A visual history of the minimum wage. The light blue shadow shows the inflation adjusted minimum wage.
Students, now that you have debated the minimum wage as a public policy, tell me how you really feel about it. Click on the comment link below and leave your opinion. Be sure to support your opinion with clear reasoning. Also post a response to someone else.
65 comments:
ethan hr.6
Personally, I believe in raising the minimum wage, so my group represented my views well. I think minimum wage is a simple policy to deal with raising the living standards of minorities. It does not cause dependency on aid programs such as welfare or subsidies;it provides people with an incentive to work and to raise their income enough to escape poverty. Many of those who are against minimum wage have the common misconception that minimum wage causes a loss of jobs. This is false. Research has found no correlation between mimum-wage and business failures. In fact, our own state, Minnesota, has seen an increase in employment and a decrease in unemployment since the minimum wage increase of 1996. People who make minimum wage often spend that money on household items. This creates demand for those products, which in turn causes suppliers to increase production by hiring more workers, and by selling more products the supplier recieves more profit therefore balancing the extra cost of production. Also a reason for increasing the minimum wage is the rising cost of living. The government has failed to index the minimum wage to account for the rising prices of goods. In fact, the minimum wage buys less today than in 1970. For those making minimum wage, it should be a path out of poverty but for many it is not enough to escape, and they become dependent on government funding to make ends meet. A country without minimum wage is a country of poverty. Low skilled workers would be forced to work for little to nothing;children would go hungery because their parents could not feed them;the United States would become a country of minorities. Therefore, I believe in increasing the minimum wage.
I will comment when others have written in.
From Mr. Wolla
To get the discussion going, let's start with a provocative statement:
"Anyone who says minimum wage laws decrease unemployment disavows the law of demand and is therefore unqualified to speak as an economist."
~ Nobel Laureate Economist James M. Buchanan
Kaitlyn A.
Hr. 6
In my opinion, raising the minimum wage is not something that should be done. Minimum wage was created to help the poor, but in reality it is only hurting them more. A higher minimum wage will cause more unemployment. The higher the wage, the fewer workers are employed. One study showed that for every 10 % increase in the minimum wage, at least 100,000 jobs are lost.
I also think that minimum wage creates an excess supply of unskilled labor. This can lead to employers discriminating in their hiring and firing practices. If an employer is abusive toward an unskilled worker, the employer doesn't need to be worried if a worker quits. They can easily be replaced.
Since workers are restricted from competing with each other on wage rates, other factors will determine who is hired, (like gender, race, and religion.)
By raising minimum wage, more and more people will have little incentive to go out and work hard for an above average lifestyle. I belive that many Americans will be lazy and slack off if they know that they can make enough money working at a low skilled job that requires little or no post-high school education.
If we keep raising the minimum wage to meet low-income families needs, America will shift from a hard working country to unmotivated people not willing to challenge themselves to succeed at higher levels.
I believe that raising minimum wage is a bad idea. It causes high unemployment rates, unnecessary discrimination and price hikes. It is a policy that has failed to reach its mark. It was created to help the poor but it has had the opposite effect. Hence, it should be left at the current rate. This way if the market demands more wage than that it will automatically adjust itself.
Divya Hr5
In response to Ethan, Minimum wage will raise the standard of living for the poor if they get a job. Most people are under poverty line because they do not have the skills to compete in the market. Hence, raising minimum wage creates more competition. Looking at it from the employers perspective, they would rather hire a person with more skills than a person with no skills. Agreed that it will help some- those who already do well. But it hurts those who are disadvantaged. Further, raising minimum wage causes costs to rise for the company in turn causing the price of products to rise. Like it did for the automakers. GM, Ford and Chryslers paid their employees a lot. Hence, their cars were more expensive. Agreed they paid more, but in the long run, companies like Honda, Toyota, Hyundai and mainly Toyota who paid less are doing better because their costs are low. Hence, they can charge low, more people can afford better quality cars, they make more money, whereas, GM loses market.
Divya Hr 5
I really believe that we should not raise the minimum wage. I think if we raised the minimum wage it wouldn't really help anyone. Studies have shown that raising the wage has led to a 4.6% decrease in employment. Raising the minimum wage hurts the people it's suppose to help. The people earning minimum wage are at the bottom of the employment rung to begin with. They have little marketable skills and experience so their work is worth little. If you raise the wage above the employee's value to the business you force the business to fire the people with little value to the business because the business can't afford to pay them due to the raise in wages. Also if wages were raised, people with higher skills would be interested in that job. The business would hire them because of their skills and they would have to fire the people with little skills, which are the people making minimum wage. Studies also have shown that if the minimum wage was raised we would expect a loss of 145,000 to 436,000 teenage jobs. The price of products would also rise if you raised the minimum wage.
I agree with Kaitlyn when she says that one study showed that for every 10 % increase in the minimum wage, at least 100,000 jobs are lost because as I said earlier studies have shown that raising the wage has led to a 4.6% decrease in employment.
I just believe that raising the minimum wage would be the wrong thing to do in our current economic situation. I believe it would hurt more than it would help.
Amanda Y.
Hour 6
I believe raising the minimum wage is a bad idea. The possible consequences of raising wages far outweigh any benefits that might result if this idea were put into effect. First of all, only 2.7% of Americans are earning minimum wage, and of those half are under 25, so most don't have families to support. Also, raising the minimum wage does have an effect on jobs. The first people to be turned down for jobs are the very people this law is trying to help, the poor and the low-skilled. Employers aren't going to want to hire someone who doesn't have much experience, and those are usually the poor people. People don't look at the law of demand when they say labor markets aren't affected by the wage hike. As the price of labor goes up, employers will naturally hire fewer employees, meaning less jobs, meaning more people on welfare programs, meaning more money out of our pockets to support these people who can't get jobs. Also, with higher wages, this minimum wage increase would encourage more people to look for jobs, possibly encouraging the high school dropout rate or attracting people that should be getting a good education.
This is in response to Ethan saying that the extra profits a buisness would recieve would be balanced out by the extra revenue they would be bringing in from people now earning a higher wage. I don't think that's true. Being a small percent of the working force, I don't think the people making minimun wage would be able to spend so much that it balances out the increased cost of production. Companies will still probably raise the price of their products to make up for their wage losses and that therefore makes it hard once again for the poor to buy their products. I think raising the minimum wage would just sort of bring us back to where we started from, just with more discrimination and unemployment.
mara hr. 6
I am against raising the minimum wage. When you raise the minimum wage, it will raise everything else! The minimum wage was not created to raise a family on, but as an entry level compensation for unskilled work. Fewer than 1/3 of minimum wages earners are families with income below the poverty line- many are teenagers from middle-class homes working for extra money. Raising the minimum wage causes unemployment, encourages teenagers to drop out of school, and prevents some unskilled workers from getting the on-the-job trainging they need. One statisic shows 40% of adults in low-income families NEVER graduated from high school because they believed that the minimum wage would keep rising allowing them to not need an education. But as employer costs and consumer prices go up, employers will hire fewer workers. (Law of Demand) Raising the minimum wage in 1990-91from $4.25to $5.15 has resulted in job losses ranging from 100,000-625,000 and a employment reduction from 3-11% for teenagers and poorly educated adults. As a teenager, I am glad to have found a job in my home town.
mara hr. 6
Ethan... minimum wage DOES cause job losses! My sources state that up to 625,000 jobs were lost when the minimum wage was increased from $4.25 - $5.15. If you can remember the graph that Allie Stocco brought in, as the minimum wage increased so did the poverty level. You state that business failures are not correlated to minimum wage, when in fact my parents had to close the doors to their own business when they couldn't afford to pay their employees. Wage goes farther than the hourly pay rate. As the pay rate goes up, so does workers compensation cost and employee taxes.
First off, I wouldn't mind a minimum wage increase, since I benefit from it. I like making more money, who doesn't? But I oppose an increase because I don't think a minimum wage increase is meant to help high school students. It's supposed to help the poor. I think generally speaking, poor people who are old enough to still be living off minimum wage and supporting people off it probably didn't get much education. Businesses don't want uneducated, inexperienced workers. They want educated people with experience. If the minimum wage is increased, so is a businesses cost of production, therefore, they will demand less workers, and will decrease the number of people employed. Who will be the first to go? The uneducated, inexperienced people the increase is meant to help.
