Poor George Will. Still can't believe that the biggest landslide beating in US Congressional history just happened. After slandering the new Democratic majority he now takes on the pitiful workers scraping pennies to survive in a
country that for the past 6 years has given them nothing.
It would seem that Will wants to outdo himself since his last rant about JAMES WEBB at the White House Senate get together after the elections(everyone remembers that...)http://www.washingtonpost.com/.... So, here comes George with his distaste for raising the wages of those whose heads are just about floating above extinction in this economically backward cesspool of a country. Made glorious by by pricks such as Dubya.
Forty percent of American workers are salaried. Of the 75.6 million paid by the hour, 1.9 million earn the federal minimum or less, and of these, more than half are under 25 and more than a quarter are between ages 16 and 19. Many are students or other part-time workers. Sixty percent of those earning the federal minimum or less work in restaurants and bars and earn tips -- often untaxed, perhaps -- in addition to wages. Two-thirds of those earning the federal minimum today will, a year from now, have been promoted and be earning 10 percent more. Raising the minimum wage predictably makes work more attractive relative to school for some teenagers and raises the dropout rate. Two scholars report that in states that allow people to leave school before 18, a 10 percent increase in the state minimum wage caused teenage school enrollment to drop 2 percent.
HAH? What scholars proves this point? I'd like to see some names and studies, otherwise he's full of shit. And in what states is he talking about? I think hes making this shit up and exxagerating it. Here's his logic. Raising wages promotes high school dropouts. 2 percent? Yeah, those states are propably in the South where outsourcing and NAFTA has really fucked everyone. Don't you want to pull your hair out and blow something up after reading this punks nonsense? Also,why do you think waitresses need tips, you dolt? Because their salaries suck and their barely minimum wage. They have always been a repressed working constituency. Perhaps if the law demanded businesses to pay 9-10 bucks an hour, they could make a little more cash for themselves and or their families. Throw in some medical coverage you cheap bastards. Restaurants are notorious for being the cheap bastards they are. Tips but no medical coverage. The law doesnt require it.
Poseur Will, thinks that "earning 10 percent more" next year on the minimum wage is like a gift. 10 percent increase will do jack shit for anyone in this stagnant and backward economic limbo. As if a ten percent increase will defray the pain of no medical insurance or pension/welfare benefits.
Here he goes again.....
Most of the working poor earn more than the minimum wage, and most of the 0.6 percent (479,000 in 2005) of America's wage workers earning the minimum wage are not poor.
So, he admits the poor make more than the minimum. Yea, by how much? And its still obvious that whatever increase they have over the minimum still brands them as poor. It's still not enough to elevate them to a more humane condition in this American rat race nightmare. They are still POOR.
But thats ok for Mr. Four eyes, despite the clear myopia. Will riddles you with numbers that dont add up. Much like omitting the response Webb had to the Bush during the Senate get together in the Oval room.
Uh...hmnnn...next......
The federal minimum wage has not been raised since 1997, so 29 states with 70 percent of the nation's workforce have set minimum wages between $6.15 and $7.93 an hour. Because aging liberals, clinging to the moral clarities of their youth, also have Sixties Nostalgia, they are suspicious of states' rights. But regarding minimum wages, many have become Brandeisians, invoking Justice Louis Brandeis's thought about states being laboratories of democracy
Seems to me George that 30 states deemed it necessary to do something to get labor going. They weren't all "aging liberals"-there were Republican states part of this increase. But here is where Will exposes his petty nastiness about Democrats and the left's agenda. "Moral clarities of youth" and "sixties nostalgia" as if providing labor additional assistance is a crime-a sin. A fond nostalgic look at some decadent philosophy that integrates those less fortunate in society towards some kind of sane and stable economic footing. Then throw in more hackery with quotes by Brandeis as if this gives this screed Intellectual va va va voom. Reminds me of that bitch Jeanne Kirkpatrick when she would throw around Kant and Hegel as justifications for US military flexibility and global domination. Another hack, another time.
Lastly and most painfully.......
The problem is that demand for almost everything is elastic: When the price of something goes up, demand for it goes down. Obviously were the minimum wage to jump to, say, $15 an hour, that would cause significant unemployment among persons just reaching for the bottom rung of the ladder of upward mobility.
So, its a bad idea to raise the minimum wage because that would screw everyones chances at the bottom from gaining a foothold. So, lets just keep it where it is and trust in the guiding hand of the market. Wrong. If a company needs 100 workers at a factory to produce their product, they are not going to sacrifice that because their wages have gone up. They will not dock 10 workers to compensate for the wage increase; not if they want to maintain quality control. They will cut their workforce if sales are down but not because of wage increases. Isn't it interesting that in those states that have increased the minimum wage-the very increase Will disdains-was found to have no effect towards eliminating jobs. Republican scare tactics......retreads Will is serving up that has served him so well the past decade of corporate run media news.