Move this to the front *promote

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Wednesday, July 20th, 2016 12:13pm PDT - promote requested by RFlagg.

*related=http://videosift.com/video/lawrence-lessig-we-the-people-the-republic-we-must-reclaim

lawrence lessig-we the people the republic we must reclaim has been added as a related post - related requested by notarobot.

Very thoughtful up to 2:41, then the storytelling starts.

Whats wrong with individual states setting their minimal wage?
The federal minimum wage, by simple logic, should be the minimum wage in the state that can support the lowest minimum wage. Otherwise that state is f**cked.

Minimum wage should be low enough to have marginal effect on middle class income. Raising it over a certain threshold will hurt the middle class by suppressing economic activity (imagine a minimum wage of 30, 50, 100 dollars - what would happen? Now scale back, at what point is the minimum wage sane?). This threshold will differ greatly from area to area and from time to time so setting a good permanent global minimum wage is impossible.

Is the middle class now earning minimum wage?

"Grow purchasing power organically" - f**k you, words!

The "study" that proves my point without specifying "details" like where, when and by how much this increase in minimum wage was studied.

The Seattle example is great - it shows that local government can do this better than a federal rate, it kicks in over time in a limited area and can be scaled back if it starts to backfire.

Raising minimum wage - in some places, sometimes its good, sometimes its not!

Alternative ideas have to be tested, not pronounced "right".

I suspect that much of the Right Wing (but there's no reason the Left couldn't do this either) like giving power back to the states is that local politics is easier to manipulate and influence, especially with money.
What I don't understand, is how a higher minimum wage would suppress economic activity, people with more money can buy what they need as well as get things they want. And I don't think anyone is proposing a 30 to 100 dollar minimum wage.

*controversy

Adding video to channels (Controversy) - requested by MrFisk.

Suppress not every kind of economic activity, but the kind of activity that employs people at or near minimum wage.

Minimum wage is not paid by magic, it has to be paid by an employer. If he has to pay too much for labor he will quit (or look for creative solutions in order not to employ people - like robots, illegal immigrants, not paying taxes/insurance, outsourcing, some other form of cheating).

The 30 or 100 USD examples are just to show that there does have to be a sane upper limit. What is that limit? Experts argue, areas differ. Why set a federal limit?