Posted on 01/13/2007 6:02:39 PM PST by george76
In the first hundred hours of the just-started session of Congress, the new leadership promises to raise the minimum wage. The Democrats won't be opposed by many Republicans.
Raising the minimum wage is definitely popular. Voters in six states approved higher minimums last Election Day. State politicians in both parties are practically drooling with eagerness to "help" lower-income workers.
We all want the poor to make more money. So if government can raise wages by decree, why are the popular proposals so stingy?
Let's really do something for the poor. Let's raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour. Even better, $50!
Or maybe we should take a deep breath and think like economists for a change.
The law of supply and demand, which operates whether we like it or not, says that when the price of something goes up, people buy less of it. That's why environmentalists like higher gasoline taxes, and anti-smoking activists back higher cigarette taxes.
The law of supply and demand works in the labor market, too. If government mandates a higher minimum wage, some workers will get a raise. Some. But something else will happen. Employers will hire fewer low-skilled workers. Others will let some current workers go. Some will choose not to expand their businesses. A few will close altogether.
Only 2.5 percent of all hourly workers make $5.15 an hour ...says the Department of Labor. "Minimum wage workers tend to be young."
Few of them stay at the minimum wage for long. As they acquire skills, their productivity rises and they command higher wages.
Legal wage minimums kill all kinds of entry-level jobs, particularly those that would teach young people basic work habits and the benefits of effort. That's why there are no kids cleaning your windows at gas stations or ...
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
Yes, there is ... all the jobs that are indexed off the minimum wage. Who do you think makes the contributions to the RAT party, the minimum wage earners or the unions? See #4. There are also the liberal northeast states with their higher minimum wages tired of losing companies to states with lower minimums. A national standard helps to dampen that effect. Meanwhile, what was that teen unemployment rate in the inner cities again?
you honestly think a drug dealer who also dips into the welfare pool is going to get a real job? LOL
the minimum raise gets people fired.
She's not just protecting her own corruption, she's protecting the whole philosophy (such as it is) of the Democrat Party.
thanks..i didn't know that
As the unions die, so does their ability to extort money from all union members to support the union bosses political friends.
Not just union money but union employees who 'volunteer' their time getting the vote out...
It's all very insidious and nebulous, and of course reeks of nepotism.
I think we should continue to follow the money when it comes to our favorite grandmother, Nancy Pelosi, and then expose her corruption where ever we find it...although I fear that would be a fulltime job!
FWIW, that's what I was getting as a part time movie usher in 1957, adjusted for inflation.
BUMP
Nancy Pelosi, her commitment to organized labor essentially ends when it comes to her own businesses. Nancy Pelosi and her husband own a Napa Valley vineyard...
They grow very expensive grapes for very expensive wines, and they don’t use members of the United Farm Workers to pick their grapes.
This winner of the Cesar Chavez award hires only non-union contractors.
The Pelosi family have a long political tradition from Baltimore.
There are many stories. At least some of them must be accurate.
A Nancy Pelosi Moment: 2 - Look for the Union Label
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PC1L03CFlrw
Laurence Pelosi is an Executive Director with Morgan Stanley Real Estate, where he focuses on residential investments and public private real estate partnerships in the western United States. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Pelosi was with the Lennar Corporation, a residential developer and homebuilder and practiced real estate and land use law in private practice.
Mr. Pelosi is on the boards of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) and Family House. He received a B.A. from the University of California at Berkeley and a J.D. from Georgetown University.
Feinstein and Pelosi continue to top the list of the richest members of Congress
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/06/26/BAG7B7CDMQ1.DTL
Pelosi, who is married to investor Paul Pelosi, has amassed a large portfolio of jointly owned real estate, including three properties in the Napa Valley. They sold an 8-acre vineyard on Skellenger Lane in Rutherford last year for $1 million to $5 million, according to her disclosure form.
Paul Pelosi's holdings include a four-story commercial building on Belden Place in San Francisco, a retail and office building on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in San Anselmo and an ownership stake in the Auberge du Soleil resort in Napa Valley valued at $1 million to $5 million. He also has millions of dollars of shares in publicly traded companies such as Microsoft, Amazon. com and AT&T.
The couple estimated their total assets to be worth $25 million to $102 million last year, with liabilities of $6 million to $31 million. Assets are reported in broad ranges on the disclosure forms, making it difficult to determine a lawmaker's exact net worth.
Right. If we can bring 25 cent an hour sweat shops to America you are all for it.
Incredible.
she has a $1 million-plus residence and a lifestyle that doesn't depend on the $212,100 annual salary she will receive as speaker.
While Nancy Pelosi has been a longtime supporter of the United Farm Workers, the small vineyard she and her husband own in St. Helena doesn't hire union labor to pick the grapes there. Likewise, the couple have investments in the boutique hotel in Rutherford and the upscale Italian restaurant chain, which aren't union shops.
"If your view is that labor unions are essential to protecting workers' rights, you ought to have the attitude that we really need a union" in your own investments, Schweizer said.
The UFW has only a handful of contracts in the Napa Valley, and the crews that harvest the Pelosis' 7-acre vineyard haven't made any move to seek union representation, Grossman said.
Paul Pelosi has indicated that rather than respond publicly, he's just going to ignore the charges and the finger-pointing.
http://tinyurl.com/y3yydy
Pelosi. The Richest. Speaker. Ever.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1719204/posts
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