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Comment by almosthere | Hacker News Reader

If you force the federal minimum wage to be $15 for the entire country - we're only exporting more jobs to other countries - nearly instantly.

I do believe that Tariffs should actually be determined by wage disparity. So if the US can make a paper plate for $0.01 each, but China can make it for $0.00001, then the Tariff for the paper plate should just be $0.01 - $0.00001. That way both plates are sell-able for the same price.

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People always says this, but the impact in CA's minimum wage increases never happens. Turns out jobs woth minimum wage aren't ones you can easily outsource at this point.

That opinion is not universal:

https://californiaglobe.com/fr/californias-20-fast-food-mini...

>outside of a recession

Well that's already the first problem.

This system ends up with very high tariffs and prices on things like coffee and bananas, which can only be produced in the US at very high cost.

This system optimizes for some kind of "fairness" between producers, rather than living standard for consumers.

In reality, everyone is best of if things are produced where they can be made most effectively.

In reality, "best if things are produced where they can be made most effectively" is usually a roundabout way to say "best if things are produced by the labor whom we can get away with paying as little as possible". Hence, outsourcing to countries where you can get away with smaller wages because the overall living standard is lower there and/or because the labor laws are non-existent or not enforced. But it's the same exact thing, just on a larger scale - you're still inherently relying on some people somewhere having a significantly lower quality of life than us to be able to exploit them like that.

The paper doesn't appear to advocate for a federal minimum wage.

Who determines the price that you can make a paper plate at?

You do realize you just advocated for a 100,000% tariff on paper plates, right? Here everyone is shitting the bed at 100% and 150% values.

Who can afford to live on $15/hr, let alone less?

People that need a job but can't get a $15 one or hold it steady enough. You end up with roommates or living with mom, but you can live off that.

Who's getting approved for a house @ $15 an hour? And now you're hoping your parents can support you as if everyone has a healthy family life. As a not-so-fun fact, many homeless people were orphans aged out of the system. They end up straight on the streets.

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