In case you haven’t noticed, the new Democrat-led Congress has begun a 100-hour legislative orgy, passing package after package of laws to screw the American people. Over the next few days we’ll look at some of these. But tonight, it’s the minimum wage. The House of Representatives voted 315 to 116 to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour.
You read those numbers right. They actually got a significant number of Republicans (in name only) to vote for the bill.
And you should hear them gloat.
“Raising the minimum wage is not just sound policy, it’s a sign of our values,” Kathy Sullivan, chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, said in a news release. “Everyday New Hampshire families work hard and play by the rules to earn a good living, but they are still living in poverty. Paul Hodes, Carol Shea-Porter and other Democrats in Congress are acting swiftly to fulfill our promise to restore America to a country that works for everyone. Passing minimum wage is a critical first step in that goal. We hope President Bush supports this legislation that will provide millions of Americans the long-awaited increase in wages they deserve.”
I can’t figure out if the politicians who support the minimum wage are being deceptive or just delusional. The simple fact is that the minimum wage is a tool by which socialists appear to be “doing something” for the poor while they are actually harming the poor by forcing them out of work and into welfare, raising the prices of the goods and services they produce and consume, and putting harsh financial burdens on small businesses while large corporations are virtually unaffected.
President Bush has said he will sign the bill if it includes some “tax breaks for small business,” as if that somehow makes up for the damage done.
The measure would increase the minimum wage to $5.85 per hour 60 days after being signed into law. It would then rise to $6.55 per hour one year later and $7.25 after two years, bringing an estimated $4,000 per year extra to a minimum wage employee working full time.
“In the United States of America, the richest nation on earth, workers should not be relegated to poverty if they work hard and play by the rules,” said Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, the House majority leader. — New York Times
Those minimum wage employees who are lucky enough to keep their jobs, that is, when the small businesses they work for have to make the tough choice between raising prices and cutting jobs just to stay afloat — or just go out of business entirely.
And I changed my mind. I think some of these politicians know the damage they’re doing and are being deliberately deceptive about it. Stephen Slivinski, director of budget studies at the Cato Institute, explains why:
Let’s assume that everyone who supports an increase in the minimum wage also knows — and perhaps even agrees with — the fundamental economic insight that such an increase would lead to either lower-skilled workers being laid off or prices for goods going up or both. It’s conceivable that someone could still support a minimum wage increase after being convinced of that. It’s a price worth paying, they might say. Or they could argue, as some supporters of the current proposal do, that an increase to $7.25 — phased in over three years, no less! — won’t do that much damage. After all, it’s not a $15 increase. . . .
Now consider what might happen if Congress were required to adjust the federal minimum wage by the cost of living in each congressional district. In areas where the cost-of-living is close to the national average, the minimum wage would be around $7.25. In Manhattan — where it costs twice as much to live when compared to other areas, like Kansas City — the minimum wage would be at least $14.
This would set off all sorts of protests from congressmen in districts in which the upward adjustment is greatest. Now the businesses in their districts would feel a pinch they wouldn’t feel under a non-adjusted minimum wage. Those formerly enthusiastic congressmen might even start to question why it’s the federal government’s business to meddle in the often complex process — going on all around the country within hundreds of companies and cities, each of which are faced with vastly different economic situations — by which an employer and employee come to their own agreement on compensation for employment. And isn’t that the sort of debate we should be having? — Cato@Liberty
Hey, I like that idea. Minimum wage tied to geographic cost of living. It would go nowhere in Congress because it demonstrates the absurdity and the harm of the minimum wage itself, not to mention might result in hundreds of Congressmen losing their next elections.
This bill desperately needs to be taken out back and killed, before it has a chance to harm any more poor people. And you people who voted for Democrats because you thought they were going to help the poor should be ashamed of yourselves.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
Karl Marx would love the popular moves among politicians in various state governments and the federal government to ban so-called "junk" food in schools, and to "put healthy food in" convenience stores and on the tables of those they define as poor. It's a very elitist and arrogant mindset that promotes this ideology, and it needs to be addressed.
Ultimately, the war supporters in Congress prevailed in the vote on the resolution. Still, the vote was significant because it places every member of Congress on the record as supporting or not supporting the unconstitutional, costly, violent occupation of a country that never attacked us. This vote should serve as an important reminder to the American people of where their representatives really stand when it comes to policing the world, empire building, and war.
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works license.
Video published by this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Sampling+ license.
