Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Beatlefan58
There's a better lesson about the role of goverment and attitudes toward businesses in your note. It's not our place to say someone "probably shouldn't be in business" or the operating margin isn't large enough. Goverment shouldn't be running folks out of business with taxes and regulation; it hurts the employee, the employer and even the customers of a small business.
What is overlooked is that an increase in the minimum wage isn't paid by the employer, at least not in full. The cost of goods and services go up. Kerry is paying back the unions with this--union contracts are often tied to the minimum wage (X dollars above the current minimum wage).
But when I hear someone say "the minimum wage ought to be $7.00", I ask, "why not $8.00? why not $12.00?". No one is going to live well on $7.00, either. It's a training wage, an entry level salary, not one that someone should aspire to.
|
I guess i think that what really hurts the worker is the fact that we've set up this pseudo free market so as to pay a massive portion of the workforce next to nothing. History is a pretty solid indicator of the tendency for unregulated business to rape anyone who gets in the way of the bottom line. I know that worker safety is expensive too, but i could really care less if in implementing safety regulations certain employers are put out of business. Cry me a river.