People say that increasing minimum wage helps people get off welfare. They're wrong. Studies show that people stay on welfare 44% longer in states with minimum wage increases than in states without them.
Also, I'm going to anticipate a pro-increase argument. Economists David Card and Alan Krueger showed research which indicated that increases in minimum wage actually decreases unemployment. Many other economists attempted to replicate the results with studies of their own. They failed. David Card and Alan Krueger's research was discredited by economic science, a fact that most pro-increase arguments typically overlook. Why overlook it? Because they realize that though 86% of Americans favor an increase in minimum wage, only 46% of those same Americans favor the increase if it causes unemployment. Pro-increase arguments rely on discredited information to gain public favor.
One last thing, the graph used in class clearly showed that as minimum wage increases, so does the poverty level. So much for that argument.
To Ethan:
For people to benefit from minimum wage increase, they must first get the job. And if the uneducated, inexperienced poor must compete for those jobs, the likelihood of them benefitting from the wage increase is slim.
I believe that raising the minimum wage is a good thing. I personally would benefit from the minimum wage being raised. Like Rachel said, we all like to make more money. But raising the minimum wage not only benefits teenagers like me, but the positive benefits also go to people being paid more than the minimum wage. A positive externality if you will. Also, some people may not be able to graduate to jobs that pay more than the minimum wage, yet they are still doing the same amount of work that someone in a higher paying job does. So why should they be paid less? Another common misconception with raising the minimum wage is that there will be a loss in jobs. That is an untrue statement. It is estimated that in our state alone, 539,000 workers would benefit from a raise. People also think that a raise would only benefit teenagers, but 71% of adults are earning the minimum wage. Minimum wage has to be raised to keep up with the rising prices of the neccesities for every day life. I also strongly agree with what James M. Buchanan says.
And for clarification, the graph used in class shows that as the poverty level goes up, the minimum wage must be raised to help close the gap between the two. If the minimum wage were to stay where it is right now, and the poverty level rises, the gap would become larger.
But, as Sav said during the debate, we aren't dealing with numbers and graphs, we are dealing with real people that need help to bring them out of poverty and create a better life for them and theirs. And raising the minimum wage is what's going to help them.
Kaitlyn A Hr. 6
I agree with Rachael when she says that a minimum wage increase would be good for students working for extra money. A raise is not going to help poor people living in poverty, but it will be beneficial to teenagers working a part time job.
Rachael is right when she says that businesses are not going to want uneducated low skilled workers when the cost of production goes up. Those people will be the first to go, creating JOB LOSSES and even worse situations for the poor.
I don't oppose raising the minimum wage. Maybe it doesn't help all people it is meant to help, but it's got to help at least SOME people. Not everyone who wants or needs a job is going to get a one because of a raise in wage, but some people can benefit, and the government wants to help as many people as they can. I don't think that lowering minimum wage or getting rid of it would be any help at all. It's kind of like an organization giving money and other needs to the poorest countries in the world, who have pretty much nothing. Well what if the organization is only giving $100 a month, well it certainly won't go far, but at least it will help somehow. It would just be worse if they diminished their givings or quit giving completely. A lot of people who have low paying jobs have a hard time getting by, but if they got payed even just 10 cents more an hour, it would help.
I agree with Ethan when he says that raising the minimum wage will diminish dependency on government programs like welfare. When people get more money, they will want to work harder so that they can have a chance at getting a better job that will pay even more; then they can be more independent.
I would consider myself anti minimum wage, seeing as I believe this stature should be abolished.
Using a simple Supply & Demand Curve it is easy to follow my reasoning.
supply (rising to the right)will be 'supply of workers' and demand will be 'demand for workers by firms'(falling to the right) meet a point called equilibrium. lets call equilibrium $6 and 6000 workers.
this means 6000 people will want, and 6000 will have, jobs at $6/hour.
now lets say we set minimum wage at 8 dollars per hour. what happens? firms will only want to hire (about) 4 thousand people. this means 2000 people are out of jobs, also demand for the job will rise so another added 2000 will also be competing for the 4000 jobs
If you plot out the information above there's your proof that minimum wage causes unemployment
I believe minimum wage should be abolished because if it were the market would meet at equilibrium and everyone who wanted a job would get one
Alexi hr. 6
I think minimum wage should be abolished. It may sound kind of extreme, but I would much rather receive one or two dollars than none. Here is my reasoning. If the minimum wage was gotten rid of there would be a market equilibrium for all of the people who are unskilled and inexperienced. yes the wage might be low, but there would be extremely low unemployment. A poor person in this system would still get a small amount of money, while someone who is battling the minimum wage would have been fired and have nothing to live off of. Also in the case with the free market it would be relatively easy for these poor to advance to higher paying jobs by just a tiny increase in their human capitol. Instead of having to compete with more qualified applicants who are unemployed due to the minimum wage increases.
I have to say to Ethan's comment that research has found no correlation between minimum wage and business failures, that those people weren't looking very hard and they most likely weren't economists. It is amazingly obvious that when you increase the cost of anything you can't get as much as you did before. Like if cat food rises form ten dollars to twenty dollars and you are on a fixed income you obviously have to get rid of some of your cats since you can't feed them even if you don't want to lose them. The same is with businesses. They don't want to fire workers, but they can't afford them any more when wages go up in the form of minimum wage increases. And without workers you can't run a business, so your business fails. Therefore I think those researchers were either not looking or wearing really dark sunglasses and couldn't read the numbers.
Alexi hr. 6
I think minimum wage should be abolished. It may sound kind of extreme, but I would much rather receive one or two dollars than none. Here is my reasoning. If the minimum wage was gotten rid of there would be a market equilibrium for all of the people who are unskilled and inexperienced. yes the wage might be low, but there would be extremely low unemployment. A poor person in this system would still get a small amount of money, while someone who is battling the minimum wage would have been fired and have nothing to live off of. Also in the case with the free market it would be relatively easy for these poor to advance to higher paying jobs by just a tiny increase in their human capitol. Instead of having to compete with more qualified applicants who are unemployed due to the minimum wage increases.
I have to say to Ethan's comment that research has found no correlation between minimum wage and business failures, that those people weren't looking very hard and they most likely weren't economists. It is amazingly obvious that when you increase the cost of anything you can't get as much as you did before. Like if cat food rises form ten dollars to twenty dollars and you are on a fixed income you obviously have to get rid of some of your cats since you can't feed them even if you don't want to lose them. The same is with businesses. They don't want to fire workers, but they can't afford them any more when wages go up in the form of minimum wage increases. And without workers you can't run a business, so your business fails. Therefore I think those researchers were either not looking or wearing really dark sunglasses and couldn't read the numbers.
Alexi hr. 6
I think minimum wage should be abolished. It may sound kind of extreme, but I would much rather receive one or two dollars than none. Here is my reasoning. If the minimum wage was gotten rid of there would be a market equilibrium for all of the people who are unskilled and inexperienced. yes the wage might be low, but there would be extremely low unemployment. A poor person in this system would still get a small amount of money, while someone who is battling the minimum wage would have been fired and have nothing to live off of. Also in the case with the free market it would be relatively easy for these poor to advance to higher paying jobs by just a tiny increase in their human capitol. Instead of having to compete with more qualified applicants who are unemployed due to the minimum wage increases.
I have to say to Ethan's comment that research has found no correlation between minimum wage and business failures, that those people weren't looking very hard and they most likely weren't economists. It is amazingly obvious that when you increase the cost of anything you can't get as much as you did before. Like if cat food rises form ten dollars to twenty dollars and you are on a fixed income you obviously have to get rid of some of your cats since you can't feed them even if you don't want to lose them. The same is with businesses. They don't want to fire workers, but they can't afford them any more when wages go up in the form of minimum wage increases. And without workers you can't run a business, so your business fails. Therefore I think those researchers were either not looking or wearing really dark sunglasses and couldn't read the numbers.
I believe that the minimum wage should not be increased. Like we talked about in class, when the wage gets raised it does the opposite of what its intended to do. With the raise, employers wouldnt be able to hire as many workers which means there would be a decrease in demand of work and a surplus of workers. So employers would hire the more experienced workers. Leaving the poor unemployed.