Facebook
Digg
del.icio.us
reddit.com
Newsvine
Fraud Guy
Jan 10, 2007
The part that confuses me on the minimum wage, is that almost all of the jobs I have researched in greater Chicago (including low end service) have a minimum pay higher than the proposed minimum wage (and this was before Illinois raised its minimum).
NH
Jan 11, 2007
People will be VERY sorry they voted for Democrats both in the US Congress and in NH after they see what is going to be done to them.
84 years of the ‘best’ state in the nation, and I hope it doesn’t go down the drain because people got hung up on single issues and turned out about 90 of our best people!
Nigel Watt
Jan 11, 2007
Digg this.
Adam
Jan 11, 2007
You’re dumb. I bet you like Bush to you silly bastard.
Dan
Jan 11, 2007
Wow, at first I really thought this was a satire website like the Onion… but I think you really are serious. Sure it’s going to cost business more money and places like McDonalds can afford it who do pay minimum wage. The fact of the matter is I’ve never seen any small business actually start their employees at minimum wage, mainly because smaller business care about their employees well being. It’s big companies with faceless management who only look at the bottom line and cut costs at the expense of their employees. The US Dollar is in the dumps and with rising interests rates and inflation over the past 10 years those who are making the minimum $5.15 are in serious need of help. There hasn’t been an increase in 10 years. If your article is actually supposed to be serious I think it can be safely said you are out of touch with society, especially the lower class. And I sincerely hope you never hold a public office.
Adam
Jan 11, 2007
Dan, you are exactly right. Way to go! I hope you hold the public office. We need more people with your knowledge and understanding in all levels of our government.
NH
Jan 11, 2007
I doubt this person likes Bush! But he knows this Min Wage thing is bad.
Michael Hampton
Jan 11, 2007
You’re right, I really don’t care for the Bush administration.
But I have been a minimum wage worker and I’ve seen firsthand what it does.
Adam
Jan 11, 2007
First I want to say sorry for being rude in my first comment. There was no need for that. Hopefully you can delete that.
I actually wanted to just say that there is nothing right or wrong about raising the minimum wage. Both good things and bad things will come out of this, and no one can say exactly whether we should have raised it until we know what happens. Michael your right in your own opinion. In my opinion a raise was long due, but it should be done differently. We need to have the minimum wage raised gradually over many many years. As you know this increase will take at least two years before the wage is actually set to the $7.25. Wouldn’t our economy adjust better if had raised it to this level over more than just two years to implement? I hope you know what I am trying to say.
NH
Jan 11, 2007
I think you threw him off with this statement “This bill desperately needs to be taken out back and killed, before it has a chance to harm any more poor people. And you people who voted for Democrats because you thought they were going to help the poor should be ashamed of yourselves.”
Just because you are anti-war, doesn’t mean you are going to fall in with the communist opportunists who’d like to pigeonhole you as such either! (At least I hope not)
This is the mistake some anti-war protesters make. They become co-opted by a faction, just like Cindy Sheehan is being used by our enemies because she is too stupid to see that we don’t like murdering socialist dictators either!
The government hates people like us because they can’t pigeonhole us!
Dan
Jan 11, 2007
First off, it should never be about Democrats and Republicans, they’re both silly institutions so only rich and powerful people have a shot at being president. Only Independents can really see through smoke and mirrors. I also think it’s funny a thread about minimum wage goes into anti-war and all kinds of political buzz phrases. Like politicians you are all diverting to other subjects to prove a point ignoring the issue at hand. The fact is an economy cannot develop for 10 years while leaving entry level workers and those in poverty behind. That kind of mentality opens the rift even greater between lower and middle class. Can anyone here truly justify telling a single mother of 3 kids who cannot afford food, clothing, or healthcare that she can only make $5.15 an hour for the rest of her life because it’s for her own good? The only substitute for not raising the minimum wage is getting nationalized healthcare, at least those in need get something more out of being paid the lowest possible amout required by law.
Tuco
Jan 11, 2007
I believe a minimum wage law makes precisely the same sense as a minimum profit law.
NH
Jan 11, 2007
“The only substitute for not raising the minimum wage is getting nationalized healthcare”
GASP! I hate to tell you but the person who runs this website, and myself are anti-socialism and government control of most kinds.
