Evil Republicans Oppose Minimum Wage
By Ted Baiamonte Comments: bje1000@aol.com (07/03/06)
It seemed impossible but last week Republicans argued, and in public too, against the minimum wage. How evil can they be? Don’t poor people deserve a living wage? Republicans were actually against poor people! Isn’t that sad;even tragic?
Here are the, so called, arguments, Republicans used: they claimed that if you raise the minimum wage cost, the price of goods made by those who earn the minimum wage would go up just as it would go up if any of the costs to make goods went up. So then, according to Republicans anyway, there is no net benefit since those who receive the minimum wage have to then buy goods at a higher price with a new minimum wage that doesn’t have higher purchasing power. They concomitantly believe, that if you do raise the minimum wage, those who had previously been given raises above the minimum wage would then be back to earning the minimum wage again, and so would demand a raise so as not to be on the bottom again. In fact , they claim, everyone would demand a raise so as to maintain their relative position in the wage pecking order, and thus all wages and all prices would go up yielding a net loss based on all the minimum wage distortions from optimal free market wages and prices.
Then, they had the audacity to argue that if wages go up there will actually be fewer jobs, and so again there would be no net benefit, and in fact, another net loss. To be honest it does seem that employers are a little sensitive anyway to the cost of wages. I guess that’s why you have to walk the isles of Home Depot, for example, for two hours to find someone to help you or, why when you want computer support you end up waiting on hold forever and then finally get to talk to an employee in India who doesn’t speak English or know what he is talking about, or why when you buy something it is made in low wage China. It seems wages at the bottom do directly determine the exact number of jobs here in the United States. What a surprise that must be to Democrats?
Republicans also claim that with a fixed amount of money in circulation, if wages and prices go up because of say, a higher minimum wage , people will be able to afford less from minimum wage industries and so employers will need fewer or less employees. Again , what a surprise? Perhaps all that talk about outsourcing to lower wage countries does in the end have something to do with the high cost of labor in America? In fact, millions and millions of jobs, particularily low wage jobs, have been exported already because of high wages; so raising wages further might not be the best idea in the world. It might be the worst idea and it might explain why Democrats love it.
Republicans then argued that if a minimum wage of $8 showed genuine compassion, a minimum wage of $100 would show super genuine compassion. They argued for it on the grounds that it would quickly teach the Democrats the real effects of price/wage fixing that are often hidden by the normally small wage increases for which they ask. Republicans feel Democrats want small increases in part becuase they are too dumb to understand the economics and in part because poor people then can’t see the damage done to them by the small increases.
Then, of course, you have the problem of entry level workers: teenagers, recent immigrants, the unskilled, and those reentering the work force. The higher the minimum wage the fewer of these people can get work experience, learn a trade, figure out what they like to do, find part time work, and/or be integrated into society. Thanks to Democrats, unemployment is very high among these people during what are very critical and formative years for them because the minimum wage is high.
The perspicuous Democrats had a wonderful argument on their side though to counter all of the Republican common sense. They felt in their deeply compassionate hearts that if they could just sneak new minimum wage legislation through the Congress many ignorant people would vote for them never suspecting how damaging the minimum wage really is.
All of this goes to show that too much democracy will always produce too many Democrats, and that Jefferson was right that freedom from gov’t schemes is best , no matter whether they are thrust upon us by generals, kings, tyrants, dictators, communists, or Democrats.
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