I also agree with Amanda about the the affects of an increase. With an increase people are more likely to drop out of school and not getting any education. Leaving them at the minimum wage level.
I believe that raising the minimum wage is a bad idea. In extreme it should just be abolished. There is proof that for a 10 per cent increase in min wage causes a 1-3 percent increase in high school drop outs. and if you say thats just teens then you are wrong. the higher the min wage the more incentive people have NOT to get a higher education and better themselves. It also does not help single mothers, in fact it would make things worse. It would cause teens to drop out or in the very least apply for the job thus making it harder for the owner to decide who to hire, technically you should say that he should hire the single mother, but he probably will hire the high school student b/c it would be easier to fire the high school student should the need arise (job cut backs, etc.). Not to mention the fact that employers when faced w/ a multitude of applications will merely skim them, looking for different (sometimes discriminating) reasons not to hire someone. So, do we really want employers being allowed to do that I think not. Also, the min wage increase would not help the people w/ wages above the min wage, unless they make below the new min. And lastly the graph that the pro min wage group had in the debate showed that as the min wage increased as the poverty level did also, in fact the higher min wage showed that the poverty level was high above the min wage. It showed the min wage was actually hurting the people not helping them.
Devin hr.5
I am not a supporter of raising the minimum wage. I think it is a good idea, but if you look at the facts it does far more bad then good. Raising the minimum wage is supposed to benefit low skilled workers, but the truth is, it puts thousands of them out of jobs and makes it much more difficult for those without jobs to get a job. Studies have shown that for every 10% increase in the minimum wage, a minimum of 100,000 jobs are lost. That is a huge cost to pay for such a small increase. When the minimum wage is raised, there is an excess supply of unskilled labor, This gives employers an unfair bargaining advantage over low skilled workers. The higher the minimum wage is, the more likely employers are to base who they hire on things such as gender, religious views, or race. Supporters of raising the minimum wage often use the fact that 40% of minimum wage workers are the sole source of income for their families. This is misleading because it lumps single, non-family individuals with families. Only 2.8% of minimum wage workers are single parents. I do think that raising the minimum wage would benefit some people, but the costs of raising it far outweigh the benefits. Sure, it gives people more incentive to get a job, but there would be many less jobs available. Many low skilled workers would lose their jobs, and I believe it's better to earn a smaller amount of money than no money at all, so I don't think the minimum wage should be raised.
Devin hr. 5
I agree with Morgan when she said that the higher the minimum wage is the more people lose incentive not to get a higher education and better themselves. I think subsidizing education to lower income people and families would be much more effective at getting people out of poverty than raising the minimum wage. The more education a person has, the more he or she can get out in the job market and compete for a higher paying job rather than have to rely on the minimum wage to make a living.
Chris hr.6
From my point of view at the age we are at I am in favor of raising the minimum wage. This is only because I am a teenager that would benefit from this. Everyone heard in the debate that raising the minimum wage ends up helping the teenagers more who it is not targetted to help. So with the raising of the min. wage I will be better off. When the question of raising the minimum wage from the whole countries perspective, and not solely for my own benefit, the evidence clearly shows that raising the min. wage would not be the right decision. Unemployment will go up with more people looking for work. The more skilled people will get the jobs and the poor- which are mostly unskilled- will be left out on the streets. Studies have shown that welfare mothers in states that raised the minimum wage stayed on welfare an average of 44% longer than their counterparts in states that did not raise the min. wage. Like the graph made by the team in favor of raising the minimum wage, when you raise the minimum wage the poverty level goes up. Owners of businesses would also be more inclined to discrimnate when choosing new workers cause there would be so many people trying to get a limited number of jobs. All these things point to whats true. That the minimum wage should not be increased. I agree with rachel. who wouldnt want a little extra money when we are teens.
I think that raising the min wage is a bad idea. It is obvious that it does not help the people that it is intended to help. The people that are in support of the min wage think that without the min wage, wages will be so low and it won;t be enough to support yourself let alone a family. but that is not reality. Our market is competitve and if the wages are too low, a company won't get any applications for workers. Another thing is that most of the people making min wage are teenagers and they don't really need a high paying job. If the min wage gets to high, it will give the teens a reason to not go to college or to drop out of school early which in the long run can lead to more devistating affects. When the min wage gets to high, companies will find ways around these extra costs. they will do things like cutting benefits and shipping there company and jobs overseas where it is cheaper. Some compabnies even cut down on their on-the-job training. To some people this can be more disasterous because they might not have the money to go and get a good formal education and so this training offers a good way to learn a job and to help themselves get out of poverty.
In response to Ethan I have to say that he makes some good points but many are not true. Like i said above, of the min wage gets to high companies will shift jobs over seas and therefore completley eliminate those otherwise low paying jobs. I don't know about you but to me a low paying job is better than no job at all!!
I believe that raising the minimun wage is a bad idea and eliminateing it would be most beneficial. i understand that if we raise the wage the incentive to work will go up, but I think that if we eleminated or at least changed the standard of welfare, people would also gain incentive to work,so they can maintain their living style. and since companies would want to lower their wages, I don't think they would be able to with competeing firms willing to pay more, and if they do go down, the pricing system would also have to adjust so consumers would be able to buy products. In conclusion, I think that minimum wage should have never been made in the first place.
commenting on ethans, only few people would benefit from the raising of wages, most would be in trouble because of discrimination, few skills, and possessing an already low income
Aaron period 6
I agree with Rachel an increase in minimum wage would be nice for me, a teenager, but that's not why the increase was put into affect. It's suppose to be to help low income probably uneducated people. In reality it is actually hurting them. With an increase in minimum wage more and more low wage workers are losing jobs. Buisnesses are forced to pay these uneducated people more money leaving less jobs. Raising the mininum wage would not be helping the people it is set out to so it should not be put into affect.
I am against raising the minimum wage. I am not for abolishing it, however. I believe that it should stay intact, but I don't necessarily think that it should be increased. When you start increasing the minimum wage, the employers are forced to hire less people then before, therefore creating job loss. And the jobs that are left will go to more highly skilled workers, which in turn defeats the purpose of raising the minimum wage, because the people who needed raise to get to enjoy the benefit because those jobs are no longer available to them. People would have to start going to back to school (that is if they have the time and the money which isn't likely) to learn skills to perform a MINIMUM WAGE JOB! As I said, it defeats the purpose. Those who think that just raising the minimum wage to where it can be a living wage is not necessarily the right idea. It's nice to think about, but it doesn't work. A raise in price means a raise in competition.
In response to Ethan's comment (I think part of the reason everyone is responding to his is not just because he opposes the popular viewpoint but also because his is nicely located right next to the comment box), I believe that you have a lot of good points and a lot of it is solid reasoning. But I just believe that raising the minimum wage is not the answer. You said that low skilled workers would be forced to work for almost nothing. I don't believe that is true. There would be some wages that would just be too low, and employers would have to raise the wage in order for people to work.
I think this whole problem though starts so early on though. It's the cycle of poverty. People who don't have a lot of money usually live in a area that is not wealthy and therefore does not have the best schools. I think the attention should be focused on education. There are those who simply refuse to learn and rather do other things. Fine, let them. They can go ruin their lives. but what about the others? what about those who do need a good place to learn? Should we forget about them. I am blessed to live in Hibbing, MN where there is a high standard of learning and anyone who applies themselves can go on to college and go on to get a high paying job. They can get there. I think if more places were like Hibbing, there would be a brighter future for more. I think our efforts should stop trying to fill this deep chasm that years have made. Instead, I believe that we should focus our attention on fixing the little cracks. There may be a lot of them, but isn't that where it starts? Isn't that where you are supposed to extinguish a fire, at the base of the flame?
Education=money, anyway you look at it.
Okay, I hope you can decifer what I said. Because sometimes I think so fast that my fingers can't catch up and I skip over a lot of words.
Melissa N. hr.6
I am against the minimum wage increase because it is hurting a lot of people. It is designed to help low-income workers that are probably uneducated, but it really doesnt help them that much. If the minimum wage was increased, employers cant hire as many people because it would cost them too much. And, if you think about it, how many unemployed people right now would go out and find a job if the minimum wage was raised by a couple dollars? not many. For teens, a min. wage increase would be lovely, but its not just about them, its about the whole economy. Therefore, I am against the minimum wage increase.
