[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by golfing eagles

Yes, it is. But minimum wage jobs are not intended to be enough for a sole breadwinner to support a family of four. They are entry level jobs for kids to get some $$ and workplace experience.

So, If we raise the pay of the high school drop out burger flipper from $ 7 to $15/hr., then the high school graduate assistant manager making $11 wants $20. The manager with an associates degree getting $17 wants $30. The regional manager with a bachelor's degree getting $25 want $40. Now, when the business "factors it in", the Big Mac meal goes from $7 to $15, and the burger flipper still works the same 1 hour to buy his dinner. Meanwhile, the seniors on fixed incomes fall further behind. They now are forced to re-enter the job market, and the manager would much rather hire a mature person with 40 years experience who is reliable than a kid who calls in sick when the surf is up and spends his work time on his cell phone. Bye-bye entry level job.

At the same time, the widget factory worker across town who screws tab A into slot B gets $15 and so on up his food chain, so that the price of American widgets goes from $10 to $14, while Chinese widgets stay $7. Pretty soon, the widget factory is priced out of the market and closes, leaving all those workers who thought they were getting a big raise unemployed. But not to worry, when they give up looking for work, they no longer count as unemployed, so that rate stays around 5%. Nothing to see here, everything is just fine.

Where do doctors and other medical providers figure in your analysis?