Wal-Mart and Minimum Wage Chicken Hawks

Flopping Aces ^ | 07-14-13 | Brother Bob

[Starman417]

Job killing leftists have chalked up another victory. Wal-Mart was looking to build three stores in Washington, DC, but the prostitutes serving Big Labor, aka the DC City Council, voted 8-5 to chase them away. What this came in the form of was a "Living Wage Bill", which was actually specifically targeted toward Wal-Mart. The bill forces retailers with over $1 billion in sales and stores occupying over 75,000 feet of pave to pay $12.50 per hour, as opposed to the $8.25 Washington, DC minimum wage. The Washington Post reported 

“The question here is a living wage; it’s not whether Wal-Mart comes or stays,” said council member Vincent B. Orange (D-At Large), a lead backer of the legislation, who added that the city did not need to kowtow to threats. “We’re at a point where we don’t need retailers. Retailers need us.”

What? Exactly what point is it that you feel the need to chase businesses away from a city that has 8.5% unemployment? We could also give Messr, Orange a basic lesson on economics that wages get determined by what you're worth, not what makes leftists happy. Entry level jobs pay less for a reason. And we could also point out that when a city suffers from high unemployment it's nothing to celebrate over when you shut down someone who is willing to risk their own money in your neighborhood to create jobs. $8.25 per hour is actually an exponentially better wage than the amount of zero that comes from not working. Fox News added that Wal-mart scrapped it's plans as a result, and also noted how this bill singled out Wal-Mart: 

Unionized businesses are exempt from the measure. Large stores that already have a presence in D.C., including Target (TGT) and Macy’s (M), have four years to comply.

That last part can be translated as an exemption that Macy's and Target will be allowed to keep in perpetuity provided they shovel enough money to the appropriate community groups dedicated to re-electing the DC council members.

One doesn't have to go far to see examples of leftists' selective outrage, whether it's in the privately owned Newseum's layoffs while their executives are paid quite well, or anti-Capitalist Senator Elizabeth Warren (D - Cherokee Nation) who pays her own interns a living wage of... zero.

[Logical me]

Since when is any State or DC have the right to set wages to a private company? Oh, forgot. Communists America.

[Terry L Smith]

Good! So when the folks are sitting home, jobless, they can look to their wise, elder town council, that they voted into office, and thank them!

[fatnotlazy]

Unfortunately, the spin will be that unemployment is the fault of greedy Wal Mart. And these fools will buy it.

[MichaelCorleone]

“Good! So when the folks are sitting home, jobless, they can look to their wise, elder town council, that they voted into office, and thank them!”

Unfortunately I don’t think it’ll work that way. Especially with the way the media is.

[fatnotlazy]

Unfortunately, the spin will be that unemployment is the fault of greedy Wal Mart. And these fools will buy it.

[jocon307]

If the mayor is smart he’ll veto this.

[oldbrowser]

$8.25 per hour is actually an exponentially better wage than the amount of zero that comes from not working.

Let see, collecting unemployment, welfare, food stamps, free medical, Obama phones, etc., and sit home on the one hand. On the other hand go to work every day and get $8.25/hr. They can't afford to work.

Secondly think like a marxist, consider the government/union jobs that will be lost when these people are no longer eligible for "entitlements". Consider the lost Democrat voters when these people have to pay taxes out of their own paychecks.

[upchuck]

“Brother Bob” is trying to stir up trouble where, maybe, there isn’t any.

Wal*Mart won’t do anything until Mayor Gray either passes or vetoes the bill.

[Gen.Blather]

http://www.frumforum.com/the-lonely-life-of-a-dc-republican/

There has never been, nor will there ever be, a Republican mayor in DC. It is unlikely that the current mayor will veto this legislation as the minimum wage is all about sending more money to unions, not helping the poor. (Union contracts are set to multiples of the minimum wage, even though almost no union members make a wage so low.)

[Smokin' Joe]

Unfortunately, the spin will be that unemployment is the fault of greedy Wal Mart. And these fools will buy it.

Highly likely in the Bizarro World where "Unemployment stimulates the economy." (Pelosi, D-LaLaLand)

[Dilbert San Diego]

“We don’t need retailers. Retailers need us.”

Well, he’s not quite understanding certain things. People who reside in the District of Columbia currently drive to nearby Maryland and Virginia suburbs to shop at stores such as Target and Wal-Mart. The sales tax they pay stays in those jurisdictions. Among other benefits, D.C. would have gotten a great deal of sales tax revenue if Wal-Mart was located in the boundaries of the District of Columbia. Instead, if people go out of the District to shop, the District loses sales tax revenue.

Yes, while retailers need “us” or customers, Wal-Mart already benefits by attracting D.C. shoppers to their stores in Maryland or Virginia. The District is the loser, since they lose sales tax, property tax, income tax, and other tax revenue by the stores NOT being located in the District. This councilman is clearly not thinking about any of that.

[driftdiver]

Depending the persons class and number of dependents its possible in some areas to make around $40k off govt handouts. At least I’ve read some stories of people who’ve figured out how to do it.

[matt04]

Unionized businesses are exempt from the measure. Large stores that already have a presence in D.C., including Target (TGT) and Macy’s (M), have four years to comply.

How long before Target or Macy's decide those store aren't profitable anymore, or remodel them to just under 75K SF?

[kingu]

This is the best part... Washington D.C. doesn't get the 6 percent sales tax from all those sales at WalMart, and instead will lose it to the states that surround the district as customers are the ultimate arbitrators of where to shop...

Gosh, all those vote buying dollars gone... Oops.

[kingu]

*laugh* Ahh, here’s the best part - To get to the nearest WalMart, District residents can take the subway to within a mile of the store. The cost to the District budget? $14.00 for the round trip per person. There you go, district hacks, not only do you miss out on sales tax income, it COSTS you every time someone decides to go to WalMart.

[Castigar]

“If the mayor is smart he’ll veto this.”

Unfortunately they have the votes to override a veto.

[scrabblehack]

I would say that state laws on minimum wage has greater constitutional basis than Federal law. (Federal law, as I understand it, uses that elastic clause of “regulation of interstate commerce.”)

Now, if the store owner actually is a citizen of said state, requiring him to pay a higher wage than other store owners is not equal protection.

The rub is that D.C. is not a state.

[jimsin]

LOOK....who knows how to run a profitable multi national conglomerate better? the WALMART BOARD OF DIRECTORS or THE GENIUSES ON THE DC City Council?..... I rest my case:

TOADY SEZ:



LET THE COUNCIL DO IT BWAHAHAHA

[Intolerant in NJ]

Job killing leftists have chalked up another victory..I actually caught a woman analyst on RT the other day giving an impassioned tirade against the idea of minimum wage laws - all the facts you'd expect from a Tea Partier - minimum wages kill jobs, lead to inflation etc etc and the only way to improve the workers' situation is to improve the economy through efficiency and productiveness - Russian Television of all sources teaching US leftwingers the facts of life......