Dan
Jan 11, 2007
Wow, a little paranoia there. This isn’t the 70’s, there is no “red scare” anymore. It’s people running the country who unfortuantely have similar ideals as you that take a vast majority of tax money and spend it on defense and leave the poor to fend for themselves when it comes to schools and taxes. You have no sense of the disparity a growing number of people in this country are facing. But I see your point, maybe if you turn your head the other way those people will go away. Unfortunately they will if that happens. The government takes more than 50% of our income in taxes when you calculate all of the fees and taxes an individual must pay, and unfortunatley they do the least for their citizens than most other developed countries… but boy do we ever have some cool killing machines to show for it. Take a look at Canada, everything the US government says will destory society seems to be working perfectly in Canada.
NH
Jan 11, 2007
HUH? Canada is a piss-poor totalitarian state! I would NOT want to live there.
There is no ‘red scare’ because they are well entrenched in our society as it is. … in fact they (socialists) are in control NOW in DC. LOL
And I don’t know what this war stuff has to do with anything. This whole conversation is about the minimum wage and how it works economically, to hurt the poor.
And my personal view, just so you know, is whether I am anti-war or not makes little difference to change what happens, but I’ll be darned if I am going to demoralize the poor soldiers in our military (as they were during the Clinton administration) who are over there trying to get a job done by denigrating them or demonstrating publicly WITH ENEMIES like Hugo Chavez.
That is just being plain stupid.
Dan
Jan 11, 2007
I’ve had enough entertainment from this site, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink. You’ll die of thirst soon.
NH
Jan 11, 2007
Try to get medical attention in Canada, even if you are offering to pay out of pocket and see how far you’ll get EVEN IF YOU ARE DYING.
I think you should go to Canada, really I do. The gov’t controls everything there and they are highly taxed.
I think you’d be more comfortable with that.
Michael Hampton
Jan 11, 2007
Wow, this really got out of hand while I was gone.
Dan, your arguments from emotion are not going to sway people who have actually looked at the economics of the minimum wage and know what it does. In addition, you aren’t likely to sway me, since I’ve seen firsthand how the minimum wage causes poverty, unemployment, homelessness and dependence.
But if you’d like to try being reasonable, I’m always willing to listen.
NH
Jan 11, 2007
I think what got me going was his attempt to pigeon-hole you as what he sees is something else that is much worse just because you are opposed to raising the wage.
I don’t know anyone who LIKES war, so the whole pro-war argument is moot.
JimboOReilly
Jan 11, 2007
Those interested in one look at how arguments against the minimum wage don’t really hold up should check this story about Washington State’s experience:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/11/us/11minimum.html?ex=1326171600&en=c2afd9257e4cc6b5&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
The thing about the minimum wage is that it puts money in the pocket of folks who will actually then go and re-spend the money. Give an executive a raise and he socks it away in a tax-free shelter…
NH
Jan 11, 2007
That’s not true — I spend my money. Isn’t that what it’s for?
I also am very generous and spend it on my friends too..
The Onion? UGH, if that’s the level of your reading, I feel sorry for you.
Q
Jan 11, 2007
you can’t please all the people all the time, and i think all those people are reading this article.
people have really strange ideas to explain poverty. a higher minimum wage hardly is the cause of poverty. it’s all the other crap these suits who decide the fate of their employees over golf games and at strip clubs. these are the people who raise the cost of things, not the minimum wage which is an attempt to compensate and achieve a balance — it’s amazing some people even manage to figure out how to put on their socks on the morning.
Kris Overstreet
Jan 11, 2007
The problem here is that over 80% of Americans want this minimum wage hike.
Repeating, over 80%. Only about 17% oppose it, according to Gallup.
To the other 80+%, whining about a minimum wage hike sounds like, “To hell with you poor people, I got mine!”
J. Bruno
Jan 12, 2007
Can we get a opinion poll of all the people who will be fired as direct result of this? I know we can’t get a poll of the hundreds of thousands of unemployed, who’d otherwise have their choice of ridiculously easy work were it not for minimum wage.
NH
Jan 12, 2007
That’s true. How many jobs will be lost because of being forced to pay a higher wage? Is it worth it?
7734
Jan 12, 2007
Bet you all you will see inflation increase more quickly if the minimum wage bill is passed.
J. Bruno
Jan 12, 2007
“Bet you all you will see inflation increase more quickly if the minimum wage bill is passed.”
Yes, this probably explains why gold went from ~610 to ~627 today. But then, I’ve been watching the dollar plummet ever since I bought gold at $475/oz.
Anonymous
Jan 12, 2007
Dan,
No one is saying that a single mother must work for $5.15 an hour for the rest of her life because it would be good for her. How silly of you. There are many ways she could improve her lot in life. The main word of the previous statement is “she”. Not the Feds. Not their job.
