Somewhat related version: maybe they are guilty of gentrifying certain neighborhoods and driving the cost of housing/everything up. Since the cost of living is now so much higher from hoards of folks living there who make 6 figures and demand all of the things that people tend to want (services, education), they figure the least they can do is make sure the person who was making $8/hr is now making $15/hr. I dunno. It probably is a guilt thing though. There is a lot of static in those places from the new white collar people making it unaffordable for the old dwellers to stay in that area. Maybe I am thinking of Seattle or San Francisco.Fast_Ed wrote:But I sure do see a lot of silicon valley types advocating a basic minimum income. Probably because they feel guilty for automating a bunch of those jobs. Or because they don't want the people from Idiocracy invading their homes for food money.
Although, that invites another discussion about that. Those people complaining usually just suck and have no value and don't want to do anything, but now it's way more expensive to live that life. The rest of the people are already enjoying a far stronger economy from all of the new consumers of everything from restaurants to hotels to landscaping to home construction/trades/handyman to taxis and it goes on and on. That's what trickle down economics really means to me.
And in a perverted way, that is the "progressive" view. Wanting everything to stay the same forever would be the "conservative" view. Yet the politics are usually branded in the opposite way in my example.
On the topic of minimum wage, I think it isn't really even needed - the pay is by demand in my example. If the cheapest person you can find to mow your lawn gets $150 per lawn, because their apartment went from $600/mo to $1100/mo, then that's how things balance out. If someone is willing to do that for $25 per lawn, well, then the $150/lawn guy needs to rethink his business plan or move. Why should we coddle him?
If I can go further, this is actually a good reason why health care should be portable (maybe COBRA is sufficient or at least a good baseline). Some people stay in shitty jobs just because of that. It would be beneficial for our society if they could find a better way to apply their skills and be compensated accordingly. To me, it's all about the economy. The problem with many Democrats is, they pretend to care about people (and that they care more than Republicans) just to get votes and advance their agenda (like all politicians, except they think their shit doesn't stink). Let's cut the crap, the façade, the platitudes and the hand wringing and work on these problems.