Posted on 04/29/2006 8:22:54 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
The most important thing for any poor person trying to improve his or her condition is, of course, a job. It is the entry-level job that accords impoverished workers – even those with no skills, no references and no employment record -- the invaluable opportunity to succeed and to prosper. It is literally the first rung up the ladder of success.
If that is true, then the most vicious conceivable governmental policy would be one that eliminates entry-level jobs, making it harder and harder for the poor to get a foothold in life.
Yet that is precisely what the state of California is preparing to do. Legislation is now moving that would in effect declare that anyone whose labor is worth less than $7.75 per hour will automatically be denied entry-level employment.
The proposal is couched in the soothing and smarmy rhetoric of leftist populism. It is described as a modest proposal to raise the minimum wage by a dollar over the next two years, increasing annual wages of minimum wage-earners to a paltry $16,000. “It will help the lowest-paid workers in California to improve their purchasing power and reduce their needs for public assistance,” according to one proponent.
But if that’s all it takes, why stop there? If a simple legislative act increasing the minimum wage to $7.75 is all that is needed to improve the lot of the working poor by just a little, then why not raise it to $10 per hour, and get them to the poverty level? For that matter, why not raise it to $50 per hour, assuring every working Californian a comfortable living?
The cold truth is that if your labor is worth $6.75 per hour and the minimum wage is raised to $7.75, you simply become unemployable. The first rung of the ladder is gone and there’s no place to start. Proponents of this policy apparently believe that it is better NOT to have a job paying $7.75 per hour than to HAVE one that pays $6.75.
The French minimum wage is twice that of the United States and the result has not been greater prosperity. Quite the contrary, France’s unemployment rate is twice the American rate, and it hovers at an intractable 40 percent within those communities that recently rioted for days.
One newspaper gushed that the proposed increase will boost the pay of California’s “working poor” by $2 billion. But the vast majority of minimum-wage earners aren’t working poor at all -- the median household income of a minimum wage earner is $40,000. Most are teenagers chasing their first job or spouses of bread-winners trying to make a niche for themselves in the job market.
Ironically, as the minimum wage rises, these wage earners are much better able to survive the competition for remaining jobs than are inner-city teenagers, recent immigrants and welfare moms who need those jobs the most.
True, of the five percent of California families who depend on the minimum wage for more than half of their income, it’s not easy. But new employees don’t earn the minimum wage very long. As they build their job skills and prove their reliability, their pay grows proportionally. Sixty three percent of minimum wage earners receive raises in their first year of employment. But by pricing unskilled labor out of entry level jobs, those raises won’t be realized because those jobs either won’t be there or will be snapped up by more skilled workers.
The other big losers are the vast majority of the working poor who landed an entry level job at the minimum wage a few years ago, but who have now worked their way up to subsistence wages above the minimum. These workers will get no benefit from the minimum wage hike, but as prices rise in response to the employment constraints of the new law, their families’ standard of living will decline.
It is the ultimate expression of the cruelest of all human lies: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
This is true, but in order to fully defend the laissez-faire position a bit more needs to be said. Some unskilled jobs are worth substantially more than $7.75 to a business. Some are worth less. The jobs that are worth more will pay the higher rate, benefit some unskilled workers. The jobs that are worth less will be destroyed.
The lost jobs will result in increased unemployment. This also means that businesses can be choosier when hiring unskilled labor. Businesses will preferentially hire hispanics over blacks, simply because hispanics have a reputation for being hard working and blacks do not.
This makes too much sense for the common idiot to understand.
AND McClintock is running for Lt. Governor of CA.
http://www.tommcclintock.net/startup.html
CALIFORNIA VOTER AND PARTY PROFILES
http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/JTF_VoterProfilesJTF.pdf
"The Democratic Party currently has an advantage of 1.4 million voters over the Republican Party (7.1 million to 5.7 million) or 9 percentage points (43% to 34%), according to the Secretary of State.
Among those most likely to vote in this year’s elections, Democrats outnumber Republicans by a 7-point margin (44% to 37%), while 15 percent of likely voters are registered as independents.
... the fact that independents are more likely to lean toward Democrats than Republicans (42% to 28%) tends to work to the disadvantage of the GOP in statewide elections."
McClintock ping
There is an old ritual in the civil aviation community:
Soon after an aircraft crashes a green car arrives. The car's occupant always says he's there to help as he introduces himself to the pilot and the pilot always says he'll be happy to cooperate. Both are, of course, liars.
The 2006 political season may be creating some California history: a governor and lieutenant governor candidate running for election as a team.
Not just a team in name — the Republican ticket — but in actual operation: coordinated messages, ads and schedules, including joint campaigning in conservative areas.
The governor and lieutenant governor are elected separately in California. And although gubernatorial candidates often give lip service to cooperation, they have always ditched the "running mate" and sprinted off by themselves with their big bucks and own game plan.
But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) already have been teaming up. Schwarzenegger has been taking McClintock with him to fundraisers and offering him access to deep-pocket contributors. In return, McClintock has been trying to provide the centrist governor with some credibility among conservatives, who regard the senator as their straight-talking hero.
Deporting the illegals will result in a natural pay increase for a lot of tough jobs.
If person's labor is not worth Minimum Wage of 7.75 and only worth 6.65, then are they eligible for SSI, food stamps and medical care? free college tuition? Afterall, they are unemployable and still not physically disabled...or maybe they are physically disabled and eligible for social security disability since their labor is not worth minimum wage. LOL, LOL, LOL.
Tell me this is fantasy!! Please!!
Deporting the illegals will result in a natural pay increase for a lot of tough jobs.
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It would also create a massive income tax revenue increase for Washington of about $110 BILLION per year. Gee, what would they do with that money to buy votes??
That's easy: the guys who's money is on the line. The stereotype of lazy blacks and hardworking hispanics is already out there. You can say that stereotype is B.S. - but it isn't your business that you've sweated blood for that is on the line.
Here is an article about how blacks are using anti-discrimination lawsuits against hispanics because the hispanics are being preferentially hired.
L
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