It's Never Enough Entitlement

For the liberal left, it's never enough entitlement. Let's look at the latest 'success': the minimum wage increase. First of all, this was a scam to begin with, since the main argument was to give poor people a higher 'living wage'. The problem is that the biggest category of workers affected by the minimum wage are not heads of households trying to feed their families, but teenagers. Raising the minimum wage has definitely hurt that segment of the population. For example, in Arizona, Mark Messner, owner of Pepi's Pizza in south Phoenix, estimates he has employed more than 2,000 high school students since 1990. But he plans to lay off three teenage workers and decrease hours worked by others. Of his 25-person workforce, roughly 75 percent are in high school. And, his monthly cost to train an employee has jumped from $440 to $580 as the turnover rate remains high. The Employment Policies Institute in Washington (which opposed the legislation) cited comments by noted economist Milton Friedman that high teen unemployment rates are largely due to minimum wage laws. "After a wage hike, employers seek to take fewer chances on individuals with little education or experience," one institute researcher told lawmakers in 2004.

Despite that, the Democrats want more. As Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Charlie Rangel said of the first minimum wage hike in 10 years, "You ain’t seen nothing yet", and Sen. Ted Kennedy said he was willing to raise the minimum wage much higher - to almost $10.00/hour!

When does the minimum wage become enough? When it's $12.50/hour? $15.00/hour? If that's a reasonable rate, then why not $25.00/hour or $35.00/hour? How about $50.00/hour? How reasonable is it to pay some kid $50.00/hour to serve french fries at McDonalds? It's not reasonable at all. But, by raising the minimum wage, the costs of running the business are also raised -- and the business still has to make money -- so the higher costs of the product or service the business produces gets passed along to its customers. Let's stick with the McDonalds analogy. With the minimum wage at $5.15/hour, let's say the cost of a Big Mac is $4.00. If the minimum wage goes up to $9.70/hour for almost all of McDonalds' employees (assuming that most work at the minimum wage level), you're potentially looking at a new cost of about $7.00 for a Big Mac.

Now, I'm no economist, so these numbers may not be 100% accurate, but the point is still valid - raising the wages of workers will in turn raise the costs to consumers. Add that to the fact that most people affected by the minimum wage aren't poor people trying to feed their families, and you've got a complete scam on the American public, simply to allow people to feel better about themselves. The problem here is that they're dictating what the minimum wage should be via their emotions rather than on numbers and facts. That's why there is -- to the liberal way of thinking -- no reasonable limit to what the minimum wage should be (i.e. "you ain't seen nothing yet"): you can't put a reasonable limit on emotions. But, given these simple examples, all it takes is a little common sense to see that emotions are a very bad way to dictate economic policy.

And, on a much grander scale, it's also a perfect example of what happens when conservatives give in to liberals - it's never enough. By compromising our core beliefs even a little bit, conservatives slowly give ground and never get it back because the liberal can never get enough. Well, at least not until conservatives are completely gone. That's why it is so important not to give ground in the first place.

Do this: write down the price of bread, milk, butter, and a few other items in your fridge. Then go to McDonalds and write down the price of a few of your favorite menu items. Put them away for the next three years, then pull them out and see how they compare to the prices in 2010, when the minimum wage will be almost $10.00/hour. Be sure not to choke on that Big Mac. Oh, and be sure not to vote for Democrats who want to fleece you to make themselves feel better.

There's my two cents.