# Local Economy and Big Boxes

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-economy-and-big-boxes/659911
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [June 2, 2013, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-economy-and-big-boxes/659911 "2013-06-02T00:47:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 8

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### Author: ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2013, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-economy-and-big-boxes/659911/8 "2013-06-02T04:01:00Z")

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Marxists who think that hanging the bourgeois‎ from an oak tree will solve all problems are ignorant. Fortunately, that species of “thinker” was as extinct in America as the unicorn even before Saint Ronnie single-handedly dismantled the Berlin Wall.

However, there is another species of thinker gaining strength in America just as ignorant and much more insidious.

> [@Oakminster](#):
>
> Where do you suppose the money to pay a higher minimum wage would come from?..
> 
> The net effect is unlikely to increase the real buying power of minimum wage workers. Raising the minimum wage is not a solution to the problems of poverty.

Oh my. This was discussed in threads three months ago and concepts like demand elasticity and the fact that some costs are NOT proportional to the minimum wage were patiently explained to the Ignorati. After a pause hoping for forgetfulness the Ignorati wants us to repeat the same education. :smack: And BTW, when this is moved to BBQ Pit I will explain in strong terms that I prefer honest ignorance to inventing statistics out of whole cloth and deliberate prevarication.

For example, from an earlier thread on a similar topic:

> [@Obama plans to raise the min. wage to $9 an hour.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-plans-to-raise-the-min-wage-to-9-an-hour/650366/128):
>
> Setting minimum wage high does not affect only lowest-wage workers. All those people who are currently earning between $7.26/hr and $9-10/hr will have to have raises in proportion. Also quite a few contracts specify wages in multiple of minimum wage. So a union worker who currently earns $29/hr will all of a sudden get a raise to $36/hr. That’s quite a jump. The effect will be much bigger than what you expect.

I asked Mr. Terr for a cite, clicked on his links and found only mention of a hike to $10.35 and mention of a contract clause specifying "each rate will be at least ten cents ($0.10) higher than the previous rate in the progression schedule.” I tried to point out to Mr. Terr that ten cents was less than the wage hike and that $10.35 was less than $36, but he had nothin’.

Bah.

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