by: B.J.
Posted: January 12, 2007
Now that we have to suffer with at least 2 years of Democratic leadership, one thing that they did actually run on was the minimum wage. They are obsessed with "raising" the minimum wage, and the true travesty is that over 70 percent of the American public actually agrees with the Democrats on this. Many sentiments from these economically bankrupt (in terms of knowledge) Americans are very similar:
"Americans who work for the minimum wage need a raise!"
If Americans need a raise, then they need to INCREASE the value of THEIR job skills and time to a perspective employer. They need NOT to look to the government to "muddy the water" by interfering with the wage negotiations between the employee and the perspective employer. Furthermore, it is NOT the proper function of the government to involve itself in such an agreement. Contrary to popular beliefs and wishes, government IS force, period. To say that government should interfere with the wage negotiations between the employer and the employee is to say that employers should be FORCED to overpay for the job skills and time of employees based on factors OTHER THAN the VALUE of their job skills and time. To believe this is nothing short of total STUPIDITY.
Nothing affirms the total LACK of basic economic knowledge of the American people more than their obvious ignorance concerning the minimum wage. The American people are of the mindset that those who are making the minimum wage can only receive a raise when the government raises the minimum wage. Nothing could be further than the truth. It is the responsibility of the INDIVIDUAL to improve the value of THEIR job skills and time to a perspective employer. No matter what figure the government believes is feasible for companies to pay employees, the company is ONLY going to pay that figure when the employee's job skills and time are WORTH what that figure is. If that government-mandated figure is higher than the VALUE of the employee's job skills and time, then the company will get rid of that employee. Conversely, if the employee's job skills and time become more valuable, then the company will increase the employee's compensation on their own. They don't need government intervention to do this.
At the time of this writing, over 95 (ninety-five) percent of the American workforce ARE working--and there are still open jobs in the classified sections in local newspapers throughout the country!! So if an individual believes that their job skills and time is worth more than whatever their present employer is willing to pay them, then they can take their job skills and time elsewhere. This is how the FREE-market system is supposed to work. If the government involves itself in the process, it is NO longer free.
In the free market, basic rules of supply and demand are also in effect when it comes to employee and employer relations. When an employer hires an employee, they are simply renting the employee's job skills and their time in order to assist the perspective employer in their #1 goal, which is MAKING MONEY FOR THE BUSINESS. The main problem with the American public is that they do not understand this process. The American public, generally armed with ZERO economic knowledge, honestly believe that employers actually hire workers because the employees need a job. This belief is why the American public believe that employers must offer what they call a "livable" wage. According to the ignorant American public, companies should hire people because the people need a job, and they should pay them "enough" money for them to "support" their families. The hell with the question of how the business can survive under such conditions.
The truth of the matter is that companies PRIMARY focus is making money, PERIOD. If they could successfully operate WITHOUT the labor of others, then they would do it without hesitation. Just like people who don't normally rent hotels in their hometowns, companies don't hire people unless they NEED them to make money. If their labor cost prevents them from doing that, then they will do without the labor, or go out of business. Those are the only options. Companies don't care (nor should they) about an individual's PERSONAL family obligations. That has nothing to do with the operation of THEIR business.
If people truly want to receive a raise, then they need to do whatever it takes to increase the VALUE of what they have to offer to a perspective employer. It is the responsibility of the INDIVIDUAL to increase their educational credentials, strengthen their work ethic, and find employment that best suits their passion. The truth of the matter is the primary problem with minimum wage legislation is that it does virtually NOTHING helpful to the very people this legislation is supposed to be designed to help. Why? Because it will decrease the number of employees due to those who possess the skills and time that are NOT worth the "floor" of the newly-forced minimum wage requirements, and it will increase the costs of goods and services that the perspective company provides to the public in order to fund the artificial increase in the cost of a companies most expensive expense--labor.
If the American public had minimal knowledge of basic economics, then the minimum wage debate wouldn't be a debate at all. Thanks to the government indoctrination camps (public schools), the American people are constantly exploited by those we have entrusted with the job of representing us. The Boston Tea Party was done for so much less. It's a crying shame that we are creating an environment where our children can't read after TWELVE YEARS of basic education, and it's even a bigger travesty that we spend ONLY 4 PERCENT of that 12 years of education to basic economics--and this is supposed to be a capitalist nation?
A quick note to those that are so obsessed with civil rights--there's no way these people can support minimum wage legislation, and support a bill that would clearly reduce the number of black men that would enter the workforce. The reality is that black men are usually the last one hired, and the most important factor in getting them hired is their willingness to work for lower wages. Since increasing the minimum wage would raise the wage FLOOR, then just like the Davis Bacon Act, it will "price" black men with entry-level job skills and no experience out of the workplace. How could those who are so damn obsessed with "civil-rights" be so supportive of something like increasing the minimum wage? Because they have virtually NO knowledge of basic economics either--just like the other 70 percent of the American public.
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