I agree with Amanda when she says that only %2.7 of Americans have min. wage jobs and employers want to hire people with more skills. People that are relying on the min. wage need to go out and get an education and get off their lazy butts. if the min. wage is increased people will have no incentives to get an education.
I too agree with Rachel. I was pretty pumped when I heard minimum wage was going to be increased to $7.25 and hour. But now after learning the facts, I am against minimum wage. I do not need the extra 25 cents per hour. I would rather sacrifice that small increase for more people in our country to have a job. Like Eric said, " Antonio should not have to walk 7 miles to work." Minimum wage is not helping the people it should. There are only a select group of teenagers that can actually use the increase. Most of the teenagers that are benefiting are coming from middle class families like myself. The poor families making under $10000 dollars per year need a job before a teenager gets paid and extra quarter to flip burgers. 65% of the families making under $10000 per year do not have a job. The number of families that make less than $10000 per year increased when the minimum wage was increased because the potential worker pool got bigger. This made more competition for even fewer jobs. This law is just yet another law government made with a good heart that carried bad consequences.
I do not support the minimum wage. this is because I do not support excessive government regulations because to an economy as a whole it is inefficient. If people are unskilled and are not getting enough money they happen to be in a nation that gives them great opportunity to better themselves through education. If they do not take advantage of that it is not the responsibility of the government to make up the difference through a higher minimum wage.
drew 6
Raising the minimum wage would help me but only for the next year or so. During that time I really don’t need a job anyway because I have no one to support. I think that is the case with most minimum wage workers. In fact, only one in five workers who earn the minimum wage are in a household that has a below poverty level income. So raising the minimum wage would not be helping many of the people it is meant to. Raising it would also decrease the number of jobs and make those remaining jobs harder to get. Some facts: ½ of welfare recipients have trouble reading, writing, and doing basic arithmetic, only ⅓ have the skills required to work at a minimum wage position, and only 10% of new jobs are available to these workers.
bekah hour 5
At first, I was all for the minimum wage increase, more money for those who work those jobs? Okay! It not only teenagers that benefit, but families benefit too. 40% I believe of those workers are the sole breadwinners for their family, so why not raise it? It would throw off the equilibrium and has actually increased the unemployment rate. Most of those people living on minimum wage don't have a very good education, and you need that basically to earn money today. I agree with Rachel in the way that after an increase, the unskilled workers would have to compete most likely against someone with a higher education, so they would loose the job to those people probably. I do, however, feel for those people and families living on that small amount of income each year.
I agree with Drew’s thoughts that Government should stay out of the economy and that everyone has opportunity in this country and it is only their fault if they don’t use it.
I also agree with Rachel in saying that Ethan is wrong.
Raising the minimum wage is a bad idea. For one, if the price rises, more people will want to have jobs. Yeah, that is a good thing, but more competition for the job leaves the people who don't have many skills and who need it the most out of a job. Second, even if someone starts at a minimum wage, does not mean that they are going to stay at that wage forever. Within one year of getting a minimum wage job, many people receive raises because of their hard working skills. A promotion is also in line for the ones who push for it.
More competition leaves room for employers to discriminate more. The company will not only choose the higher skilled workers but they might judge a person by what they look like: what color they are, their height, and their weight. I'm not saying that every employer does it, but some do. Prejudice people are out there. We can't get around that.
Lynda 5
In disagreement with Emily and Ethan, I don't believe that raising the minimum will give much more incentive for people to go back to school and get a better education. It is a very good thought, but many people just do not have the drive. Also, as we saw in the supply and demand curves yesterday, they both are pretty inelastic when the price increases or decreases. There is not a big difference in the number of people wanting or receiving jobs when the price goes from $8 to $10.
Lynda 5
Honestly, I don't really have a stand point on raising the minimum wage or not. I think that we should and should not have it. The reason I think we should is so that workers who have families to raise can earn enough income and not live in poverty and so they don't have to keep up with inflation. while diapers and clothes for their children sky rises, they have to worry if they'll have enough money left after taxes and other bills they have to pay. i think we shouldn't have it because it takes away more benefits that the poor value more than money. and because raising a minimum wage, it drives out the incentive to work hard and earn good living. The more experience one has working and is doing a great job at it might get a raise from his boss or a new higher paying job in the company. but i don't think the minimum wage causes more unemployment, it might if it were raised all the time every single year but since its raised once in while when we actually need it, it creates more jobs. in conclusion i think we need it and don't need it. its basically there to balance out our economy. you need something but you don't need the other part to go with it. that's what i think about the minimum wage.
Kaylee Hr.5
I'm also with wheaton and agree with Drew. I am also against the minimum wage. I dunno if I'd say do away with it all together though. I understand how when people say they'd rather make $1 or $2 than no money at all, but I couldn't see taking it away all together ending out good. Maybe it's just me but I see it turning out with destruction hah.. but yeah raising minimum wage just means looking for better workers and that disregards the poor people who are looking for jobs and with this they won't be able to get a job.
justin h p5
I disagree with ethan because for people to benefit from minimum wage increase, they must first get the job. And if the uneducated poor must compete for those jobs, the chances of them benefitting from the wage increase is unlikely
drew 6
Maggie Hr. 6
I think i agree with the majority of the people on this page that raising the minimum raise isn't the best thing and shouldn't be done. From my view point, if the minimum wage is raised it will diminished peoples motivation to work hard to get an education so they can get a higher paying, better job. From my experience at working on minimum wage when it was $5.15, it made me realize how much i never wanted to do that kind of work. It has definatly motivated me to continue my education so i don't have to work for that rate.
Another reason why i think that we should not increase minimum wage is because it causes jobs to be lost. If jobs are lost that isnt helping the poor make money. It is cutting out possiblilites for them to work. If it stays at what it is right now, the amount of jobs that can be given to the poor will be a lot more than if the minimum wage was raised.
I think that raising the minimum wage wouldn't be the smartest thing to do right now because of the poor condition of our economy. Maybe if the economy was in better shape i would rethink my opinion in raising the minimum wage.
Commenting on Ethan's.... I do believe that raising the minimum wage will better the standard of living for the poor, but if you do raise the minimum wage, jobs are being lost so this will help a slim amount of the poor because most of them will not be able to find a job.
I believe that minimum wage should be discontinued, because it costs jobs by increasing the supply of workers and decreasing the demand for workers by the employers. It also would have a great affect on the economy by allowing business to achieve greater efficiency, which in return lower prices for the consumers. Minimum wage gives businesses an additional incemtive to mechanize duties previously held by humans, causing a loss in jobs.
I would have to disagree with Ethan on minimum wage, because raising minimum wage destroys jobs that are needed and only benefits life for some people who already have a job, unlike most. If you did abolish minimum wage there would be a drop in food prices and it would create more jobs for others.
Kyle Jamar 6th hour-
From the the standpoint of a teenager i agree with raising the minimum wage only becuase it might then raise my salary but the main focus of the minimum wage is on the working poor. The minumum wage law is a great example of a law that was meant to help the poor but instead ends up hurting them. The vast majority of minimum wage jobs are unskilled labor that can easily be outsourced if the minimum wage is increased which would leave the minimum wage workers unemployed. Also if the minimum wage is raised then employers are allowed to discriminate between who they hire due to the amount of applicants increasing. i also agree with what KT says when she talked about how raising the minumum wage would cause people to become lazy and less motivated because they will now make more for a rather simple job. i also agree with weez when she says the people getting paid need to stop being lazy and either work hard to improve their situation or get a college degree. These people would be in a very different situation if they had stayed in school or actually cared about their future. If they dont have the incentive to work hard we shouldnt reward them for being lazy by raising the minimum wage.
ethan hr.6
In response to Alexi. I think completely abolishing the minimum wage is extremely rash. If the minimum wage was completely abolished and poor people would be willing to work for one or two dollars an hour, that amount of money would do nothing to raise those people out of poverty. What can one or two dollars buy today; a candy bar or a pair of socks. Granted, those would benefit the people but they would most likely not be able to afford housing or any amount of food to feed a family. Essentially, I think America would turn into a third world country such as Africa. More people would make less money; more people would be homeless; and the income gap would be EXTEMELY large. Therefore I disagree with completely abolishing the minimum wage. And to those who disagree with the facts that I used. They came from the same kind of packet as the anti side got so wouldn't that make their facts skewed also???
