Global Minimum Wage

[earthlingmike]

There needs to be a law that products sold in America (or where ever you are) were never handled by employees paid less than a certain standard wage, regardless of what country those employees are in.

This would address the issue of poor treatment of foreign labor and would perhaps bring a few jobs back to America.

Comments

[vnsplshr]

Isn't there a chance that if wages went up in foreign countries, many products would never be made (since US labor would always be more expensive). This would lower the availability of cheap goods, leaving higher priced goods as the only choice for Americans, impacting the poor most harshly.

[earthlingmike]

Why would US labor always be more expensive?

I agree that it would make it more expensive to produce goods. But in many cases things are priced according to whatever something will sell at, it will often simply mean corporations will adjust their profit margins.

The bulk of the budgets of poor people in the U.S. is food and housing, which are generally not imported items anyway. Adjusting the price of imported items is going to help poor people very little compared to simply paying them better in the first place. And if we raise the wages of foreign workers, it will mean we are in a better position to raise the wages of our domestic workers.

[vnsplshr]

Why would US labor always be more expensive?

Maybe not always, but the countries producing our ultra-affordable goods will not be rivalling the dollar with their currency soon, and US labor comes with the added price tag of gov't regulation.

But in many cases things are priced according to whatever something will sell at, it will often simply mean corporations will adjust their profit margins.

Possibly, but some things that are worth producing at foreign labor prices (lime green flip-flops, plastic cheese graters, whatever) might not be worth the effort if they can't be pulled in cheap and dumped cheap. Perhaps by dumping the product, margin can be maintained as easily.

The bulk of the budgets of poor people in the U.S. is food and housing, which are generally not imported items anyway. Adjusting the price of imported items is going to help poor people very little compared to simply paying them better in the first place.I heard a rumor that Walmart, full of imported cheap merchandise, saved lowerclass Americans more money than

[earthlingmike]

Well if we pay foreign labor a standard higher amount based on the American dollar, the cost of foreign labor would increase.

"but some things" Yes, some things. I never said everything, I said many things.

Whether this rumor is true or not, Walmart is probably doing other things to keep their prices low in addition to importing goods, since they sell exactly the same products as other stores but at lower prices. Food Stamps can only add up to a portion of a minimum budget, they don't account for housing, and America grows a substantial portion of its own food.

Food Stamps: http://www.fns.usda.gov/fsp/

Money is not a dead end street. It circulates. If you pay someone more money, they are not going to bury it, they are going to spend it.

[runlikethewind6]

How would the US government enforce such a law? It doesn't seem like something that they could, and other countries would probably take issue with such a law for a variety of reasons. I entirely support the sentiment behind your proposal though. Poverty and poor pay are tricky, because in order for capitalism to bend to support the poor, labor costs are cut, which just creates more poor.