The min. wage needs to be abolished completely. If I come to an agreement with a potential employer that I will sell him my time and energy for $2.00 an hour that is mine and the employer’s god given right. No one and I mean no one should step in between us and say it is wrong because it does not fit federal guidelines on workers pay.
It is sad that you, Dan, are a socialist. I would suggest you check out and learn about the Libertarian Party in the USA. You might be enlightened to a better political philosophy that is by far more in tuned to the interests of the common man.
Or you could just hold on your values of socialism, which by the way is a dying form of political philosophy that has taken many “hits” in the past 50 years.
Either way up to you.
PG
Jan 12, 2007
Another 70 cents an hour times 8 is $5.60 a day more per person. Yup I’ll have to close up shop because $28 a week more per person will send my business to the hole. Let’s bring back slavery. I mean that really screwed up the bottom line, didn’t it?
And while were at it, we need to do more for the impoverished health care industry. Please donate to “Doctors without Porches”
Look, we all want less government and more liberty! The reason we have government in the first place is to play fair by the rules and consideration to humanity so that the greedy and power hungry don’t walk away with it all.
Is America stronger if it ignores the sick and needy.
It’s a baseline (min wage and healthcare) for national existence.
If Bush really wanted Freedom for Americans then he should support universal healthcare. A worker would not have to stay at a particular job because of healthcare insurance. An American could start an entrepeneurial pursuit. But he can’t the way things are now. GM and Ford would be able to compete internationally if healthcare insurance was national and outside corporate scope. Instead you bring the country as a whole down because you won’t do the right thing.
People like you, (there was a time when I spoke like you) are afraid of the kind of runaway socialism that that sucks everything down with it. But this country has always been a blend of capitalism and socialism. Public Schools, Police, Fire, Sanitation is at the heart of local government and socialistic by nature. The key to all of this is implementation. The lazy ass American Public is at fault because it doesn’t fully participate and allows the kind of wasteful spending and inefficiency that causes the abuse of a social program. People don’t participate because the process is mired in bullshit and only “government types” need apply. What cracks me up is that everyone is scared of what the Democrats will give away when it’s really the Republicans that have given away the whole store. Republicans consistently spend more to bring you smaller government.
One last thing! I had it real good at one time. Then I got sick and was operated on and other procedures. I never really recovered and couldn’t keep up and was layed off.
I lost my health insurance and was sick off and on. I can’t find a job that will offer health insurance even if I could stay healthy long enough to hold a job.
So if you have it your way, you better not get sick or loose your job and have to lay there wondering if you’ll live through the night.
meeciteewurkor
Jan 12, 2007
Minimum wage increases will also increase illegal immigration and will encourage scrupulous contractors to hire MORE of them, which will lead to more American job losses.
Dems really botched this. And Bush is stupid if he signs it.
_NH
Jan 12, 2007
I don’t mind if the immigrants come here and work.
I just mind the racist organizations that come here and vow to kill us all and take our land.
We have white people at the UN funding this.
Can you just imagine if we tried that on Canada? Oh boy!
meeciteewurkor
Jan 12, 2007
Legal immigrants are not the issue. The illegal immigrants come here and generally work for less than minimum wage. I know, we have thousands of them here in Tulsa. So, in essence, all illegal immigrants in this country get an illegal raise if the minimum wage is raised: lost American jobs, more money leaving our country.
Jan 12, 2007
meeciteewurkor
Michael Smith
Jan 13, 2007
The minimum wage law is immoral.
A job is a private relationship between an employer and an employee. The terms and conditions of that relationship, including the wage involved, is no one’s business but the individuals involved.
Nothing justifies the notion that either side should have the power to force the other side to agree to any particular terms. Nothing justifies the initiation of force to take that which others will not give you voluntarily — including a wage you desire that is higher than what the other party is willing to pay.
The minimum wage is an attempt to use force to get what workers cannot achieve in a free market. This is just as wrong as robbing a bank — just a lot safer when you get the government to do it for you.
If, as an employee, you are having trouble grasping the immoral nature of this law, just imagine all the employers getting together to convince Congress to pass a law mandating a maximum wage that is lower than your current wage. Would you feel such a thing is justified?
Michael Smith
Jan 13, 2007
The fact that 80% of the people support a minimum wage reflects the success of our education system in brainwashing the population with the whole litany of lies, misinformation and revisionist history that is used to smear capitalism.