If you can see Chuck Norris, he can see you. If you can't see Chuck Norris you may be only seconds away from death.
When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.
Chuck Norris built a time machine and went back in time to stop the JFK assassination. As Oswald shot, Chuck Norris met all three bullets with his beard, deflecting them. JFK's head exploded out of sheer amazement.
Chuck Norris once ate an entire ream of rice paper and shat out origami swans and Mister Miyagi from Karate Kid.
Chuck Norris knows where Carmen Sandiego is
If you have five dollars and Chuck Norris has five dollars, Chuck Norris has more money than you.
Once a grizzly bear threatened to eat Chuck Norris. Chuck showed the bear his fist and the bear proceeded to eat himself, because it would be the less painful way to die.
Chuck Norris sleeps with a night light. Not because Chuck Norris is afraid of the dark, but the dark is afraid of Chuck Norris
Chuck Norris ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.
Scientists used to believe that diamond was the world’s hardest substance. But then they met Chuck Norris, who gave them a roundhouse kick to the face so hard, and with so much heat and pressure, that the scientists turned into artificial Chuck Norris.
1. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was born on and died on days when Halley's Comet can be seen. During his life he predicted that he would die when it could be seen.
2. US Dollar bills are made out of cotton and linen.
3. The "57" on the Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of pickle types the company once had.
4. Americans are responsible for about 1/5 of the world's garbage annually. On average, that's 3 pounds a day per person.
5. Giraffes and rats can last longer without water than camels.
6. Your stomach produces a new layer of mucus every two weeks so that it doesn't digest itself.
7. 98% of all murders and rapes are by a close family member or friend of the victim.
8. A B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945.
9. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp (marijuana) paper.
10. The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.
11. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
12. Benjamin Franklin was the fifth in a series of the youngest son of the youngest son.
13. Triskaidekaphobia means fear of the number 13. Paraskevidekatriaphobia means fear of Friday the 13th (which occurs one to three times a year). In Italy, 17 is considered an unlucky number. In Japan, 4 is considered an unlucky number.
14. A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
15. All the chemicals in a human body combined are worth about 6.25 euro (if sold separately).
16. In ancient Rome, when a man testified in court he would swear on his testicles.
17. The ZIP in "ZIP code" means Zoning Improvement Plan.
18. Coca-Cola contained Coca (whose active ingredient is cocaine) from 1885 to 1903.
19. A "2 by 4" is really 1 1/2 by 3 1/2.
20. It's estimated that at any one time around 0.7% of the world's population is drunk.
21. Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades = David ; Clubs = Alexander the Great ; Hearts = Charlemagne ; Diamonds = Caesar
22. 40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
23. Every person, including identical twins, has a unique eye and tongue print along with their finger print.
24. The "spot" on the 7-Up logo comes from its inventor who had red eyes. He was an albino.
25. 315 entries in Webster's 1996 dictionary were misspelled.
26. The "save" icon in Microsoft Office programs shows a floppy disk with the shutter on backwards.
27. Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin both married their first cousins (Elsa Löwenthal and Emma Wedgewood respectively).
28. Camel's have three eyelids.
29. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents every day.
30. John Wilkes Booth's brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln's son.
31. Warren Beatty and Shirley McLaine are brother and sister.
32. Chocolate can kill dogs; it directly affects their heart and nervous system.
33. Daniel Boone hated coonskin caps.
34. Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.
35. 55.1% of all US prisoners are in prison for drug offenses.
36. Most lipstick contains fish scales.
37. Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark's stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.
38. Dr. Seuss pronounced his name "soyce".
39. Slugs have four noses.
40. Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.
41. The Three Wise Monkeys have names: Mizaru (See no evil), Mikazaru (Hear no evil), and Mazaru (Speak no evil).
42. India has a Bill of Rights for cows.
43. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die. If you keep your eyes open by force, they can pop out. (DON'T TRY IT, DUMBASS)
44. During the California gold rush of 1849, miners sent their laundry to Honolulu for washing and pressing. Due to the extremely high costs in California during these boom years, it was deemed more feasible to send their shirts to Hawaii for servicing.
45. American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by taking out an olive from First Class salads.
46. About 200,000,000 M&Ms are sold each day in the United States.
47. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
48. Over a course of about eleven years, the sun's magnetic poles switch places. This cycle is called "Solarmax".
49. There are 318,979,564,000 possible combinations of the first four moves in Chess.
50. Upper and lower case letters are named "upper" and "lower" because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the upper case letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the lower case letters.
51. There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.
52. The numbers "172" can be found on the back of the US 5 dollar bill, in the bushes at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.
53. Coconuts kill about 150 people each year. That's more than sharks.
54. Half of all bank robberies take place on a Friday.
55. The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan. There was never a recorded Wendy before it.
56. The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672.
57. The first bomb the Allies dropped on Berlin in WWII killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
58. The average raindrop falls at 7 miles per hour.
59. It took Leonardo Da Vinci 10 years to paint Mona Lisa. He never signed or dated the painting. Leonardo and Mona had identical bone structures according to the painting. X-ray images have shown that there are 3 other versions under the original.
60. If you put a drop of liquor on a scorpion, it will instantly go mad and sting itself to death.
61. Bruce Lee was so fast that they had to slow the film down so you could see his moves.
62. The largest amount of money you can have without having change for a dollar is $1.19 (3 quarters, 4 dimes, and 4 pennies cannot be divided into a dollar).
63. The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA".
64. IBM's motto is "Think". Apple later made their motto "Think different".
65. The mask used by Michael Myers in the original "Halloween" was actually a Captain Kirk mask painted white, due to low budget.
66. The original name for butterfly was flutterby.
67. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law, which stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
68. One in fourteen women in America is a natural blonde. Only one in sixteen men is.
69. The Olympic was the sister ship of the Titanic, and she provided twenty-five years of service.
70. When the Titanic sank, 2228 people were on it. Only 706 survived.
71. In America, someone is diagnosed with AIDS every 10 minutes. In South Africa, someone dies due to HIV or AIDS every 10 minutes.
72. Every day, 7% of the US eats at McDonald's.
73. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was Victrola, which Motorola got their name from.
74. In the US, about 127 million adults are overweight or obese; worldwide, 750 million are overweight and 300 million more are obese. In the US, 15% of children in elementary school are overweight; 20% are worldwide.
75. In Disney's Fantasia, the Sorcerer to whom Mickey played an apprentice was named Yensid (Disney spelled backward).
76. During his entire life, Vincent Van Gogh sold exactly one painting, "Red Vineyard at Arles".
77. By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand.
78. One in ten people live on an island.
79. It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
80. 28% of Africa is classified as wilderness. In North America, its 38%.
81. Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.
82. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
83. Sherlock Holmes NEVER said "Elementary, my dear Watson", Humphrey Bogart NEVER said "Play it again, Sam" in Casablanca, and they NEVER said "Beam me up, Scotty" on Star Trek.
84. An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing.
85. Sharon Stone was the first Star Search spokes model.
86. The sound you here when you put a seashell next to your ear is not the ocean, but blood flowing through your head.
87. More people are afraid of open spaces (kenophobia) than of tight spaces (claustrophobia).
88. The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.
89. There is a 1 in 4 chance that New York will have a white Christmas.
90. The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.
91. Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
92. Back in the mid to late '80s, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered 100% compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator.
93. $203,000,000 is spent on barbed wire each year in the U.S.
94. Every US president has worn glasses (just not always in public).
95. Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.
96. Jim Henson first coined the word "Muppet". It is a combination of "marionette" and "puppet."
97. The names of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with (not counting the words "North" and "South).
98. The Michelin man is known as Mr. Bib. His name was Bibendum in the company's first ads in 1896.
99. About 20% of bird species have become extinct in the past 200 years, almost all of them because of human activity.
100. The word "lethologica" describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.
101. About 14% of injecting drug users are HIV positive.
102. A word or sentence that is the same front and back (racecar, kayak) is called a "palindrome".
103. A snail can sleep for 3 years.
104. People photocopying their buttocks are the cause of 23% of all photocopier faults worldwide.
105. China has more English speakers than the United States.
106. Finnish folklore says that when Santa comes to Finland to deliver gifts, he leaves his sleigh behind and rides on a goat named Ukko instead. According to French tradition, Santa Claus has a brother named Bells Nichols, who visits homes on New Year's Eve after everyone is asleep, and if a plate is set out for him, he fills it with cookies and cakes.
