Quote Originally Posted by JohnP View Post
Hi Scott.
Sorry in advance, btw for the off-topic bit, but here goes:
I personally have never had any issue with a "living wage". I am however skeptical that it would help. Saying a company has to pay U.S. citizens a particular amount, without requiring that company to pay its employees in OTHER countries the SAME equivalent amount-does nothing IMHO to solve the problem, but instead encourages companies sitting on the fence to send labor overseas. Raising the minimum wage here does nothing if workers have to compete for their livelihoods with products produced by those who work for so much less that were it done here the people in charge would be dragged out in handcuffs.
It's dirty and most of them do it. It doesn't make it right. Tariffs on such products might not raise what they pay their workers, and no doubt they'd have attorneys find ways around the laws, but eventually perhaps some of them would realize that if they have to pay the same, an American is just as competitive as a Chinese person, and if not, at least they would pay the foreign worker a fair wage.
Now, back to regularly scheduled programming, as I know this has nothing to do with languages spoken....



John P.
I would think that many manufacturing jobs in the US already pay a living wage, so those companies that find that too expensive are already being driven out by current policy. Construction, by definition, needs to be local. Agriculture, service, and some other labor would probably be the main impacts. Crops need to be picked, hotel rooms need to be cleaned, and paying a living wage for such jobs would do away with the argument that citizens don't want them. It removes any incentive to hire illegals into them, especially if penalties for violations were quite high. We would need to be a bit more protectionist on Agriculture. Obviously, some things would get more expensive-- nothing is free.