China Owns It

Why would you think that? A capitalist system will seek out the lowest cost for production, no matter what.

So. Even if there was no minimum wage, China would still be manufacturing just about everything because their labor costs are incredibly low.

If you had a concept of history, you'd know that this has been happening since the 70's.

We could have incredibly low labor costs too. Instead we try to make every low skill menial job, one that people think they should be able to raise a family on rather than one to learn skills to attain a more valuable and therefore higher paying one.

This is kind of a hard thing to get. It seems like it's backwards, but low entry level wages results in low higher level wages.

Here's how: if you work at McBurger's for $9 an hour, that means if I want a slightly better class of burger flipper, I have to pay more. So, $10. What if I want a highly skilled flipper? Let's say that's $15.

That part makes sense.

But if I want someone who isn't a burger flipper, then what do I pay? Well, it has to be more than $10. it also has to be more than $15. Because if it's less then all of the top talent will go be burger flippers.

That's where the money is at.

And as the business owner, it's in my best interest to drive those wages down as far as I possibly can. That way I make more money.

that's basic capitalism.

But what happens when we raise the floor?

That lowlevel burger flipper gets $15 an hour. And the next level up gets $10. Then $25.

Now, to get someone who isn't a burger flipper and has a skill set I want, I'll have to pay more. Otherwise they'll go be a burger flipper.

Again, that's where the money is at.

AND that is also basic capitalism.

Now, I know what you're going to say next "But that will drive up all the other costs! That's how we have inflation!"

Turns out, no. Wages are not a driving force for inflation. Are they connected? Yes. But not as tightly as common sense would lead you to believe. We know this from 2 things: 1) wages have largely flatlined since 1980. We make about 12% more than we did back then. YET inflation has not stopped at all. 2) in cities that have mandated a higher minimum wage, wages have gone up and economies have improved because more people have more money to spend.

When we all do better, we ALL do better.

Anything that raises the cost of production is inflation. And wages have not flatlined at all. REAL wages (inflation adjusted) have risen steadily:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_wages

But tell me, if everything is so grand, why are you stuck in your house, waiting for your Chinese mask and Chinese medicine?

Because the costs to make those masks and medicine are artificially high.

The largest moves from poverty to prosperity happened long before the minimum wage and happened first in the 19th century which was even before the income tax.