107. One in every 9000 people is an albino.
108. The electric chair was invented by a dentist.
109. You share your birthday with at least 9 million other people in the world.
110. Everyday, more money is printed for Monopoly sets than for the U.S. Treasury.
111. Every year 4 people in the UK die putting their trousers on.
112. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds; dogs only have about ten.
113. Our eyes are always the same size from birth but our nose and ears never stop growing.
114. In every episode of "Seinfeld" there is a Superman picture or reference somewhere.
115. If Barbie were life-size her measurements would be 39-23-33. She would stand seven feet two inches tall and have a neck twice the length of a normal human's neck.
116. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.
117. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.
118. Each year in America there are about 300,000 deaths that can be attributed to obesity.
119. About 55% of all movies are rated R.
120. About 500 movies are made in the US and 800 in India annually.
121. Arabic numerals are not really Arabic; they were created in India.
122. Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations (implemented on July 16, 1969) makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their vehicles.
123. The February of 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full moon.
124. The Pentagon in Arlington Virginia has twice as many bathrooms as is necessary. When it was built in the 1940s the state of Virginia still had segregation laws requiring separate toilet facilities for blacks and whites.
125. There is actually no danger in swimming right after you eat, though it may feel uncomfortable.
126. The cruise liner Queen Elizabeth II moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns.
127. More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a telephone call.
128. A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
129. There are about 2 chickens for every human in the world.
130. The word "maverick" came into use after Samuel Maverick, a Texan refused to brand his cattle. Eventually any unbranded calf became known as a Maverick.
131. Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.
132. For every memorial statue with a person on a horse, if the horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died of battle wounds; if all four of the horse's legs are on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
133. On a Canadian two-dollar bill, the American flag is flying over the Parliament Building.
134. An American urologist bought Napoleon's penis for $40,000.
135. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.
136. Dreamt is the only English word that ends in the letters "MT".
137. $283,200 is the absolute highest amount of money you can win on Jeopardy.
138. Almonds are members of the peach family.
139. Rats and horses can't vomit.
140. The penguin is the only bird that can't fly but can swim.
141. There are approximately 100 million acts of sexual intercourse each day.
142. Winston Churchill was born in a ladies room during a dance.
143. Maine is the only state whose name is just one syllable.
144. There are only four words in the English language that end in "-dous": tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
145. Americans on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.
146. Every time you lick a stamp you consume 1/10 of a calorie.
147. "101 Dalmatians" and "Peter Pan" are the only Disney animations in which both of a character's parents are present and don't die during the movie.
148. You are more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider.
149. Hedenophobic means fear of pleasure.
150. Ancient Egyptian priests would pluck every hair from their bodies.
151. A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.
152. Half of all crimes are committed by people under the age of 18. 80% of burglaries are committed by people aged 13-21.
153. An ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.
154. All polar bears are left-handed.
155. The catfish has over 27000 taste buds (more than any other animal)
156. A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death.
157. Butterflies taste with their feet.
158. Elephants are the only mammals that cannot jump.
159. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
160. Starfish have no brains.
161. 11% of the world is left-handed.
162. John Hancock and Charles Thomson were the only people to sign the Declaration of independence on July 4th, 1776. The last signature came five years later.
163. Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
164. Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
165. The national anthem of Greece has 158 verses.
166. There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
167. A healthy (non-colorblind) human eye can distinguish between 500 shades of gray.
168. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
169. Lizards can self-amputate their tails for protection. It grows back after a few months.
170. Los Angeles' full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula". It can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A.
171. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
172. A honeybee can fly at fifteen miles per hour.
173. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
174. A "jiffy" is the scientific name for 1/100th of a second.
175. The average child recognizes over 200 company logos by the time he enters first grade.
176. The youngest pope ever was 11 years old.
177. The first novel ever written on a typewriter is Tom Sawyer.
178. One out of every 43 prisoners escapes from jail. 94% are recaptured.
179. The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.
180. The average chocolate bar has 8 insects' legs melted into it.
181. A rhinoceros horn is made of compacted hair.
182. The shortest war in history was between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.
183. Elwood Edwards did the voice for the AOL sound files (i.e. "You've got Mail!"). He is heard about 27 million times a day. The recordings were done before Quantum changed its name to AOL and the program was known as "Q-Link."
184. A polar bears skin is black. Its fur is actually clear, but like snow it appears white.
185. Elvis had a twin brother named Garon, who died at birth, which is why Elvis middle name was spelled Aron, in honor of his brother.
186. Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
187. Donkeys kill more people than plane crashes.
188. Shakespeare invented the words "assassination" and "bump."
189. There are a million ants for every person on Earth.
190. If you keep a goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white.
191. Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
192. The name Jeep comes from "GP", the army abbreviation for General Purpose.
193. Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left handed people do.
194. There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.
195. Cats' urine glows under a black light.
196. A "quidnunc" is a person who is eager to know the latest news and gossip.
197. The first US Patent was for manufacturing potassium carbonate (used in glass and gunpowder). It was issued to Samuel Hopkins on July 31, 1970.
198. Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors, the helicopter, and many other present day items.
199. In the last 4000 years no new animals have been domesticated.
200. 25% of a human's bones are in its feet.
201. David Sarnoff received the Titanic's distress signal and saved hundreds of passengers. He later became the head of the first radio network, the National Broadcasting Company (NBC).
202. On average, 100 people choke to death on ballpoint pens every year.
203. Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than every Nike factory worker in Malaysia combined.
204. One of the reasons marijuana is illegal today is because cotton growers in the '30s lobbied against hemp farmers (they saw it as competition).
205. "Canada" is an Indian word meaning "Big Village".
206. Only one in two billion people will live to be 116 or older.
207. If you yelled for 8 years 7 months and 6 days, you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee. If you fart consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.
208. Rape is reported every six minutes in the U.S.
209. The human heart creates enough pressure in the bloodstream to squirt blood 30 feet.
210. A jellyfish is 95% water.
211. Truck driving is the most dangerous occupation by accidental deaths (799 in 2001).
212. Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
213. Elephants only sleep for two hours each day.
214. On average people fear spiders more than they do death.
215. The strongest muscle in the human body is the tongue. (the heart is not a muscle)
216. In golf, a 'Bo Derek' is a score of 10.
217. In the U.S, Frisbees outsell footballs, baseballs and basketballs combined.
218. In most watch advertisements the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.
219. If you plant an apple seed, it is almost guaranteed to grow a tree of a different type of apple.
220. Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
221. The only real person to be a PEZ head was Betsy Ross.
222. There are about 450 types of cheese in the world. 240 come from France.
223. When the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers plays football at home the stadium becomes Nebraska's third largest city.
224. The characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life".
225. A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.
226. In Iceland, a Big Mac costs $5.50.
227. Broccoli and cauliflower are the only vegetables that are flowers.
228. Newborn babies have about 350 bones. They gradually merge and disappear until there are about 206 by age 5.
229. There is no solid proof of who built the Taj Mahal.
230. In a survey of 200000 ostriches over 80 years, not one tried to bury its head in the sand.
231. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge. A quarter has 119.
232. On an American one-dollar bill there is a tiny owl in the upper-left-hand corner of the upper-right-hand "1" and a spider hidden in the front upper-right-hand corner.
233. Judy Scheindlin ("Judge Judy") has a $25,000,000 salary, while Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg has a $190,100 salary.
234. The name for Oz in the Wizard of Oz was thought up when the creator Frank Baum looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N and O-Z.
235. Andorra, a tiny country on the border between France and Spain, has the longest average lifespan: 83.49 years.
236. The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
237. Mr. Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister.
238. In America you will see an average of 500 advertisements a day.
239. John Lennon's first girlfriend was named Thelma Pickles.
240. You can lead a cow upstairs but not downstairs.
241. The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.
242. "The sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in English.
