Posted on 08/11/2019 5:32:10 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
Lets be clear: Mayor Peter Buttigiegs off-color remark equating minimum wage opposition to being an oppressor of the poor isnt just ignorant. It ignores elementary school economics.
Politicians like to look at the minimum wage debate and only talk about the worker. For Democrats, this is a household talking point designed to earn votes. But its lacking reality. You cant analyze only a third of the equation and expect to produce a winning formula.
Creating jobs is a process that involves entrepreneurs, workers and consumers. All three of these items dictate the worth of an employee, not just what the government deems as a minimum wage.
The concept is alarmingly simple: When labor costs rise, people lose jobs. In 2016, Seattle Democrats raised the citys minimum wage for large employers to $13 an hour 37 percent higher than the statewide minimum wage at the time.
Within a year, the minimum wage hike cost the city more than 5,000 low-wage jobs, bringing the net earnings per low-wage job down by an average of $125 per month. According to the University of Washington's research team, "In percentage terms, the loss of jobs was significantly larger than the gain in hourly wages.
Seattle is the rule, not the exception. At the federal level, a $15 an hour minimum wage now a staple of any Democratic platform would trigger 1.3 million lost jobs nationwide. (And that's a conservative estimate.)
Moreover, those workers fortunate enough to keep their jobs would be forced to take on more responsibility and work longer hours, as employers attempt to offset the negative impacts of a reduced workforce. Is that really what Americas working class needs?
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the countrys first federal minimum wage into law in
1938, setting it at 25 cents per hour. Since then, Congress has raised the federal minimum wage 22 times, yet one-third of Americans still live in poverty or near-poverty (including 14.8 percent of Americans below the poverty line).
Indeed, the poverty rate has fluctuated between 10 and 20 percent for decades, regardless of the federal minimum wage in any given year.
The best way to help those in poverty is to allow the marketplace to work and make it easier for individuals to find opportunities in the small business sector. The American economy, after all, is a small business economy. America is home to more than 30 million small businesses, all of which employ roughly 60 million workers half of the private-sector workforce.
Over 280,000 of those small businesses are exporters, ensuring that we remain competitive globally. All of them were started by entrepreneurs, many of whom took incredible risks to make their ideas a reality. Some risked all they had to launch their businesses and hire the employees needed to grow them.
And what was the minimum wage for the entrepreneur? Zero dollars.
Companies like Amazon, FedEx and Turner Broadcasting didnt earn a dollar of profit for five years after they were launched. It took years for them to become the household names we know today. ABCs hit show "Shark Tank" is overflowing with stories of entrepreneurs who chose not to pay themselves a salary in the early days of their business lives.
If our society is indeed built on the American dream (yes, it still exists), then such sacrifices are the building blocks that will see it endure for decades to come. The story of the entrepreneur is an inspiration to us all and one that America should be proud of.
Democrats like Buttigieg would be better served harnessing the entrepreneurial spirit than disparaging those who embody it on national television. Pinning our hopes on any government mandate is a fools errand. It doesnt take an economic expert to understand that.
Buttigieg quoted the Proverbs scripture, "Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their maker."
This prompts a serious question for Mayor Pete: If a government-mandated minimum wage hurts poor, low-skilled workers the most, then wouldnt those politicians pushing for irresponsible policies be the oppressors?
Cliff Maloney serves as president of Young Americans for Liberty.
BTTT
Here's one for ya, Petey...not exactly word for word, but you get the gist:
"He who sodomizes and perverts the state of Holy Matrimony, is going straight to hell...no passing go, no 200 bucks."
Ignorant damned pervert, actually thinking I or any sensible person would take any advice from a man that thinks sex with another man is okay in the eyes of God.
What do you expect from a pinko commie fagh? I take great offense when the Lords words are blasphemed.
But, he in reality, is doing nothing. The poor shopkeeper has to, in short order, do one (or some combination) of the following:
He must try to get more out of his existing workforce.
He must run the risk of alienating his customer base by raising prices.
He must be willing to accept a lower rate of return on his investment.
He may say, to hell with even trying to run a business.
He must seek ways to automate, and thus replace human beings as employees.
No politician ever gives a shot about what an business owner has to do in response to minimum wage increase. They could (obviously) care less.
When you get your first job, what are the first things you learn? You learn the proper uniform or dress attire. You learn how to be on-time. You learn customer-service skills.
Freaking gel Cher is a moron.
The Left is pleased to call this behavior greedy. :)
I am for the $15 minimum wage for the whole United States. The next step would be a $20 minimum wage for Mexico. I would follow that up with a $30 minimum wage for Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador. Bernie Sanders would have to love the solution and couldnt deny it. Very soon all of our illegals will go down south for the big money. We also have to take care of Venezuela lets give them $50 minimum Wage.
So this fantasy voodoo economics would be loved by the liberals and we would get rid of all of our illegals. /s
I own my own business, My Minimum Wage has been ZERO for 35 years. Expenses and Employee’s always come first
Actually its worse than that. Entrepreneurs net income is negative for awhile. It costs money to get a biz, any biz, going. Ive been in the process for 5 months now and have spent close to $10,000. And Im not done yet. About another $2500 to go. And I havent made a dime yet because we havent launched yet.
Space rent, tooling, machine purchase, software, fab rental, supplies, materials, business license, outside services and so much more.
I would have loved a zero salary, it would have bought enough time to turn fully functional prototypes into a final product. (And find a new customer, as ours quite literally died on us. *sigh*
Or he can shrink the business so that he and his family can run it on any pay they feel like taking instead of hiring outsiders.
Trying to teach libs economics( even 5th grade economics) is like teaching my dog algebra
Forget “zero dollars” - entrepreneurs also have substantial negative dollars as an option....it’s up to them to make it profitable by, gasp, working really hard and long hours....
LOL. What if he runs a restaurant and ground beef goes up 100% (which it has over the last decade ) what does he do? Business people commoditize everything and labor is one of the costs of business.
Why should he Republican Party kowtow to the 8,000,000 small business that hire min wage workers? This wage increase will "trickle" up and don't think the 100,000,000 W-2 employees earners don't know it.
We (Patriots) want the Republican Party to be an inclusive nationalist party and stop being a Libertarian experiential party.
Nobody gets locked out. The work still gets done.
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