The selling point that has brought people to the United States for centuries is the American dream: prosperity, luxury, opportunity, etc. Unfortunately for many, this dream was ruined by the economic decline of an indebted country. As inflation rises, the value of the U.S. dollar declines, lowering the value of household and business income. This economic recession has driven many people, especially those earning only minimum wage, into poverty. According to the United States Department of Labor, “the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour” (“Wage and Hour Division”). Some believe that a solution to this problem is to raise the minimum wage; however, it would ultimately have a negative effect on the United States economy, businesses, and people. Two groups are directly affected by a change in the minimum wage: the company and the worker. Supporters of raising the minimum wage insist that the increase would suddenly give American workers a better life at the expense of their employer, who would reap the benefits of a now motivated employee. However, it is easy to see that this idealistic scenario is simply fantastic and without credibility; If the minimum wage were to increase overnight, businesses would seek to do what they have always done: make a profit. They will decide to lay off thousands and thousands of employees in order to balance costs and revenues. Worse still, they could implement technological investments to replace these now too expensive workers. These would take the form of automated machines and automatic checkouts. In fact, this process is already happening as the economy shrinks. Like The Wall Street Journal's Farhad Manjoo...... middle of paper ...... response. All that can be done as things stand is to avoid factors that are clearly detrimental to the already hobbled state of the U.S. economy. Works Cited Auerback, Marshall. “The Top 5 Reasons Why Raising the Minimum Wage is Good for You and Me.” Alternet. Alternet, July 24, 2012. Web. March 22, 2014. Manjoo, Farhad. “Humans 1, Robots 0.” The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, October 16, 2013. Web. March 24, 2014.Mitchell, Stacy. “Key Studies on Big-Box Retailing and Independent Businesses.” Institute for Local Self-Government. Institute for Local Self-Reliance, December 22, 2011. Web. March 24, 2014. Ponnuru, Ramesh. “Raising the minimum wage: one of Obama's worst ideas.” Delewareonline The news journal. Delewareonline, March 22, 2014. Web. March 25, 2014. “Wage and Hour Division.” United States Department of Labor. United States Department of Labor, nd Web. March 16. 2014.