Are we really discussing what will happen to the economy if we pay someone a living wage?
Here's how I would try to explain this. There's a mega-corporation (we'll call them Micdonalds). Micdonalds pays their employees less than it costs to eat and have shelter and to live every day, and by hiring lots of people instead of just a few, and giving them short work weeks, they can call them "part time" and pays no benefits. The people, who either need to come up with $90k a year to further their education, or join the army and get their legs blown off overseas, don't really have other employment options so they have to take a job with this behemoth. As Micdonalds controls the politicians through graft, nothing is done to change it. As a result, Micdonalds gets very, very rich with the money they save not allowing their employees to, you know, live.
Micdonalds employees remain human. They require food, housing, and medical care, no matter how much we try to ignore them. Being broke all the time, they eat garbage like Micdonalds. Working 70 hours a week because they can't afford food, housing, or medical care if they don't, their physical and medical health gets worse. The government, in order to avoid the collapse of society, is forced to fund programs to keep them alive with my tax money. In essence, my tax dollars are used to fund Micdonalds' business, which sends all the money it makes to the buttheads who bought the politicians in the first place. Every single taxpayer donates their taxes to Micdonalds because Micdonalds has rigged the system against the average citizen.
I own a business, and I pay my employees fairly well. They aren't starving, or working two jobs. I am a competent business owner, and don't need to ruin people's lives and collect "business welfare". If my business is going to fail because my employees deserve to live, my business deserves to fail. And save taxpayer dollars. I have been around long enough to have heard the same lamentations every time the minimum wage has gone up, and yet, the Micdonalds of the world just keep right on rolling. There's no shortage of hairdressers, nail salons, used car dealerships, tire rotation shops, or terrible fast-food dumps so far. If a $20 minimum wage is so onerous that it will destroy the economy, what does that say about the economy?
