I'm all for everyone making $15/hour baseline
Don't worry, your government is busy inflating the currency quickly enough that that will soon be worth less than what minimum wage is now (counts bitcoins).
That's why I said this:
This is good for every PERSON, just not big corporations bottom line--which we all know to be the bane of our existence today.
William Binney said it best the other day I was listening to him talk: "We are no longer a country with a government, we are a government with a country."
How would earning less in real terms be good for any person?
If you think inflation is a good thing, you haven't been reading around this forum enough.
I never said inflation to be a good thing, I simply said raising the min. wage was a good thing for every PERSON. You're welcome to go re-read it again if you think I've said anything otherwise. Inflation is something the world has to deal with, not just the U.S., especially considering the global economy is technically tied to the U.S. dollar. This guy's discussion, however, is a social one, and is not necessarily tied down to inflation, so I'm not sure why you are obsessing about it.
Ah this entire thread is too good to pass up! The OP was clearly enticing an argument, let's be clear on that. He feels one way, provided little to no factual data to back up his argument, then invites an opinion. Clearly it will not serve to convince you of anything.
Inflation = Basic function of economics. As economies grow, as we add GDP and produce additional goods and services, as money supply increases, then the value of what you currently hold decreases in proportion to the goods and service available. This is called inflation. It is the same thing happening to your mining rigs as difficulty "inflates" and reduces the amount of "transactions" it can do proportion to the rest of the network. So first point, this happens in every economy and is innate, it can't just be blamed on certain entities or people because there would be no growth if there was no inflation.
As the economy grows, those at the top are the ones who reap the largest reward. Think of the economy as a giant pyramid full of workers at the bottom and Businesses at the top, followed by CEO's and Execs until the lower levels reach back into the basic workers at the bottom. Revenues, product creation, services all start at the base level with the workers. The revenues flow back to the business at the top, trickle down the CEO and Execs and through middle management till they reach the bottom of the pyramid. The bottom produces the most but everything flows through the top first where the lions share is consumed by the business and corporations then passed on the top tier individuals and downward.
Now workers are producing all the product and through productivity they are growing the economy. As the economy grows, what happens? That's right we get Inflation! Yes, it's a sign we are doing well! The problem is that the workers are not compensated for this growth in the economy, they are not paid wages based on inflation. They are paid wages based on the box that they were originally hired into. Good bad or indifferent, that's their box.
Ultimately it falls on the corporations and leadership to make SURE that their profits and growth are actually passed on to the workers producing the goods and services.
When the cost of living continues to rise and workers do not receive basic living increases, they are basically working themselves to achieve growth for someone else WHILE their standard of living decreases. No one wants to be in that situation.
Whether these particular strikes are founded or not? The OP needs to provide more information. Does McDonalds actually have 5-10% margins? On how much Revenue? How much is Top Brass being paid in comparison to their lower level employees? What is the basic standard of living in the area?
Fact of the matter is, corporations need to go back to the basics. Better paid workers mean better paid consumers and equal higher corporate profits. So inflation continues to rise.... We need dynamic wages and income increases to keep up!