Thursday, June 15, 2006

Further proof there is nothing fiscally conservative about Republicans

I know most of you do not need further proof; but, here it is.

On June 13th, 2006 The House of Representatives passed out of Committee a bill that would increase the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour.

This Committee is controlled by Republicans and SEVEN of these RINO's voted in favor of increasing the minimum wage.

What happened to The Republican Party of Reagan and Goldwater?

It is gone.

The Federal Government should NOT dictate to private business owners what they must pay their employees. Employees should be paid based on supply and demand. It is not complicated...

What is the difference between Republicans and Democrats these days?

Very darn little...

Below is a link to a longer article about this.
<http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2006/06/14/house-faces-the-dumbest-bill-of-the-year-so-far-a-210-increase-in-the-minimum-wage/>

What do you Republicans think about this piece of stupidity?

Andrew?

Mike Sylvester

P.S. I hope more of you Republicans become Libertarians over insanity like this...

14 comments:

Robert Enders said...

There is a teenaged boy who lives nearby me. Of course he has no sense of work ethic and wants the world handed to him on a plate. At the same time, he realizes that he needs a job so that he can get work experience. If the quality of the job that he does is worth less than the new minimum wage, he simply becomes unenployable. He won't get the work experience that he'll need when he tries to look for a real job after high school.

Tim Zank said...

Why not just make it $15.00 an hour and give 'em 4 weeks off a year, full health insurance benefits and a no fire guarantee.

It's working really well in France ain't it?

My middle son (15) is washing dishes this summer at a local restaraunt for 5.50 per hour. He knows he's not gonna get "rich" this summer, but he's gonna make some walkin' around money.

I've explained to him, you can't start out as the boss in anything and you must start at the bottom and work your way up. You earn the right to earn more money.

Obviously a concept foreign to most of todays youth.

Stupid lazy parents raise stupid lazy kids.

Robert Enders said...

I don't think the phonomen of laziness and stupidity is unique to Boomers, Generation X, and Millenials. It is human nature to seek the path of least resistance, and stupidity seems to be a common quality among adolecents of any era.

Anonymous said...

Research done by the Fiscal Policy Institute has shown that small business employment, retail and total job growth has grown faster in states with minimum wages set above the federal minimum wage.

The study contends that a simplistic supply-demand model may not be sufficient to deal w/ this issue

Fiscal Policy Institute

Anonymous said...

Mr. Sylvester, you forgot to mention that the Libertarian vote in Congress was evenly split between the Ayes and Nays.

0 - Aye
0 - Nay

Robert Enders said...

Jeff,
I read the study that you cited. Most of the states that have higher minimum wage laws are states along the coast. In those states, the cost of living is higher. If I moved to, say, Hartford, CT, I would need to make %24.8 more over there than I make here to have the same standard of living. Both the positive and negative effects of higher minimum wage laws are neglible in states along the coasts. You can calculate difference in cost of living here: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/movecalc.asp

The midwestern states cited in the study are states that are worried about losing jobs to Indiana. Politicians in those states want the federal rate increased to cancel out our competative advantage.

Robert Enders said...

m e s-
We're still new. Give us a few election cycles. The Republicans are about to go the way of the Whigs. The Democrats will survive, as they always have, by taking in anyone who walks in the door at DNC headquarters. They are a party without any ideological consistency.

William Larsen said...

Minimum wage is dictating to the employer what the value of labor is. In many ways increasing the minimum wage makes my job easier as an engineer. It is no different than price controls or the false price placed on American Oil duirng the 1973 oil embargo.

Increased labor costs help justifies investing in equipment that reduces labor. It helps justifies out sourcing tasks to lower cost areas.

Also, there is one aspect that is bad. Increased wage growth makes it more difficult to pays scheduled social security benefits in the future.

simple math

Robert Enders said...

Yes, I forgot to point this out. This is a large part of the reason why companies outsourse to India, because they can pay the workers less than the US minimum wage.

As a matter of fact, the simplistic supply and demand model is very sufficient to deal with this issue. The labor supply in India is high and demand is low, so wages are low. The labor supply in coastal states is low and demand is high, so wages are high.

Anonymous said...

The Libertarian Party is not new.

Good grief - it's over thirty years old.

You guys should be talking about Gividen, raising money for Gividen, and when the time comes, driving down to his district and knocking on doors.

Writing in blogs is great - but, for Pete's sake, either get somebody elected or go back to the Republican Party and, this time, try to actively work within the party instead of figuratively standing in the back of the room and wondering why nobody will ask you to dance.

Robert Enders said...

I am going to talk about me, raising money for me, and I plan on walking or riding my bike around my district.

Yes the party will be 35 this December. Most third parties don't last that long. But we have spent most of that time thinking, now we will be acting. I just recently graduated from college, now its time for me to make some noise.

Anonymous said...

Robert,

I don't understand your point about the cost of living. The data shows that higher wage states have higher job growth. Why does it matter if the cost of a home/apartment is higher? Are you suggesting that if businesses were given they opportunity they would not have continued to pay the federal minimum wage? Also, I think it's wrong to say that "Both the positive and negative effects of higher minimum wage laws are neglible in states along the coasts" - tell that to the people now receiving a couple hundred extra bucks a month. I doubt they would agree with you.

All the "sky is falling" minimum wage arguments are proven false time and time again (every time the minimum wage is raised) yet they continue to be trotted out...

Anonymous said...

That's great Robert. It might help you when you run for a future office - like 5th district city council. But the truth is, you don't have a snowball's chance in the 80th.

Gividen just might be able to sneak into the state senate. That would then help Libertarians like you when you run in the future.

If Libertarians in Indiana are serious, they need to concentrate on something that is winnable.

Robert Enders said...

Jeff,
You are taking the time and effort to make reasonable and rational points, so I will address your comments today. I'll argue with everybody else if and when I get chance since I am working overtime this weekend.

My point about the cost of living is that it does not do a person good if they get a %10 wage increase and the cost of living goes up %10. These states along the coast that have higher minimum wages have higher job growth for reason completely unrelated to their minimum wage rates. California has better weather and more ports than Indiana. Indiana has a lower cost of living and no earthquakes. More people prefer to live in California however, so that state's population is growing at a faster rate. Population growth USUALLY leads to economic growth.

Many companies do in fact find ways to get out of paying the federal minimum wage. They move their facilities to a country with a lower minimum wage.

Ohio is considering passing a higher minimum wage. If that happens, Indiana will be surrounded on three sides by states with higher minimum wages. This is good for Indiana because it will cause companies in those three states to move operations here. But raising the federal minimum wages will take away that advantage.

Yes, minimum wage will mean more money for those on the bottom rung of the ladder. But any new economic law will have the effect of helping some and hurting others. It helps most of those who already have a job. Some of them will have to be let go because their employer cannot afford to pay them anymore. And it makes it harder for those who are entering the job market for the first time to find that first job. Usually minimum wage is the "training" wage within a company. After the worker completes the trial period, he or she makes more.

Minimum wage is not a living wage. You cannot support yourself on it, let alone a family. Minimum wage will never be a living wage either. Every time it is increased, some workers make more money for a while. Then prices go up and they are back to where they started. A minimum wage increase might allieviate some the symtoms for a short period of time, but it does not cure the disease.

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