less profit to buy more shiny things. It’s not enough anymore for a CEO to make 45 or 50 million/year. They must have MORE. And if that means screwing “the help” over, well they probably deserve it, the dirty wretches. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/16 "2016-12-09T00:20:23Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > My bold. > > I proposed this point in this [thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=784740&highlight=Calvinism), “…Republican notion that if you are poor, it is a sign of God’s disfavor.” You probably thought you were really clever in saying that, too, didn’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/17 "2016-12-09T00:20:54Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The current MW is $7.25/hr. We know that during normal times, small changes (~ 10%) in the MW have little to no measurable impact on unemployment. Upping the MW to $15/hr is a more than doubling of the MW and is not a “small change”. That will very likely have a significant impact on the unemployment rate > > Sorry. Not overnight, obviously. It should have been done incrementally, over many years. But “the help” probably don’t deserve it, so there’s that. ---
**Author:** ![Neo-Calredic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/96bed5/32.png) [@Neo-Calredic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neo-Calredic)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/18 "2016-12-09T00:22:23Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > 15 bucks an hour = prices going up = business going down = fewer positions available. Not true, according to the Department of Labor: [https://www.dol.gov/featured/minimum-wage/mythbuster](https://www.dol.gov/featured/minimum-wage/mythbuster) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/19 "2016-12-09T00:25:21Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Not overnight, obviously. It should have been done incrementally, over many years. But “the help” probably don’t deserve it, so there’s that. We should index it to inflation and let it go at that. The OP didn’t say anything about phasing it in. I’m sure the MW will be at $15 some time in the future. I suspect the OP is thinking short term, but let’s wait until he or she clarifies. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243/20 "2016-12-09T00:28:37Z")
> [@Neo-Calredic](#): > > Not true, according to the Department of Labor: > > [https://www.dol.gov/featured/minimum-wage/mythbuster](https://www.dol.gov/featured/minimum-wage/mythbuster) Yes true. Your cite is talking about a raise to about $10/hour. The OP is asking for $15. According to you, why stop at $15. Let’s make it $30!! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-rich-people-who-oppose-even-a-paltry-15-00-an-hour-minimum-wage/774243.md?page=2)