Is your argument really that if Republicans would just get out of the way the government would create millions upon millions of high paying jobs and everything would just be grand??
At the core here your argument amounts to government is more efficient and better creator of jobs than the private sector. Can government do some things well? Of course. But we are not going to agree on the underlying premise here.
I don't want it because I can get a much greater return on it than social security is going to give me (if they give me anything at all). If you want it - great, keep it. I don't want it. Let me opt out. People would be dramatically better off if the money was deducted and put in a private account than the current system.
Government doesn't have to pay the wage - they just mandate that they must be higher. And you openly admit that inflation adjusted minimum wage would be in the ballpark of $10-11. That is what...40-50% lower than what fast food workers think their unskilled labor is worth?
Is there any statistical data on this claim?
Not really - you just threw it out there with nothing to substantiate it.
I want the market to set wages....
Inflation is not an artificial expense...but inflation is low, and according to the BLS again (reported on by the WSJ): "Spending by households on many of modern life's "basics"—food at home, automobiles, clothing and footwear, household furnishings and equipment, and housing and utilities—fell from 53% of disposable income in 1950 to 44% in 1970 to 32% today.
Even though the inflation-adjusted hourly wage hasn't changed much in 50 years, it is unlikely that an average American would trade his wages and benefits in 2013—along with access to the most affordable food, appliances, clothing and cars in history, plus today's cornucopia of modern electronic goods—for the same real wages but with much lower fringe benefits in the 1950s or 1970s, along with those era's higher prices, more limited selection, and inferior products.
Despite assertions by progressives who complain about stagnant wages, inequality and the (always) disappearing middle class, middle-class Americans have more buying power than ever before. They live longer lives and have much greater access to the services and consumer products bought by billionaires."