It also reflects the success of our educators in aborting people’s ability to think independently and logically — this is necessary because the attacks on capitalism do not survive 5 minutes of simple logical analysis.
For instance, someone able to think logically and independently would ask, why not raise the minimum wage to $50 per hour and make us all rich? Why don’t the poor nations of the world simply enact a minimum wage and eliminate their poverty overnight?
We can’t have inconvenient questions like that, can we?
Michael Smith
Jan 13, 2007
PG said:
“Public Schools, Police, Fire, Sanitation is at the heart of local government and socialistic by nature.”
A common tactic, PG. Mix one legitimate functon of government with others and give it to us as a package deal, as if we have to accept them all as proper functions of government.
Government is an agency with a legal monopoly on the use of force. Clearly, a police department must operate on the basis of such a monopoly — it is inherently in the business of using force.
But what, in the nature of things, demands that an agency with a monopoly on force be allowed a monopoly on providing education, putting out fires and picking up the trash?
ray
Jan 13, 2007
Can anyone tell me how raising the minimum wage will hurt the economy when it affect only .6% of the entire workforce?
Kris Overstreet
Jan 13, 2007
Two responses:
Michael, up until as recently as World War II “company towns” existed where employees were required to live as a condition of employment. These towns were usually isolated from the rest of the world and had only businesses controlled or outright owned by the company. Employees were paid partially or completely in scrip- company-issued money only good in the company stores, which charged such high prices for necessities that more often than not the employee would have to go into debt to survive. In short, these workers were serfs if not outright slaves under the near-total control of their employers…
… and under anarcho-capitalism, this arrangement is wholly right, just and moral.
This is only one of the abuses of power that caused the majority of voters to support the first minimum wage laws. Today, with over 80% of the public thinking the minimum wage should be expanded and fewer than 20% believing it should stay the same (never mind be abolished), any political party which demands the immediate and complete repeal of the minimum wage will be in absolutely no danger of getting anyone elected to legislative office.
Ray: Only 0.6% of the workforce may work -at- the federal minimum wage, but a large portion of the workforce- including those who work at STATE minimum wages higher than the federal benchmark- have their wages indexed to the minimum wage. Even more workers have their wages indexed to the mythical “prevailing rate”, which means that when the minimum wage goes up, theirs are boosted indirectly.
Nigel Watt
Jan 13, 2007
Kris: Such coercive employers employed the state to coerce their workers into accepting their conditions.
J. Bruno
Jan 13, 2007
Whenever people attempt to link business with coercion, they somehow always leave out the coercion part. How do you imagine this happening Kris? Were the robber barons out with their nets and whips capturing workers for their factories? I guess they had high walls around these towns?
And what the hell does popular opinion have to with whether or not minimum wage should be abolished? Evidently you believe popular opinion supersedes facts.
Kris Overstreet
Jan 13, 2007
Bruno: the coercion was, in the example I set, threefold: (1) universal prevalence of the standard (virtually all mining companies and logging companies, plus a substantial number of manufacturing companies, used the company-town system); (2) lack of better alternatives (the people working in these industries could not easily switch to any other line of work); and (3) isolation (company towns were primarily a rural phenomenon).
Also, popular opinion has two things to do with whether or not minimum wage should be abolished. First, without a majority of popular opinion supporting the Libertarian Party, we will never be in any position TO abolish it, should we choose to. Second, when over 80% of the people around you want a BIGGER minimum wage, and nobody aside from your small circle of friends wants to abolish it altogether, either you and your friends are the only people capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time, or else the wisdom of totally abolishing the minimum wage must be questioned.
At the very least, abolishing the minimum wage is an issue the Libertarian Party should SHUT THE HELL UP about until it wins enough elections to be in a position to do it. Otherwise we, as Libertarians, will be seen by the electorate- whose votes we NEED to get elected and thus change public policy- as the party of company towns, big business, and neo-feudalism.
Kevin Fields
Jan 14, 2007
Where minimum wage hikes are going to have the greatest impact is in the service sector where the employees are seen and heard. Yes there is the argument that illegal immigrants are going to hurt those jobs, but illegal immigrants, for the most part, work in parts of the service sector where employees are neither seen nor heard as part of their jobs.