243. There are 336 dimples on a regulation US golf ball. In the UK its 330.
244. The Toltecs (a 7th century tribe) used wooden swords so they wouldn't kill their enemies.
245. "Duff" is the decaying organic matter found on a forest floor.
246. The US has more personal computers than the next 7 countries combined.
247. There have been over 600 lawsuits against Alexander Grahm Bell over rights to the patent of the telephone, the most valuable patent in U.S. history.
248. Kuwait is about 60% male (highest in the world). Latvia is about 54% female (highest in the world).
249. The Hawaiian alphabet has only 12 letters.
250. In 10 minutes, a hurricane releases more energy than all the world's nuclear weapons combined.
251. At the height of its power in 400 BC, the Greek city of Sparta had 25,000 citizens and 500,000 slaves.
252. Julius Caesar's autograph is worth about $2,000,000.
253. The tool doctors wrap around a patient's arm to measure blood pressure is called a sphygmomanometer.
254. People say "bless you" when you sneeze because your heart stops for a millisecond.
255. US gold coins used to say "In Gold We Trust".
256. In "Silence of the Lambs", Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins) never blinks.
257. A shrimp's heart is in its head.
258. In the 17th century, the value of pi was known to 35 decimal places. Today, to 1.2411 trillion.
259. The bestselling books of all time are The Bible (6billion+), Quotations from the Works of Mao Tse-tung (900million+), and The Lord of the Rings (100million+)
260. Pearls melt in vinegar.
261. "Lassie" was played by a group of male dogs; the main one was named Pal.
262. In 1863, Paul Hubert of Bordeaux, France, was sentenced to life in jail for murder. After 21 years, it was discovered that he was convicted of murdering himself.
263. Nepal is the only country that doesn't have a rectangular flag. Switzerland is the only country with a square flag.
264. Gabriel, Michael, and Lucifer are the only angels named in the Bible.
265. Tiger Woods' real first name is Eldrick. His father gave him the nickname "Tiger" in honor of a South Vietnamese soldier his father had fought alongside with during the Vietnam War.
266. Johnny Appleseed planted apples so that people could use apple cider to make alcohol.
267. Abraham Lincoln's ghost is said to haunt the White House.
268. God is not mentioned once in the book of Esther.
269. The odds of being born male are about 51.2%, according to census.
270. Scotland has more redheads than any other part of the world.
271. There is an average of 61,000 people airborne over the US at any given moment.
272. Prince Charles and Prince William never travel on the same airplane in case there is a crash.
273. The most popular first name in the world is Muhammad. The most common name (of any type) in the world is Mohammed.
274. The surface of the Earth is about 60% water and 10% ice.
275. For every 230 cars that are made, 1 will be stolen.
276. Jimmy Carter was the first U.S. President to be born in a hospital.
277. Lightning strikes the earth about 8 million times a day.
278. Around 2,000 left-handed people die annually due to improper use of equipment designed only for right handed people.
279. The "if" and "then" parts of conditional ("if P then Q") statement are called the protasis (P) and apodosis (Q).
280. Humans use a total of 72 different muscles in speech.
281. If you feed a seagull Alka-Seltzer, its stomach will explode.
282. Only female mosquitoes bite.
283. The U.S. Post Office handles 43 percent of the world's mail.
284. Most household dust is made of dead skin cells.
285. One in about eight million people has progeria, a disease that causes people to grow faster than they age.
286. The male seahorse carries the eggs until they hatch instead of the female.
287. The "countdown" (counting down from 10 for an event such as New-Years Day) was first used in a 1929 German silent film called "Die Frau Im Monde" (The Girl in the Moon).
288. Negative emotions such as anxiety and depression can weaken your immune system.
289. There are seven suicides in the Bible: Abimelech. Samson, Saul, Saul's armor-bearer, Ahithophel, Zimri, Judas.
290. A mongoose is not a goose but more like a meercat, which is not a cat but more like a prairie dog, which is not a dog but more like a ground squirrel.
291. Stephen Hawking was born exactly 300 years after Galileo died.
292. Mercury is the only planet whose orbit is coplanar with its equator. Venus and Uranus are the only planets that rotate opposite to the direction of their orbit.
293. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe died on July 4th. Adams and Jefferson died in the same year. Supposedly, Adams last words were "Thomas Jefferson survives."
294. The Baby Ruth candy bar was named after Grover Cleveland's baby daughter, Ruth, not Babe Ruth the baseball player.
295. Dolphins can look in different directions with each eye. They can sleep with one eye open.
296. The Falkland Isles (pop. about 2000) has over 700000 sheep (350 per person).
297. There are 41,806 different spoken languages in the world today.
298. While many treaties have been signed at or near Paris, France (including many after WWI and WWII), nine are actually known as the "Treaty of Paris": Seven Years' War (1763), American Revolutionary War (1783), French-Swede War (1810), France vs Sixth Coalition (1814), Battle of Waterloo (1815), Crimean War (1856), Spanish-American War (1898), union of Bessarabia and Romania (1920), establishment of European Coal and Steel Community (1951).
299. Robert Todd Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln's oldest son) was in Washington DC during his father's assassination as well as during President Garfield's assassination, and he was in Buffalo NY when President McKinley was assassinated.
300. The city of Venice stands on about 120 small islands.
301. The past-tense of the English word "dare" is "durst".
302. Don Mac Lean's song "American Pie" was written about Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson (The Big Bopper), who all died in the same plane crash.
303. The drummer for ZZ Top (the only one without a beard) is named Frank Beard.
304. Hummingbirds can't walk.
305. When movie directors do not want their names to be seen in the credits, they use the pseudonym "Allen Smithee" instead. It has been used over 50 times, starting with "Death of a Gunfighter" (1969).
306. Four different people played the part of Darth Vader (body, face, voice, and breathing).
307. Pamela Lee-Anderson was the first to be born in Canada on the centennial anniversary of Canada's independence (7/1/1967).
308. There is about 200 times more gold in the oceans than has been mined throughout history.
309. William Shatner is credited for being the first person on TV to say "hell" as well as to have the first inter-racial kiss (with Nichelle Nichols), both in episodes of Star Trek.
310. While the US government's supply of gold is kept at Fort Knox, its supply of silver is kept at the Military Academy at West Point, NY.
311. Alexander Graham Bell's wife and mother were both deaf.
312. Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works.
313. In the ancient Greek city-state of Sparta, if a man was not married by age 30, he would not be allowed to vote or watch athletic events involving nude young men.
314. Attila the Hun (invader of Europe; 406-453), Felix Faure (French President; 1841-1899), Pope Leo VII (936-939), Pope John VII (955-964), Pope Leo VIII (963-965), Pope John XIII (965-72), Pope Paul II (1467-1471), Lord Palmerston (British Prime Minister, 1784-1865), Nelson Rockefeller (US Vice President, 1908-1979), and John Entwistle (The Who's bassist, 1944-2002) all died while having sex.
315. Humans and dolphins are the only animals known to have sex for pleasure.
316. Pac-Man, Namco's 1979 arcade game, was originally called "Puck Man". The name was changed when they realized that vandals could easily scratch out part of the letter "P".
317. Shakespeare and Cervantes died on the same day, April 23, 1616.
318. There are about 7.7 million millionaires in the world (more than 1/1000th of the population).
319. The youngest mother on record was a Peruvian girl named Lina Medina. She gave birth to a boy by caesarean section on May 14, 1939 (which happened to be Mother's Day), at the age of five years, seven months and 21 days.
320. The "middle finger" gesture originates back to 423 BC in Aristophanes play "The Clouds".
I believe that raising minimum wage is a bad idea because it decreases jobs available and makes it harder for people, especially unskilled teenagers, such as myself, to get jobs. The jobs still available go to skilled workers. However i don't believe that it should be completely diminished because it does provide some incentive for people to work so taxpayers dont end up paying for them.
In response to rachel, i agree with your first few lines. i too would like to make more money. Although i would not like to lose my job because of an increase.
Eric hr. 6
In response to Mara; Minimum wage won't raise everything. Actually in the past few years, 22 states (if not more now) have raised their minimum wage above the federal level. In doing this, every single state has seen their inflation figures drop and the standard of living increase. Even supporting a family, they had decreased inflation.
