What Do You Think Will Change Because Of The Midterm Result? (Debate)

[DomSoulWraith]

I, personally, was pleased with the midterm results. I really don't know how much of what the candidates said will actually happen. Your thoughts?

[cmpcmp]

I would like to not consider my self republican or democrat, but I definitely lean republican.

there are a couple things that i think about the results, The republicans lost because of two main things
-The Iraq war is not popular
-The republican congress didn't really do much while they were in turn
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Because of this I see a few things happening.
1. Some of the bills that I would like to see pass will pass, namely
--immigration
--Minimum wage
2. either the bills I don't like wont pass and people will be happy, or they will pass and republicans will take back congress and the senate with a vengance, the bills are
--increased taxes and/or reduced tax cuts (increased taxes)
--cancellation of patriot act, well not necessarily that, but just national security measures in general

let me explain this a little.
-The main thing that the dems don't stand well with the general American people is security. I have seen all of the senior leaders asked questions like "what would you like to see happen with national security" and their responses generally don't give a good answer at all.
the point is that they don't have a plan that is agreed on, and if you try to piece it together it sounds terrible, something like.

-pull out of Iraq and or leave by a set date (unless ur Hillary)
-generally don't support ICBM missile interception programs (blowing up incoming nukes)
-Giving enemy combatants more constitutional rights than US citizens (we wouldn't be allowed to interrogate at all)
-Against unwarranted wire tapping
-Against profiling for specific likelys
-against general "call databases" or "internet search watching" or anything of that sense.

Now I'm not saying that I support/Don't support all of these specifically (cuz i don't) but the point is the American people as a whole think (polls) that the democrats are weak on security, and the people don't want more taxes either.

If the dems raise taxes or block security measures they will easily loose that ever they gave gained this time.

[Phantom]

I think leaving Iraq now would be one of the worst mistakes you could possibly make. It would be 5 times worse than before we went in. It will just SPEW out terrorists coming to attack America, THOUSANDS if not MILLIONS will die by death squads and once one clan brutally takes over will suppress the people just like in Afghanistan. Iraq could also become part of Iran, then well you know what then.

The dems want to pull out of Iraq because they are most of the public can't seem to think ahead. Its a feel good thing that does nothing but harm and wins votes.

I just as much as anybody else hates seeing soldiers die. But its better that they are fighting than the terrorists coming here to blow people up, which WILL happen its not some bush scare tactic.

Technically we are able to shoot terrorists execution style. Because they dress in civilian clothes and hide among civilians they are classified as spy's/terrorists. They are not soldiers. They will not be treated as such.

[Phantom]

Minimum wage hurts the people its supposed to help. It make business's raise prices which hurts everyone.

Here is a little something about it
"How can you be against the minimum wage? Do you not care about other people?" I cannot count the number of times I have heard that phrase when suggesting our country eliminate the minimum wage. The thing most people do not realize is that from an economic standpoint, the minimum wage hurts more than it helps.

The first thing that people need to remember when it comes to discussing the minimum wage is that having a job is a privilege and not a right.

As stated by Walter Block in "Defending the Undefendable," "A job is the manifestation of a trade between a worker and an employer. The worker trades his labor for the money of the employer, at some mutually agreeable rate of exchange. So when we speak of 'my job,' we are only talking figuratively."

Your employer determines your salary based on the value of what you produce. For example, if you produce $10 worth of T-shirts in an hour, it would be ridiculous for your employers to pay you $20 an hour.

Next, by having a minimum wage, and raising it, you are forcing the people who are making minimum wage out of jobs, and forcing smaller companies, which allow for competition that keep prices down, out of business.

If a company is paying one worker $5.15 an hour and another $35 an hour, and a minimum wage of $8 an hour is set, the company will either fire the employee making $5.15 an hour since it cannot afford to pay both workers, or the price of the company's products will dramatically increase to compensate for the new costs.

Additionally, with higher prices, the employee's minimum-wage salary will be worth less since items would become more expensive.

Now most supporters of the minimum wage say it needs to be a "living wage." They fail to define what living is. Does it mean having a nice apartment with cable television and brand name food and clothing? Or does it mean having a house, a new car, many televisions, video game systems, and the ability to eat at restaurants for every meal?

It is impossible to define living. For instance, we are able to donate 10 cents a day to help keep a child in a third world country alive, yet we are told people cannot live off of $5.15 an hour.

These low-paying jobs aren't really established to be careers, rather entry-level positions created so workers can acquire skills necessary for becoming productive members of a workforce, or as economist Walter Williams states, "It is important to note that most people acquire work skills by working at 'subnormal wages,' which amounts to the same thing as paying to learn."

Williams goes on to assert that children from low-income families will be hurt by a higher minimum wage, as the number of jobs (and therefore, training) available to them is decreased.

Although raising minimum wage makes you sound like you "care" about people, all it does is ruin our free market economy and hurt the people that are supposed to be helped. Hopefully, you will vote based on simple economic principles that cannot be refuted, and not give in to the emotional, yet completely wrong, argument to raise the minimum wage.

[Phantom]

I am in economics right now.
Ok you are a small business.
Say they raise the minimum wage to like 10.
So in order for you to compensate with all the extra money you shell out you have to raise your prices or shut down.
Minimum wage destroys small business and only big cooperations can survive.

See economics is a tricky thing. You nudge something here, it moves something there.

Minimum wage is just one of those feel good laws, most people don't understand that it does quite a bit of harm.

[cmpcmp]

o.k. heres the problem with that logic,
-with the current minimum wage, $600 isn't enough to live off of, especially if you have a family to support of any size.

this is because of a couple of things
-Competition in the market place means lower prices and or higher quality usually win (i say usually cuz there are other factors like name recognition and advertising, and general "cool" factor)
-this means that the most efficient production will be used to cut cost, meaning that the workers will get their pay cut as much as is possible

-Now there are ways to fight this, that is with unions and the like. While unions aren't a bad thing in them selves if they have too much power they can kill companies and hold the public hostage (like the NY transportation walkouts) and I think are generally bad for the economy as they drive up cost on the consumers, and make their members pay dues.
-So how do you make sure that people are getting paid fairly?? minimum wage based on the cost of living a decent life in the area that you live in (for this reason I think that the cost of minimum wage should be higher in cities and lower in the country, as the cost of living is far lower there.