Anyplace where you actually see or interact with a minimum wage employee, this is where the impact will be. As this sector grows and other shrink, you will end up with a lot of potential employees in this field, many of them with higher education behind them. They’re not going to put up with a minimum wage for long, and the customers that they interact with will be upset if you try to force them to interact with employees with fewer skills and lower forms of education. Employers are going to be forced to pay above minimum wage for these employees. They’re going to find it harder and harder to attract competent employees for lower wages, they’re not going to be able to risk forcing lower skilled employees onto their customers, and they’re certainly not going to risk trying to do more business on fewer employees because they are upset about paying higher wages.
I suspect that, on the given track we’re on now, most minimum wage jobs that require public interaction will no longer be close to minimum wage. Already just the start of this year I see fast food restaurants in the rural town I live in start advertising jobs in the $7-$9/hr range for the same job I did at $4.25/hr 15 years ago, and at least that portion of the service sector will be more free and more competitive.
However, don’t confuse that with support for eliminating the minimum wage. Such increases wouldn’t be possible without the establishment of a minimum wage to begin with, and I’m a firm believer that without such pressure from a minimum wage, employers would not even consider giving more than a few paltry dollars an hour for ANY job.
vlm
Jan 14, 2007
What you’re missing is the illegal situation. The cleaning crew where I worked used to be teenagers, replaced with black folks from the ‘hood and they just fired the black folks a few weeks ago and replaced them with illegals. All a minimum wage increase will do is cause more black unemployment and more illegal employment. No companies will go out of business, just the ethnic makeup of the employees will change.
LL
Jan 15, 2007
Ridiculous, Unnatural
I think this “work for pay” business, whether regulated by minimum wage laws or just left to a friendly agreement between employer and prospective employee, is ridiculous and unnatural.
The issue is quite simple. In a free society, the powerful people get the weak people to work for them. This is human nature and is called coercion (which has a pejorative connotation but is used here simply to describe the natural order). Initially, the employer is powerful by dint of physical strength or size or aggressive personality. (Remember the pecking order that naturally emerged on your elementary school playground?) However, sometimes it is possible for a larger number of weak people to get a few strong people to work for them, assuming the weak people coordinate their actions and act in concert to become more powerful than the “strong” people. These agreements among the coordinated weak people have evolved into formal entities called “companies” with complex controls to insure the productivity of the employees. The natural superiority of this arrangement is clearly demonstrated by the truly awesome capitalism engine we have built in this country and the fear we instill in the rest of the world.
It is also possible to coax the workers into working by offering some “compensation” in the form of bits of food, perhaps a place to sleep, physical protection, or, if absolutely necessary, money. But there is no point in offering any more than minimal compensation, because there will always be someone desperate enough to work. There are 300 million human beings in the United States, over 6.5 billion people in the entire world. Several percent of them are pathetically poor. And as the media are constantly harping, many of them are starving and desperate. If they are able to thrust a hand out to beg, they certainly could put that hand to good use shining shoes or sewing sneakers or washing cars.
Still, when it comes to minimum wage for minimum work, it is always preferable to consider animal labor. Simple beasts don’t demand money, are not picky about food, have no claims to intelligence or souls and, as we know, were placed on this earth for the benefit of superior humans. But when the dumber animals are incapable of performing the required task, then one must resort to the minimal human equivalents. Underdeveloped humans, such as children or primitive jungle natives, are perfect candidates. They can be trained to respond to far more spoken commands than most dogs, mules, etc., and yet are not “intelligent” enough to demand luxurious working conditions such as eight-hour days, coffee breaks, bathrooms. By contrast, so-called “civilized” workers have tried to steal a trick from the organized weak peoples’ companies, banding together into unions to coordinate their “strength”. Luckily, our companies long ago recognized their allies at various government levels and promoted regulations to keep such firebrands strictly in line. While children and primitives are naturally uppity and willful, they can usually be tamed through the appropriate application of negative reinforcement methods and, in many localities, physical restraints are perfectly legal.
So to sum up, I find this entire discussion — minimum wage, poverty, capitalism, socialism, illegal immigrants, small businesses, tax breaks – all tiresome and pointless. Screw the regulations; we will fend for ourselves, thank you. We are human beings and we will take what we want. There will always be suffering (and I suppose there will always be whining about it). Just everyone do me a favor and shut up.
And for those of you who didn’t realize, and I know you’re out there, the foregoing was sarcasm. As in A Modest Proposal. Not meaningless, just sarcastic.
Keith
Jan 15, 2007
This is sad. Minimum wage is the ultimate no win scenario. It’s most unfortunate.
Oh yeah, and try not to be so anti-socialist. This kind of hatred is sure to do no good.
