The Speaker's First Scandal
We are told that the gavel of the Speaker of the House is now in the hands of The Children. Nancy Pelosi proclaims that everything she does is for The Children, who now have an advocate who can claim the impressive credentials of mother and grandmother. As is the case with everything else, the approaching minimum wage hike is for The Children, whose parents work for minimum wage to feed and clothe them. The Children will eat better food and have warm clothes and reliable shelter everywhere in America and in our territories. Everywhere, that is, except one territory. Somehow, although the North Mariana Islands are covered under this minimum wage increase, American Samoa alone is exempted. I guess The Children don't live there.
Actually, two companies with major interests in American Samoa have their headquarters in Nancy Pelosi's district. Del Monte, which makes canned fruit, and Starkist, which produces canned tuna, both have interests in American Samoa and Representative Pelosi is doing them a favor by exempting their territory from this minimum wage hike. So, the Speaker's new motto is: "This gavel is in the hands of The Children, unless they are the children of the employees of my constituents."
The story on Foxnews.com said that the lowest-paid workers in America will get their first pay raise in a decade. This is not true. If any worker who started at minimum wage ten years ago is still earning minimum wage, he probably has an incarceration or a history of misconduct to blame for it. 0.6% of our workers make minimum wage - most of them teenagers working their first jobs. As a result of this bill, all of us will face higher prices at fast food restaurants and retail stores - anywhere with employees making minimum wage. Companies will face an across-the-board increase in costs of production because labor is one of their biggest costs - usually THE biggest. Consequently, there will be fewer jobs available to teenagers because employing them just got a lot more expensive. This minimum wage increase is a favor to the Labor Unions that have contracts coming up for renewal this year. As the minimum wage for unskilled labor goes up, they will make lofty demands for increases in their skilled workers' wages. Thus, we'll have higher prices everywhere. As they begin by fixing the price of unskilled labor, this Democrat-led Congress is en route on a project of detriment to the American economy. Drug price-fixes are next.
Actually, two companies with major interests in American Samoa have their headquarters in Nancy Pelosi's district. Del Monte, which makes canned fruit, and Starkist, which produces canned tuna, both have interests in American Samoa and Representative Pelosi is doing them a favor by exempting their territory from this minimum wage hike. So, the Speaker's new motto is: "This gavel is in the hands of The Children, unless they are the children of the employees of my constituents."
The story on Foxnews.com said that the lowest-paid workers in America will get their first pay raise in a decade. This is not true. If any worker who started at minimum wage ten years ago is still earning minimum wage, he probably has an incarceration or a history of misconduct to blame for it. 0.6% of our workers make minimum wage - most of them teenagers working their first jobs. As a result of this bill, all of us will face higher prices at fast food restaurants and retail stores - anywhere with employees making minimum wage. Companies will face an across-the-board increase in costs of production because labor is one of their biggest costs - usually THE biggest. Consequently, there will be fewer jobs available to teenagers because employing them just got a lot more expensive. This minimum wage increase is a favor to the Labor Unions that have contracts coming up for renewal this year. As the minimum wage for unskilled labor goes up, they will make lofty demands for increases in their skilled workers' wages. Thus, we'll have higher prices everywhere. As they begin by fixing the price of unskilled labor, this Democrat-led Congress is en route on a project of detriment to the American economy. Drug price-fixes are next.
posted by Bountyhawk at 10:03 AM
2 Comments:
I was recently (um... while on a job interview, in fact) talking with two professors. They commented that, of course, EVERYONE should agree that a raise in the minimum wage is necessary, just, and right.
Now, given the context, I kept my mouth shut (i.e., I resisted serious temptation). But internally, I shook my head at how even those with doctoral degrees, supposedly those whose main job is to think, fail to grasp even the rudimentary basics of economics.
Amen. About some things, I muse, "That's so crazy only a PhD. would believe it." Unskilled labor is a comodity to be traded on the market, just like any other good or service. If unskilled labor does not draw a high enough wage in the free market to support a family of four with two cars, the fault does not lie with the employer who pays market price.
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