“So what can we learn from this study? On the data side, we see that everything is proceeding as planned. Nobody’s paying $50 for a burger at McDonald’s, or $16 for a can of tuna at Safeway. Employers wish their profits were higher, and workers are glad they got a raise, but they wish they made more money. Three years after Seattle started down the road to $15, everything is as it should be. Those apocalyptic claims of destruction and business closures haven’t been proven true. One thing the study didn’t explain was why the sky didn’t fall as promised. Why weren’t workers laid off in droves, or replaced with robots? Why didn’t prices skyrocket? Why does Seattle have more restaurants now than at any point in its history? It’s because those workers who saw a raise now have more money to spend in the city around them. Those restaurant workers are eating in more restaurants. They’re buying more groceries. They’re buying more clothes and cars. That increased consumer demand is creating jobs, and more than paying for the increased minimum wage. The $15 minimum wage established a positive feedback loop that created growth in Seattle by including more people in the economy. In other words, it worked exactly as intended.”
— Seattle’s $15 Minimum Wage Experiment Is a Success
(via allthecanadianpolitics)I’m gonna leave this right here.
When you give consumers money, they spend it. When you give old, rich, white men money, they hoard it.
No matter what demographic the rich fall into (though granted the majority is old white men at present) they’ll spend a much smaller percentage of their money on consumer goods, and hoard a larger percentage, because one person just can’t buy that much shit. The actual rich make so much more money than the rest of us that even the fanciest meal at the fanciest restaurant every day of every week doesn’t make a dent.
For people at the bottom end, though there is SO MUCH ROOM to expand their buying. They’ve been making due without for so long, now they can splurge! they can fix what needs fixing and replace what needs replacing!
This is really basic, and it isn’t even a moral judgement against people with wealth. Their money will sit there because one person can only own so many yachts, and their ridiculous over-accumulation of moolah isn’t even appreciably dented by the 8th mansion or the ice cream dish served with a diamond tennis bracelet inside.
bongdanceking 