Verbos
Jan 17, 2007
First of all Socialism does NOT work!! Just open your eyes and look. Can’t find it working? And for those of you who say you’re all about Liberty, anarchy leads to people running in gangs of criminals like hungry wolves. So what does work? People working to create a system that provides maximum opportunity to the the maximum number of people. If the government has to provide assistance to people who only need opportunity, we are doing something wrong. There will always be the helpless ones who can only beg for charity. We are a sovereign nation, but for how long, with everyone giving away the store. National pride and unity are not to be smirked at, or thought of as arrogance. It is survival of the fittest. The path of greed and arrogance is even now our undoing. China is the most populous nation in the world. Soon it will wheeled a military might unimaginable. They already control a major portion of world commerce with no sign of change. In the end our lost will be because we did not help our neighbors and ourselves prosper.
7734
Jan 19, 2007
A minimum wage hike does nothing more than increase what you pay at the register. Let’s see. Raise it from 5.15 to 5.85 the first yr. Hmmmm. Let me figure this out. I just received a .70 pay increase. WOW. Now, let me see. I buy 70 items during my grocery shopping. As soon as the hike went into affect each item increased by .01. WHAT! I just lost one hours worth of any increase in my paycheck. Now, do that for everything associated with day to day living and let’s see what it does to that fantastic socialist inspired wage increase. What kind of perverted game is this anyway? I DEMAND A HIGHER MINIMUM WAGE! Oh, but wouldn’t that have the same effect as just discussed?
Steve Savage
Jan 20, 2007
You people are MORONS. After 6 years of republican rule, you still don’t get it do you.
The difference between republicans and democrats is that democrats at least care about your sorry broke asses every once in awhile.
The Reagan revolution gave us nothing but corporate profiteering, and you silly fools gleefully pushed the “ronnie” lever knowing he was gonna screw you with a dry corncob.
Fast forward to 2007 and you still want to be dry humped by corporate entities. Sad.
LL
Jan 21, 2007
You can lead a horde to satire, but you cannot make them think.
Steve R.
Jan 22, 2007
The fact of the matter is that people are born with nothing. From that point on there are a few ways for them to attain wealth. Without minimal checks and balances it is easy to contrive systems to keep entire chunks of people utterly devoid of wealth. Very easy.
Minimum wage makes everyone pay more for all of their products. This pay increase will affect the poor disproportionately (in a good way for them). The rich will end up bearing an “unfair” amount of the burden. Which is the intent. You only have to do the math. Minimum wage helps the poor plain and simple. After prices rise they still end up with a bigger bang for the buck. It may not be the full value of the raise but it is significant.
If you are under the impression that the only people who buy products are those whose pay is minimum, you are highly deluded.
Jan 23, 2007
La domo de karotoj » Pri la pliigado de la minimuma salajro
Zhang Fei
Jan 26, 2007
PG: Another 70 cents an hour times 8 is $5.60 a day more per person. Yup I’ll have to close up shop because $28 a week more per person will send my business to the hole. Let’s bring back slavery. I mean that really screwed up the bottom line, didn’t it?
Over a 5-day week, 52-week year, that’s $1,456 a year. Multiply that over 10 employees, for the average fast food mom-and-pop, and that’s $14,560 a year*. If the business is profitable, it will make $14,560 less. If it’s break-even, it will lose money and shut down. How about if I asked you to pay only 70 cents an hour to support a minimum wage increase for one person from today onwards? Or are you in support of these things only as long as you are driving somebody else’s business into the ground?
* Note that I haven’t factored in the additional hundred dollars or so the employer will have to pay for Social Security.
Zhang Fei
Jan 26, 2007
* And that’s per employee.
Zhang Fei
Jan 26, 2007
Steve R: You people are MORONS. After 6 years of republican rule, you still don’t get it do you.
The difference between republicans and democrats is that democrats at least care about your sorry broke asses every once in awhile.
Actually, all the Democrats care about is using other people’s money to fund their pet causes. If they really cared about poor people, they would use their own money to fund these causes. The statistical truth is that Republicans donate more money to charity while paying the same amount in taxes that Democrats do. The richest people in the nation are Democrats. And yet they seem to donate less money to charity. Why is that? Why do we get rich celebraties “donating” their time to get other people to pony up cash instead of setting an example by ponying up themselves. This is the whole Democratic mentality – getting other people to pay for their personal obsessions.
Steve R: The Reagan revolution gave us nothing but corporate profiteering, and you silly fools gleefully pushed the “ronnie†lever knowing he was gonna screw you with a dry corncob.
