Quote:
Originally Posted by johnclark
The current min wage in the UK is shocking. its like £6.20 or something around that.
The average mortgage is way more that a couple both on min wage could even afford.
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the problem in the uk is the disease of buying houses.
i think the uk is one of the most ownership per population than that of renting. in most other countries (and i think even usa) people rent more than buying. but in the uk people buy like crazy in the belief they will make money from houses. this has resulted in house prices shooting up and also rent is high too.
you can buy a cheap house then rent it out to a family on benefits for almost whatever you want and the government will pay it. one suspects as soon as the min wage goes up rent will go up by greedy landlords.
the logical thing is to simply (as they do in other countries inc some parts of the usa) put a limit on rent. this would automaticly make people better off. the problem is that this would crash the house price and so you would end up with many who own property having negative equalty - by this your paying out more than the house is worth. the reason house price would crash is that many many many buy property to rent, and logicaly if they cannot make as much from renting then the property would be worth less.
the augument for increasing min wage is that it is sugested that if people have more money, then they spend and other firms benafit and take on more staff and so the economy impoves. i belive henry ford did this in a resesion and he claimed that becouse his workers had money they spent and that helped the economy (this is what somone told me anyway).
the min wage does not affect banks and so on. most will pay above the min wage and in any case they (such as banks, insurance and so on) simply increase there charges and so the public pay more for products and services.
someone stated Australia has a high min wage. i also believe that everything is now expensive. in fact many brits who went to live in Australia are now returning back to the uk as its becoming too expensive.
at the end of the day we (uk) now import for more than we export.
much of what the uk buys is from china. even things made in the uk are made with parts from china. the pound shops in the uk buy a bulk of items from china. even a supermarket 'Icland' stated that they got a lot of the pre made meals from outside the uk.
the great problem with the min wage is that we compete with countries that do not have it. and so its those countries that benefit each time they put the min wage up.
this is why to me the min wage is a con. it only benefits a very few people in a temp way. while the result is firms end up having less staff (supermarkets in the uk now are using self service machines) so people have less chance to get a job. and the poor (such as the elderly) find food and other things get more expensive.
the min wage is in my mind a gimick to buy votes but with result that it does more harm than good.
in the old days if you went to a job and it was not well paid, you would simply move to a better firm. but at least you got your foot in the door and gained experience and proved you could work. today why would you take on an 18 year old who has no experience?
also not everyone needs the min wage. if your at home you have no expenses. so even a low pay job will give you more cash than someone with a decent pay job but has many expenses (such as house, car and so on). at least he/she is getting experience and training. and what i someone wants to start a business with his friends. before the min wage he could set up a business and pay his friends a token amount knowing that they would be paid more as the business grows (such as get contracts), but now he would have to pay the min wage eve if there is no work and no income, so unless he can get a loan he cannot set his/her business up.