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Bill: Establishment of a Reasonable Minimum Wage
Details
Submitted by[?]: Saiserist League
Status[?]: defeated
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: September 2493
Description[?]:
| Recognizing that the current lack of a minimum wage condemns many fully employed citizens of Zardugal to undeserved and unmerited poverty, and recognizing that it is the duty of the government of Zardugal and its composing parties to promote the interests of all its citizens regardless of financial position, establishes a minimum "living wage" which will allow all employed citizens of Zardugal to make ends meet and live in some form of mild comfort. This will also provoke stimulus in the economy of Zardugal as it will grant more purchasing and consumption power to the lower class than they have previously possessed, making this "living wage" the profitable and morally right establishment. |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change The nation's policy on minimum wage regulation.
Old value:: There is no provision for a minimum wage.
Current: There shall be a minimum wage at a level considered a "living wage," well above the poverty line for a full time worker.
Proposed: There shall be a minimum wage at a level considered a "living wage," well above the poverty line for a full time worker.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 20:02:25, November 27, 2007 CET | From |  Irish Party | To | Debating the Establishment of a Reasonable Minimum Wage |
| Message | Yes, we fully agree to this. And good luck with it too. We tried to bring a similar in before but failed. |
| Date | 04:30:06, November 28, 2007 CET | From | Democratic Party | To | Debating the Establishment of a Reasonable Minimum Wage |
| Message | I am completely against this bill. A minimum wage will do the opposite of what it strives to do. |
| Date | 04:35:57, November 28, 2007 CET | From | Saiserist League | To | Debating the Establishment of a Reasonable Minimum Wage |
| Message | 1. It will encourage the use of more skilled and adult labor (often portrayed as "taking away from teens" but is in fact "giving to adults who actually need the work" 2. No emplyed citizen of Zardugal will be condemned to languish in poverty. It is morally abhorrent that many of Zardugal's fine citizens who work day and night nevertheless live below the poverty line. 3. It does not encourage workers to slack off. If they fail to do the duties they are employed to do they will and should be fired. But if they are doing the duties for which they are employed they will be able to escape poverty. 4. It is economically sound. Money in the hands of employers and corporations languishes in coffers. Money in the hands of workers is spent, stimulating economic growth. Conclusion: A "living wage" is both profitable and moral |
| Date | 08:07:43, November 28, 2007 CET | From | Saiserist League | To | Debating the Establishment of a Reasonable Minimum Wage |
| Message | To DP: Perhaps you would like to elaborate on your concerns about establishing a living wage, and how it would be counterproductive? The Revolutionary Socialists have organized our arguments, so we recommend you and all other parties take serious consideration regarding the well-being of Zardugal's citizens. Do you believe any full-time worker in our nation merits a life of poverty? |
| Date | 09:19:14, November 28, 2007 CET | From | Liberty Party | To | Debating the Establishment of a Reasonable Minimum Wage |
| Message | "We live in a free-market society. Your paid what you produce. If you don't produce enough, you work harder. If you don't believe your paid enough for your product, you negotiate, or you find a new job. Being a free-market society makes that last option very popular. It's a simple, rational system, and the workers of Zardugal don't want to see all they hold sacred destroyed by a group of ignorant extremists." ~James Allan, Shadow Trade and Industry Minister |
| Date | 09:40:51, November 28, 2007 CET | From | Saiserist League | To | Debating the Establishment of a Reasonable Minimum Wage |
| Message | The free-market fantasy should be explained right here. Corporations start massive rounds of downsizing, with or without a minimum wage, to cut costs. Employees have no public pension or health plan, and are thousands of zardugals in debt from student loans (college being a perequisite to any vocation of substance in a modern economy). So without their job, they have no security for old age, no security for any medical misfortune, and no security from the crippling debts they owe, yet "there is no law that you must work here". Employees have no negotiating or bargaining power, because there is an endless pool of employees in the downsized labor pool quite willing to work for the substandard wages, and of course an endless swarm of labor from Third World countries willing to take Zardugali jobs. The end result is perfectly productive working citizens of Zardugal end up below the poverty line because they must choose between the poverty of employment or the extreme poverty of unemployment. Hardly a free and liberating, or rational, system. With the institution of a minimum wage corporations are encouraged to hire the most skilled employees and thus to keep Zardugali jobs within Zardugal. |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 185 | ||||
| no | Total Seats: 216 | ||||
| abstain | Total Seats: 0 |
| Random fact: Particracy has been running since 2005. Dorvik was Particracy's first nation, the Dorvik Social Democrats the first party and the International Greens the first Party Organisation. |
| Random quote: "You don't have to buy from anyone. You don't have to work at any particular job. You don't have to participate in any given relationship. You can choose." - Harry Browne |