If there would be a livable minimum wage worldwide, what would happen?

Who would be affected most? Would it change the way we live, make stuff, and buy stuff?

Would America (and other modern countries) be able survive being that it thrives on the work of third world countries to manufacture almost all of its goods? Would it cause middle class and poor people to become impoverished due to the rising cost of everything?

Its a complex issue. Every action comes with a host of unintended consequences. The problem with artificial wage floors is that if the person in question is not producing enough to justify the wage being paid (plus any other costs of employment) then the company cannot keep them long. Companies have to be able to raise prices, or cut costs elsewhere.

Rather than force the burden of social welfare entirely on the backs of employers, why not just replace all of the aid programs with a guaranteed minimum income instead?

Companies can always fire someone for a good reason. I'm not sure I understand what you trying to say

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It's complicated. I don't believe it's the solution. Then comes inflation, rent increases, etc. When percentage margins of profit decrease, business will find other ways to increase that. And if that means raising prices.they will.

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Please only answer the question, "what if"? Not why it's a good idea or why it's a bad idea

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Assuming everyone could make a livable wage, then tax bases would drop. There wouldn't be a need for or would be very limited need for safety nets. Quality of life for people in general would go up and we would likely see drops in things like drug and alcohol abuse and abortion rates.

However, many corporations would struggle. It would impact the entire economy. Many companies depend on keeping wages below poverty level to maintain profit margins. (For example, the company I work for depends on food banks and social programs to feed the workers instead of paying them enough to buy their own food. Typical wages of a composite material layup technician are around $8.25. And this is skilled labor, not McDonald's workers.) In that way, the economy would lose it's safety net.

Overall, to play the stock dividends, double-digit growth games that much of our economy functions on these days, there always has to be a category of people below poverty level.

until all the donald trumps of the world are dead its not gonna do much. theyll find a way to get their piece of the pie. and by piece i mean taking the whole thing and leaving crumbs for the rest of us.

What if

Happiness index would go up

Less stress for many people and illness would go down

Less anger

The economy will be great because people with money will be buying more

Crime would go down

Prices of goods and services would go up to balance the mandated wages.

Tough crowd. Pardon me for not answering exactly to your sensibility. Could not my response be my impression of an end result if this were to occur?

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Cost of living would increase along with it. This would create the same scenario we're in now. Not every job, person, city, state, etc are created equal. Unless you're riding the trails of communism or socialism, you'll never be able to completely level the playing field in the economy.

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I see unemployment rising if the minimum wage was raised to livable conditions, you could only hire so many people and still make a profit.

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No offense, your answer was fine I just wanted to try to steer the conversation in that direction as much as possible. Cheers

Would it be Armageddon style unemployment or just more of what is now?

probably more than just what is now, I don't know what Armageddon style is, nor will I assume I know.

Edit: My philosophy is to survive, job or no job, all one needs to survive is warmth/shelter,food,and water.

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Having re-read the title to this thread, I noticed the word "Worldwide" this leads to questions

1. Who determines what that amount would be, the cost of living in Ethiopia would be far different than say San Francisco? What would be the standard used?

2. What body would be able to enforce such a regulation? the UN?

3. How would low profit margin employers be compensated for loss of income, tax credits perhaps? Would there have to be funds put aside for bailouts? etc?

4. If a universal floor were mandated across the world leading to increased unemployment due to higher prices for goods, would welfare programs have to be expanded to compensate, and would taxes have to be raised across the populations to make up for the revenue?

@timgt5

Let's say for arguments sake that the third world governments in the world slowly evolve to demand that there will be a minimum wage enforced for major corporations that have factories there, and they accomplish it to a large degree. (The only question is, would they want to do that considering that they might lose their business because companies would go elsewhere. But what if all or most 3rd world countries make a pact)

The western world will provide negligible bailouts or tax credits. Welfare will not increase considerably.

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Do you think this statement is correct: The west can only the survive with its comfortable lifestyle due to the underpaid labor of third world countries. I really don't have any political agenda here, I'm just theorizing.

Another question would be, is it even theoretically possible to happen.

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People would be happy and more healthy, and everything would be better.

Worldwide is way too large a scope to work with.