Ted Kennedy goes berserk over mininum wage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SicFn8rqPPE&eurl= ^

[television is just wrong]

the fine people of massachusetts will vote the man into office again even if he is 6 feet under.

and Kerry will always be the JR senator from Massachusetts. He will never amount to anything else.

[Nomorjer Kinov]

It's like stepping foot onto DrUnk.COMmunist to see the idiotic postings that accompany the video. A couple of normal folks are fighting the good fight, but reason simply isn't recognized.

[billphx]

grin

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416516344/ref=olp_product_details/002-0031002-5940865?ie=UTF8&seller=

[Cobra64]

[thile44]

Look at the wrinkles on his forehead in the picture. Do they resemble a winged gargoyle or some other evil looking creature?

[Diego1618]

I appreciate your honesty, some here think that minimum wage workers don't exist. If there was no minimum wage, what would you expect to pay for those jobs?

In a perfect society....with no government regulation of the supply/demand equation (labor)....I would pay as little as the market would allow. This is the same thing that you would do also. We "all" do it everyday...with "all" purchases or expenditures.

[ErieGeno]

Ted Kennedy has never had a working job, he has been nothing but a fat drunken air bag all his life.

Yeah he did! He washed his daddy's car once when he was a teen and was paid handsomely for the work! Part of the remuneration included admission tickets to the local house of horizontal recreation! That's where all Kennedys got their start....

[gas0linealley]

In a perfect society....with no government regulation of the supply/demand equation (labor)....I would pay as little as the market would allow. This is the same thing that you would do also. We "all" do it everyday...with "all" purchases or expenditures.

I disagree. In a perfect society all employers would treat their employees the same way they treated themselves, or better. I always paid my men better than market wages.

[Diego1618]

I disagree. In a perfect society all employers would treat their employees the same way they treated themselves, or better. I always paid my men better than market wages.

Well.....you're just a Saint....what can I say. Please let me go along next time you buy a car so I can witness you paying more than the asking price, not trying to "make a deal"!

Labor is also a commodity....just like gasoline, kumquats and pork bellies. The fairest wage is the wage agreed on....not coerced by government regulation.

My money is best spent providing for my family's security and well being....not paying top dollar in a labor market so I can feel good about myself.

[ChessExpert]

Kennedy puts all the blame on recent delays in passing the minimum wage increase on Republicans. Surely it would have passed sooner if Nancy Pelosi hadn't tried to exempt American Samoa. The big companies there are tuna companies. They are headquartered in Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco. Talk about corruption! If anyone needs an increase in the minimum wage, it is the people of American Samoa. They have few employers, and can't exactly drive to the next state.

For the US generally, with its many employers and geographical mobility (we're not a small island), there is competition for labor. As a result, hiking the minimum wage merely chops off the bottom rung of the ladder of success. Studies have shown that those most affected are black, inner city teenagers, whose unemployment rate goes up.

[El Gato]

This increase in the minimum wage that he's proposing is almost 50% larger than the entire minimum wage was when I was paid minimum wage. (For about a month, even summer hires got a raise if they stuck with it for that long).

Then for two school years I made sub minimum wage working in the recreation area (bowling alley, pool, billards, etc) area of the Student Union. Moved on to computer operator for a warehouse/distribution company.

[ChessExpert]

I saw some statistics showing percentage of population in different wage groupings. One group was below the minimum wage. This is a reminder that laws are not always implemented. Just because we pass a law, that doesn't make it so.

Congressman Charlie Rangel worked as a young man for free - to get the experience. Perhaps that should have been illegal too. Why, everyone should get a wage! Zero dollars per hour is a wage too, and it should be illegal!!! (sarcasm)

[kerryusama04]

Well.....you're just a Saint....what can I say. Please let me go along next time you buy a car so I can witness you paying more than the asking price, not trying to "make a deal"!

I have paid more for a car than I could have in the past. I drive a lot and need to have a good relationship with my dealer and his service department. If my first impression with the dealer is overly confrontational and accusatory, imagine how awkward the second, third, and fourth visits will be.

All too often, people think that pricing is arbitrary and that business men set their prices to try to rip people off. Most folks don't understand all the costs that go into a particular price, and I don't begrudge people their fair wages or commissions. You get what you pay for is synonymous with "loving your neighbor like you like to be loved", IMHO.

I've been on both sides of this equation. Customers that respect my talents and abilities are happy to pay invoices from my employer. They tend to pay their employees a little more and also treat them better. Their labs are happy places. The labs where my customers are focused completely on the bottom line tend to treat invoices like pure fiction, negotiate unreasonable prices that make the transaction uncomfortable, treat their own employees terribly, have a high level of turnover, and generally have a distasteful atmosphere in their labs.

I do agree with your points on the minimum wage, however. Those who favor raising this arbitrarily have no clue about business. You people who employ folks have a fixed budget for overhead and you are either forced to hike your prices or shrink your overhead. Then, those who favored the increase act all surprised at the unemployment rate or inflation. You gotta sell a lot of 99 cent Jr. Woppers to pay for 5 people's hourly wages.

[ElayneJ]

I watched some of the funeral coverage yesterday and found it interesting that one of Teddy’s “endearing” habits was lambasting his colleagues on the Senate floor and then smiling and laughing with them afterward like nothing ever happened. I don’t think the people who told these stories even knew how off-putting they were. Was Ted totally insincere or did he think it was funny to be insulting and cruel?