Eric hr. 6
I believe in raising the minimum wage. Not only for my own benifit, but also for the other low-paid workers. I am a teen in which is suffering the most from the economic crisis. Teen unemployment is around 20-22%. At the current moment, I make $0.05 b below minimum wage, but it doesn't affect me as badly because I don't have to use my salary to pay for necessities such as food or rent or insurance. But if an adult, whom may be raising a family or just himself, couldn't live sufficiently off this wage. Inflation has rose rapidly and the current wage isn't suited to pay for essentials. A gallon of milk and bread cost roughly six dollars now, but only cost around $4.50 back in 1997 when the wage was raised. Where does the extra money come from to buy these? Especially since not only is teen unemployment high, but the whole work force in general. By raising the wage, workers will be able to consumer more good which benefits markets, which in turn, will boost the economy.
I think that we should raise the minimum wage slightly. on the current wage a family can not be supported. it takes a family 3.3 full time jobs to support two kids. its true that raising the minimum wage would help more teenagers than the ones who need it but there is still fourty percent of people earning that minimum wage that are the sole bread winners in their family. what happens to these people?
Kyle Period 5
I believe that the minimum wage should not be raised. There are many reasons that the minimum wage should not be raised and one of them is because it leads to a decrease in employment. Studies show that in one case, a raise in the minimum wage led to a 4.6 percent decrease in employment. Another study showed that an increase of the minimum wage from $3.35 to $4.25 led to a 11.4% decrease in the employment of female teenagers from age fifteen to nineteen. That same study also showed that with the same increase in minimum wage, employment for female high school dropouts dropped 5.2%. These studies prove that raising the minimum wage will just cause a decrease in employment and especially a decrease for the people that really need a job. A raise would help me individually because I make minimum wage. I would love a raise for myself, but I think that for the economy as a whole, raising the minimum wage is a bad idea. It creates more unemployment and creates a surplus of workers. It also gives employers a chance to discriminate. Increasing the minimum wage creates many problems.
I believe that the minimum wage should not be raised. There are many reasons that the minimum wage should not be raised and one of them is because it leads to a decrease in employment. Studies show that in one case, a raise in the minimum wage led to a 4.6 percent decrease in employment. Another study showed that an increase of the minimum wage from $3.35 to $4.25 led to a 11.4% decrease in the employment of female teenagers from age fifteen to nineteen. That same study also showed that with the same increase in minimum wage, employment for female high school dropouts dropped 5.2%. These studies prove that raising the minimum wage will just cause a decrease in employment and especially a decrease for the people that really need a job. A raise would help me individually because I make minimum wage. I would love a raise for myself, but I think that for the economy as a whole, raising the minimum wage is a bad idea. It creates more unemployment and creates a surplus of workers. It also gives employers a chance to discriminate. Increasing the minimum wage creates many problems.
in response to drew, what happens to the kids who grow up in bad neighbor hoods who don't have the same kind of opportunities that others have to get a good education. some schools are a lot worse than others. for those kids that are stuck in that school how are they supposed to get a good education. i only believe in government involvement if it is covering the the basic needs of the people it governs.
Kyle 5
Personally, I agree with Rachel's statement about Ethan. Raising the minimum wage will create less jobs and therefore not benefit lower waged people. The likelihood of low wage workers benefitting is small
Josh hr.5
Raising the minimum wage in theory is good thing but in practice it is a bad thing. In this way it is like many other good ideas that in practice were a flop, total failure, or was rift with holes that allowed corruption to seep in. I am against raising the minimum wage but not lowering it. I guess I am in the middle but if I had to choose I would go against raising it in favor of other plans to help the poor.
Josh hr. 5
I agree with Justin in that I wouldn't do away with the minimum wage just the raising of it. That way if there is more demand for people to work the companies would raise the wage and then more people would be better off.
Savanna Hr. 6
I personally believe that the minimum wage is a necessary evil and I therefore support it. It would be nice to live in a perfect world where you could remove the human factor and let the market run its natural course, however, this is not the case. Our government must have some solution to make sure its citizens have the ability to make a living wage. The main reason the minimum wage needs to be in place and risen is to deal with inflation. It is a fact that inflation rises every year and that the minimum wage often remains stagnant. If the minimum wage goes up, families will be able to afford more and create a higher demand for staple goods. This then circulates money through the economy and helps take pressure off of government programs. These are the main two reasons why I support minimum wage.
Savanna Hr. 6
I disagree with Travis hour five on completely abolishing minimum wage. It is true that most who wanted a job would have a job, however, will they make enough to support themselves or will they live in poverty, creating the need for more government assistance which would be funded by the middle and upper class? Perhaps there is a way to have balance between the two views without creating negative incentives.
Garrett hr.6
To be honest neither way is the long term answer. It is a hurtful system and a much needed system to some. It hurts the poor who are the ones it is meant to help by incouraging more competition for jobs. It is also a cause of inflation which in turn hurts the poor. Even though i am against the minimum wage I can see the other side to it. With the ecenomy in the way it is the ones who are getting into minimum wage jobs that are supporting a family could seriously use that extra money. Not everyone is properly educated because of the time they went to school. Education wasn't pushed as much as it is now and the opprtunities for a poverty stricken family to send a child to college was slim. So i think we need to hold on to it for now but look to getting rid of it in the future now that more people are getting college educations. Ethan i am behind you on this. Those that think it should be eliminated need to look at the facts better and think again.
I'm kinda on both sides of this issue. I think I am more for raising it than eliminating it completely. I think minimum wage should be raised as the prices for necessities go up. I don't think that anyone should have to work 2 jobs and still not be able to support their family. Since I don't have a job minimum wage doesn't directly affect me, but if I was working I would like 7 dollars over 20 cents. I don't think we should raise minimum wage just to give people more money. I think there needs to be a minimum wage otherwise people would have to work for a lot less. The only reason why I'm not for raising minimum wage is because it kind of hurts the poor more than it helps because then they have to compete harder against more qualified workers. And No one wants to see Antonio walk 7 miles to work because he doesn't have enough money to buy a car.
Commenting on Ethan's comment I agree with the stuff you said about raising minimum wage like it will decrease dependency of aid programs and it will increase incentive for people to work. I don't agree with the people who want to "abolish" and eliminate minimum wage. I think that you should stop hating on Ethan just because he went against the popular idea, and he was the first to post. And for the people who think their numbers are the correct ones. You can sway the stats to what ever side that your on so settle down saying that everyone is “WRONG”. I will wait for David” Master of Whatever he is” to comment again.
I fully agree with Wheaton. I was thinking the exact same thing when it comes to the time frame of making minimum wage. How many people make it for an extended period of time?-- not many. And while I would like a higher min. wage right now, in a year I would be against it. At some point it really does not matter that much since there aren't that many people making min. wage. Of those that are, only a few do not have the upward potential to make a higher wage. For those few, I think that the gov. should step in and educate them, not just give them cash, since I agree with Drew on the fact that the fewer gov regulations the better. So, simply, I do not think raising or lowering the min. wage would make that much difference at all. If I had to choose a side I would be against raising the minimum wage.
In response to what Garrett said, I agree that neither are a good solution. Both options have significant drawbacks that hurt the people that the minimum wage is trying to help. I think that there has to be a way to help poor people make a living wage without increasing the min wage, or creating too many government regulations.
I believe in raising minimum wage. If it isn't raised, what's the point of it? Minimum wage was created to help people make a "living wage". If inflation increases, and the minimum wage stays the same this is no longer possible. Also, some argue that the market will take care of the proper wage. I'm not sure it works exactly like that. This might work in some madeup perfect capitalist market, but thats not how it works in real life. In real life companies CAN charge unfair wages, because people affected by low wages have no bargaining power to raise their wages. The problem with this is, people cant withhold their labor until they get better wages because they need to survive. A minimum wage has the name minimum for a reason. It is the minimum anyone should be paid for their labor and having one shows that at least this country believes that hard working people should be able to afford to live decently.
I would say i completely agree with what ethan said about how it helps living standards. Also, for everyone who wants to keep minimum wage but not raise it, that is essentially lowering it. I would be against raising minimum wage if there wasn't any inflation, but there is. The standard of living and the buying power people get from minimum wage is decreasing every year since inflation increases. I believe a fair minimum wage would be one that increases at the same rate as inflation.
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