Minimal Wages For All

[marmar]

from AlterNet:




Minimal Wages For All
Posted by Terrance Heath on @ 10:42 am


Here’s another reason to vote in the mid-term elections this November: Conservatives think you need a pay cut. As I’ve said once or twice before, conservatives’ bottom line message is simple: America has economic problems because too many people have had it good for too long; and when they’re worse off again, the nation and its economy will be better off. The people they think had it too good for too long are you and me, and almost anyone who punches a clock to pull a paycheck.

Of course, right now they’re focused on people who earn minimum wage; Republican candidates like Alaska senate hopeful Joe Miller and West VA Senate wannabe John Raese want to abolish the minimum wage because they say it’s unconstitutional, while Connecticut Senate candidate Linda McMahon can’t make up her mind.

Never mind that the constitutional arguments are apparently due to conservatives constitutional inability to comprehend the constitution. Never mind that it seems they want to turn back time to 1787 when the constitution was ratified, or 1792 when the Bill of Rights was ratified. Never mind that, according to their logic they should shut down their campaigns, because even though the Constitution establishes Congress as a legislative body, it doesn’t give congress anything to do since it can’t do anything that the constitution doesn’t literally include. That is, it has to literally "say" the words — like "minimum wage" — or we’re limited to only those solutions and ideas that existed in 1987.

Never mind that two thirds of Americans support raising the minimum wage, which hasn’t kept pace with inflation for years.

Never mind the obvious insanity of all that. Their economic reasons for wanting to abolish minimum wage don’t add up either. Both Miller and Raese claim that abolishing minimum wage will create jobs, presumably because businesses will be spurred to hire more workers because they can pay them (even) less. Reality is actually quite the opposite. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/10/14/minimal-wages-for-all/

[Tippy]

1. Greedy Bastards want it all two classes of citizens

The wealthy and the slaves....

[SoCalDem]

2. Dems-minimum wage....repubs-minimal wage.. sums it up .. n/t

[unpossibles]

3. I've been seeing more and more of this type of argument

that one of the reasons we have outsourcing is because those "poor" corporations cannot afford to make a living paying American workers living wages, as well as Heritage/Cato garbage like how Federal Employees make twice what private workers make (which is only true if you compare across all wages, which includes low-wage and part time private jobs which bring the average down - comparing actual occupations, the difference is closer to $5-10K and many private jobs make more). They are trying their best to put us back in the ditch and somehow they've managed to get low-information fans to back their crazy schemes.