Fundamentals
Prosperous AND Shared Economy

Valuing All Workers (VAW)

We raised worker wages decades ago for our skilled workers and all workers through establishing a minimum wage.  Some business leaders like Henry Ford have understood paying his workers well created customers with money who could buy his products.

However, free enterprise tends to minimize wages which at the same time minimizes the buying power of customers.  The argument against raising wages has always been that if we increase worker wages, we will kill jobs.  The reality is that when we increased wages, we built the customer base that created our middle class.  It is more important for businesses to have customers with money than for businesses to pay less for workers, especially at the lower wages.  Wages are usually a small percentage of the total product or service price and where that is not the case, then the product or service price should reflect a livable wage.  With continued automation and other advancements impacting manufacturing, we must now do what we did for skilled workers decades ago and raise wages for unskilled and service workers or our consumer base sustaining the middle class will collapse.

Having customers with money is another critical condition for businesses to exist.  Valuing our least trained with a livable wage creates many more customers that quickly spend which speeds up and expands the economy.  Wages above the minimum wage would also increase but less so in higher brackets.  Raising the minimum wage would positively impact to some degree most of the lower wage brackets creating a lot more customers with money.  Since wages are usually a small part of product and service price, most workers would have an increase in buying power.

Raising the minimum wage to a livable wage would provide much more after-tax money for the people that need it the most than the GOP tax cut.  That expansion in buying power at the bottom of the economy will create a stimulus effect and expansion of our consumer base benefiting everyone including the wealthy and our small businesses to corporate America.

Equal Pay for Equal Work (EPfEW) is not only morally right but also creates more customers with buying power that would tend to spend quickly.  EPfEW would impact many people that have been economically discriminated against because of gender, race, and so on and allow more people to rise to or up within the middle class.  EPfEW will help our people, businesses, and economy.

Workers’ Rights transitioned many jobs from poverty wages to middle class wages creating more customers with more money. Public policy and collective bargaining are not only good for workers, but also expands the consumer base which is vital for businesses and a vibrant economy.

Fundamentals

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