More Americans Die of Poverty than Terrorism

[Elephant Walk]

Originally Posted by Psi U MC Vito

Look how shitty things are now with regulation. Do you know what the free market without any kind of regulation is? It's called the Great Depression.

Not a student of history I see.

The Great Depression was caused mostly by the influence of government in the monetary/banking system (which, incidentally, is also what got us out) as well as government involvement in the market (the Smoot-Hawley Tarriff act is most notably the case here).

Unsurprisingly, the current recession we're in was mostly caused by government meddling with the monetary/banking system as well as the governments close ties with corporations which created multiple moral hazards.

Originally Posted by Drolefille

When employers have the option to pay wages that low, they pay them, that's also a historical fact. And it is in their benefit to do so.

Both statements are false.

From a 2004 Bureau of Labor Statistics:

According to Current Population Survey estimates for 2004, some 73.9 million American workers were paid at hourly rates, representing 59.8 percent of all wage and salary workers.1 Of those paid by the hour, 520,000 were reported as earning exactly $5.15, the prevailing Federal minimum wage, and another 1.5 million were reported earning wages below the minimum.2 Together, these 2.0 million workers with wages at or below the minimum made up 2.7 percent of all hourly-paid workers.

Of the 2.7 percent of all hourly paid workers are at the minimum wage.

About half of all hourly-paid workers earning $5.15 or less were under age 25, and about one-fourth were age 16-19. Among teenagers, about 9 percent earned $5.15 or less. About 2 percent of workers age 25 and over earned the minimum wage or less. Among those age 65 and over, the proportion was 4 percent.

And at least a quarter of the 2.7 percent are likely living with their parents.

I believe it shows a willingness to pay more than the minimum wage while hourly. The minimum wage affects a very small amount of Americans. Furthermore, it benefits corporations to pay more than the minimum wage because it increases retention (thus reducing turnover and greater costs) and ideally produces more apt workers.

The 'free market' without regulation causes a lot of problems.

And what evidence have you seen of that? And which problems exactly?