Bay 12 Games Forum

... this is why chemistry kills people, isn't it. Somehow folks can not get it in their head to not smell the explosive chemical reaction.

First reaction to white cloud of potential death should not be "Let's see what it smells like "

And then your face melts off and your lungs turn into cement. BAD END

but it will be a cold day in hell when something like that gets passed without being neutered/corrupted by the bargaining process.

And now that statement is slightly more in line with reality. It's good you realize what you're proposing is a complete impossibility in the current political climate, though. Maybe in another five or six decades or a century or two there might be the political capital and interest in implementing something like that. What'd be really interesting is to try some small scale implementations and see how well it works in practice on the lower end of things, which is something that might actually be possible before everyone talking here is dead. It's a fun thing to think about, anyway. Completely useless to actually advocate, because there's absolutely zero chance of it being implemented for generations to come, but a decent thought experiment and maybe experimental wage model for a business or two willing and able to risk it.

... in the meantime, public support for a minimum wage increase in the US is at something like 60-70%, iirc. Something we might actually accomplish in our lifetimes, that. One of the schemes on board (the more popular one, even, from what I recall!) even intends to finally peg the damned thing to inflation, to help combat the eroding purchasing power issue. As opposed to shoving our heads up our arses and wailing about better systems while doing jack-all to better implement what's already there and actually viable from a political standpoint ♫

... the catheters?

The enemy of the ideal, is the "Good enough."

And perfect is the enemy of good. Good enough is a hell of a let better than bad, even if it means the ideal is deferred or unobtainable.

You get done what you can, when you can, because the whole hog isn't going to happen in one go. Betterment is a path of many steps, not one great leap.

... do you not realize that the vast majority of the US's low-skill workforce is native?

Seconded, and frankly I think stories could use more heroic and cute old grandmas.

EDIT: Features cartoon nudity, so maybe NSFW! >_o

That was pretty cute. Wasn't quite expecting it to suddenly go dongs free, though. Probably should have put a NSFW warning on it, soli :V And now it does, cooee.

Experimental structural biology. Why'd you ask?

Presumably checking if it was some odd study that would involve a different NMR, assuming there's another one. Doesn't look like it, though. Same thing's associated with that general field of study, specifically coming in through organic chemistry, by the look of it.

demand for milk is not all that flexible, because there is no direct substitute for milk, with all the calcium and stuff; also, milk might be subsidized/regulated - it is in the EU, which skews the prices, etc., etc.).

There's many substitutes for milk, actually. Beyond direct stuff like soy milk, pretty much any other liquid counts, and calcium requirements shift into other substances. Remember that the majority of the human race is still lactose intolerant. Milk's not a very vital substance, really.

But generally, if the demand shifts from milk to something else, there _is_ net economic loss.

Fulfillment of wants shifting into something else isn't a net economic loss -- a net economic loss requires the money involved to disappear into the aether or not get used (i.e. not spent or invested), which is fairly rare in an even remotely healthy economy. Less money spent on milk means more money spent on something else the person would want, not less money spent overall.

With minimum wage set higher, there will be more thing that just won't be done. Less people will use some of the services, as they will become more expensive, and workers who granted those services will be laid off; there is no going around that, plain and simple.

And, assuming something doesn't go wrong, they'll find work in the new services that come in to demand. Demand usually has significantly more effect on job availability than supply when there isn't an absolute physical bottleneck, and companies not wanting to make less profit isn't one of those. People will be laid off, but that doesn't mean the net work demand is going to decrease, because people are still going to want stuff, even if it's different stuff, and we still need people to get that done (for now).

If the fast-food joint needs one worker and earns, say, 30$ an hour above the cost of resources, than as soon as minimum wage is above 30$, the joint closes and there is now 0 workers needed.

Sometimes. Sometimes they keep going, at times for a significantly long period -- it's not uncommon for companies in the red to operate for quite a while just to mitigate the relative price of fixed expenses. More often something gets rejiggered (usually those resource costs). And the joint closing isn't necessarily a bad thing, in the long run -- something else will pop up, if it's not already there.

That said, you do generally try to rig these things where an increase in minimum wage isn't going to cause businesses to become absolutely unprofitable. Fortunately, most of them (yes, including small businesses) have pretty significant wiggle room when it comes to wages, particularly for their lowest paid workers.