Fast forward to 2007 and you still want to be dry humped by corporate entities. Sad.
In a free market system, corporations can’t profiteer – if they try, they get slaughtered by the competition. During the Reagan era, the domestic consumer electronics industries – stereos, tv’s and radios, were killed by foreign competition. Car, steel and machine tools – all took major pressure from foreign companies with leaner cost structures and more efficient work practices. When the Democrats were in power, individual workers with union jobs got to profiteer at the nation’s expense. If you were born with a union card (thanks to Dad), you had a job – otherwise, you got unemployment – not on the backs of Democratic politicians, but on the backs of the nation’s taxpayers. Under Democratic rule, corporations got to profiteer because the domestic market was closed off to foreign competition and barriers were put to new market entrants via onerous regulations.
Sharon
Feb 01, 2007
I didn’t know of anyone who makes minimum wages that objects to an increase, the only ones I do know makes much more. I can understand the price of things going up but the price of things always go up anyway while those who make minimum wage continue to struggle and a little $2 or so increase really won’t make the struggle much better. So why don’t they go to college, get an education to better themselves? Because not everyone is college material, some have a hard time just getting out of high school. So why care about a long overdue increase since America is a very wealthy nation, oh yes that’s right, it will be bad for the economy.
PastureCookie
Feb 19, 2007
Ahhh the Reagan years! My favorite president. That’s when I made all my millions!
richard clay
Jul 26, 2007
so i go through all of that trouble to work my ass off to get more than min wage and now i will be working for min wage again. So if my employer does right by us everyone should get the same pay raise. Oh good i should be expecting a two dollar raise plus. but this is a small shop barely getting by but that is ok we pass it on to the customers. HA back to you MIN WAGE IS STILL MIN WAGE NO MATTER HOW MUCH! prices will still go up so employers can still make theirs, even this non-collage person knows that DUH TO THOSE FOR THE PAY RAISE
richard
Jul 27, 2007
another thing, if one gets food stamps the two dollar raise cuts that down and food prices WILL go up money buys less. The government will get thier cut because now you are in a different tax bracket, so now they will say no new taxes because you are paying more already from the raise. wow what a year for the politician thay can get more taxes without raising then also less earned income credit and more people off food stamps and whoever gets elected will get the credit
Hank
Jul 29, 2007
I can’t believe what is going on here. Look i am for keeping those damn illegals under minum wage. Look what happened to those negros, I mean they think they can run the country. Hell with those single mothers, they should have stayed with their husbands. If they want a single lifestyle they should pay the price, and the employer should decide what he wants to pay not the government. I am a true republican, I love Oreilly and Hanity and Tucker. I mean just the other day tucker was laughing because some left wing liberal nut said our country was corporate runned? lol can you believe that? Corporation runned. I mean poor companies like Walmart can not pay their employees more than min. wage. My milk, toilet paper and so on would just go up. Bush is right lets let the mexicans pay tax but can’t vote…amensty isn’t bad. Bush really cares about his fellow republicans, he is looking out for us. The tax cut to the rich is allowing for more jobs, if you raise the minum wage what good is the tax cuts? I saw what happened to the negros and the mexicans think the same would apply to them…We can’t let that happen. I love this blog I am going to tell all my friends about it. We have to stick together..Remember what Oreilly said we have to go after those liberals..I mean if they take over we maybecome a country like France..They don’t like to work, lazy and hate us good old fashion americans.
Hank
Jul 29, 2007
any by the way I am Republican all the way. I just wish those damn negros, hispanics stay on the liberal side. I mean it was those damn liberals that freed them in the first place. And I am peeooowed at Oreilly, when he is on vacation he has that dumb asian chick on, come on Oreilly you know better. Republicans are conservative white folks, we always were we always will be. to the others stay on your side…I vote for tax cuts as well, well at least for people like myself and rommy. I want Mitt Romney for President.. or any republican we have to fight..everyone visit sign up you should see the great stuff going on in the republican party. they have all the phone numbers, email of news media, newspapers at your finger tips..They even tell you what to right, shit I think that is genious. I think a lot of liberals went down that we because they told us exactly what to write…
Hank
Jul 29, 2007
check out they will tell you exactly what to write and say to the liberal media..Its genious..they have all the phone numbers, email, address of the media, talk shows, newspapers, congress…and they tell you what to say, I love it. We will get those stupid liberals.
richard
Aug 01, 2007
you are telling me you let someone else tell you what to say?