Correlation does not imply causation, so you can’t assume that raising minimum wage will increase economic growth. However, it does prove that raising minimum wage does not adversely affect economic growth.
Yet another conservative prediction that failed to materialize. Are they ever correct when it comes to the economy?
Why can’t we assume that raising wages will increase economic activity? What is illogical about that and what exactly does the wage before the raise do?
That part I question and likely won’t be dissuaded on. The rest of your post is dead nuts right.
The reason I said we can’t assume that raising minimum wage leads to increased economic activity is because there are states that did not raise the minimum wage that also had increased economic activity. So you can’t necessarily assume that all economic activity increases were due to increasing the minimum wage.
I agree that it makes sense that it should increase activity, but in the context of this article, I didn’t want to go there.
Well, between you and I then, I’m saying that whatever we lowly workers get paid, we spend in our own communities and in the states for the most part. I’m a self-employed contractor actually and have been since '85. When I make more on a job, I buy new tools or pay bonuses, all sorts of things. When my guys get extra cash they fix their houses and buy toys. More money at some point equates to more fun and more stuff beyond necessities. For a family of 5, that was mine, that mark is over $50,000 a year just to have the basics. And, when I bought more or better tools, we were all better equipped or more capable of doing even more so we were always busy. Same with my guys, they got better vehicles and became more steady and reliable which meant raises and better paychecks, which means spending more and the accompanying economic boost. It goes hand in hand.
If a person makes eight bucks an hour then that person puts there eight bucks worth into the economy. If that same person gets a raise, then there $10.10 or whatever it may be also goes into the economy. Like wise if they made less, only the opposite.
The economy is improving because the economy is improving at this point, wage increases only add to that.
I agree with you 100%.
The point I was trying to make is that in the context of this article, if you were to argue with a tea partier, they would point out that states w/o a raise in minimum wage also had economic growth. So the tea partier would claim that raising minimum wage can’t be used to explain all the growth - correlation does not imply causation. However, raising minimum wage certainly does not cause economic harm, and a tea partier could not refute that.
I’m probably being too engineer-like in my logic.
You answered yourself at the end. You are sort of playing the Devil’s advocate for the teabaggers and they don’t deserve it one bit.
They live and operate in bizarro, opposite world and would chew their own left arm off to keep from doing anything with the left : ) I think that’s called coyote politics : )
If the wages weren’t going up, they’d bitch, they do go up, they bitch. Things are looking a lot better, they bitch. You can’t engineer this sort of crazy or de-engineer it. Best to not consider them in your reasoning IMO.