Because Republicans don't care if people starve while working full time. I would absolutely raise the minimum wage to a level that a person can live a decent life.
It is my opinion that a business owner who pays less than a decent living wage is stealing from each employee. In most cases, they are also stealing from society, too, since we have to deal with feeding, jailing, etc, for people who are desperate.
It is my opinion that any business that cannot afford to pay its employees a decent living wage is a failed business by definition. I see no reason why a failed business owner should remain in business.
And before you tell me that nobody would go into business if they had to pay a decent living wage, I will tell you that it is my opinion that 1) you don't have enough faith in the greediness of American entrepreneurs, and 2) If stuff needs to be done, it will be done.
I would also tax the use of robots (in a broad, general sense of automated systems) in a way that insured that no business owner was encouraged to use fewer people than appropriate. I would use the proceeds of those taxes to support people who could not get a job with, you guessed it, a decent living stipend.
Yes. I am a liberal. You might call me a socialist. I believe that work is the important part of the capitalist system, not management. I believe that the application of capital in my country has to serve the people.
I believe a person who extracts a penny of profit while he has a single worker on food stamps should be taxed until the situation is changed, either by the worker making more or the profiteer being replaced with someone who values America and Americans more than his or her own greed.