Minumim Wage: Should it become a reality?

Minumum wage should become a reality simply because everyone with an occupation would be assured a good amount of money. Enough money to support a family and/or surviving in life (getting food, clothes, ect.).
It's as simple as that.

Minimum wage laws like this are somewhat unrealistic and generally fail to help the poor. This money has to come from somewhere, busniess will not simply take a loss. People working for low wages are working low wages for a reason- their labor has far less value than more skilled laborers. They should be paid market value for their labor, not some government mandated price.

Just because their labor is in low demand and value does not mean that they are not human, and since they are human, they need money to survive in life and buy food and tools and water and such.

Humans should all be treated the same, however, without minimum wage laws, the chance of all humans getting treated at least similarly in the economy is low.

They do need money to survive- but that is not the duty of the employer to get this- it is the duty of the employee- the person to be able to. Working the bare minimum, you should be able to have enough to survive by yourself, so long as you work hard. This is expected, bare minimum jobs are meant for beginning workers such as teenagers.

They can still make money, while it might take a little more work for them to make money they can still make it.

Humans are all treated the same- they have equality of opportunity. Everybody has the same opportunity to get ahead as anybody else (from a government standpoint)- some might succeed, some might fail. It's the game of life. Minimum wage causes problems, included in that is the fact that money does not come from nowhere.

Employees have to be fired, or prices have to rise- either way it either evens itself out, or somebody will lose their job.

"They do need money to survive- but that is not the duty of the employer to get this- it is the duty of the employee"

However, when the employer accepted the employee as his employee, then he took on a responsibility for said employee. This responsibility includes paying them enough so that they may purchase food and clothes and other items essential for living in our society, and have a little cash left over.

"Working the bare minimum, you should be able to have enough to survive by yourself"

As of now there is no bare minimum.

"They can still make money, while it might take a little more work for them to make money they can still make it."

However, in the time that it takes a little extra work to be completed, disastrous things might happen. The employee might get cancer, and the employer might die and the employee will be grieving and not get their money, or some life changing event might happen that will leave the receiver of the event with a disability, whether it be the employee or the employer.

"Humans are all treated the same- they have equality of opportunity."

Then why do we have words such as 'racism' or 'sexism'?

"Everybody has the same opportunity to get ahead as anybody else (from a government standpoint)- "

The government, however, does not always have the correct standpoint. They see things differently than regular people.

"Employees have to be fired, or prices have to rise"

Not necessarily, since most companies have money left over from one month that they did not do anything with, this money could be used to pay the minimum wage for minimum wage workers.

I think the key to this debate is our differences in the understanding of responsibility. You do not seem to understand the idea of individual responsibility, the idea that somebody should be responsible for his or herself. You believe that other people should take care of you, as you said in the opening lines of your closing argument, "[Employers take on] responsibility for [employees]" This is the key problem with your position- you want somebody else to take care of you, to take care of other people 'somebody else'.

It is not the responsibility of the government, nor the business that hires an employee to take care of said employee. It is ONLY the responsibility of him or herself. He or she is grown up, and should be able to handle taking care of them self. Some may be better than others, but the fact remains that people are, and should be accountable to themselves- in other words, they need to take care of themselves. They need to be responsible, not children.

I don't understand your argument under 'no bare minimum', If I were to take that as you said it then nobody would be making any money in this economy. That is clearly not true. People are generally making more than one cent an hour. You might consider the 'bare minimum', the 'bare minimum to survive very well'- something like 15 dollars an hour. I find the 'bare minimum' to be a low skilled worker working in a free market, maybe making 5 dollars an hour. Sure, people making, for example, 15 dollars an hour are doing well right now- but if everybody were to make a minimum of 15 dollars an hour many many poor people would be forced to be fired, or prices would have to rise. Money does not come out of thin air- markets MUST remain efficient, the invisible hand forces this. Furthermore, the wages the average worker makes right now are great in comparison to less free markets. Compare the average earner of the US (Around 40K Yearly) to the average earner in North Korea, a socialist paradise..... Most of North Korea is in poverty, they can't afford very much food, yet alone what most poor can afford here, Clothing, Food, Large houses, VCR's, TV's, Microwaves, Cars, ETC ETC ETC. Poverty is relative- and in the US it is generally simply class envy.

You argue that the time it takes to do that 'little extra work' is more time for a disaster. This argument is illogical in many ways, for one, you could use this argument to support the government having absolutely NOBODY work- ever. In the time it takes regular labor to be completed, any employee can get cancer- so should the government offer free money to everybody? Should the government simply raise minimum wage to 60,000 dollars a minute so that we are all much safer? I think even you would agree that that would be absurd, busniesses would go out of busniess, and the economy would quickly fail into revolution or war.

Racism, sexism, and personal views do not prevent equality of opportunity. Even if racism prevents somebody from getting a job, they still have the same opportunity as everybody else- just not in regards to private individuals. The government still affords them all rights to do whatever they want, so long as they do not interfere with private property. When I said they have the same opportunity from a government standpoint I meant that from the standpoint of less government interference. You are not any longer oppressed by the government for simply being black, you are equal in the eyes of the government.

Your idea that busniesses have massive money that they could use to pay a higher minimum wage are farce. While some larger corporations might make profits that seem larger than other busniesses, most profit is reinvested in the company to expand it. They can't refuse to expand or better themselves just because of government oppression that you recommend. In fact, a great deal of small businesses do not have all that much money to just 'give away', small busniesses are the ones that would be hurt most by these sorts of policies. They do not have much money left over, and they generally hire as few people as possible (They can't afford any waste at all)- Their already high prices can't be risen any more, so what do they do? Try to deal with one less person or go out of busniess- due to government oppression and people who support it, like you.