Minimum Wage Hurts the Poor

Earlier this week, I heard Bill O'Reilly going on about raising the minimum wage.  He says that the Republicans need to get on board with raising the minimum wage, but for adults only.  He says all adults should earn at least $10/hour because it's only fair.  He had a liberal and a Republican on the air with him for the discussion.  Of course, the Republican lady tried to give her opinion that Bill was wrong and why, but he wouldn't let her talk.

Well Mr. O'Reilly you are wrong!  Raising the minimum wage by nearly $3/hour will badly hurt everyone in America, but it will hurt the poor the most.  Here are some of the things that will happen if this stupid idea passes:

• Clerks at fast food restaurants and retail stores will receive about a 40% raise that will be passed along to the consumer, and that is inflationary
• Many of these low skill jobs will be automated -- the extra labor cost will be just enough to justify the capital investment in automation
• Fast food and retail establishments will begin to innovate and utilize more self-service.  What if McDonald's let you walk through a line that had burgers and fries in slots just like the ones you see behind the counter today?  You could walk through and pick up your food, go to a scanner to pay with a credit card, or go to a person with a cash register to pay cash.  Just like today, you could fill your own drink and throw away your trash.  The restaurant might be able to eliminate 40% of the labor to keep the costs the same.  Of course, 40% of the folks working there would lose their jobs.
• If the higher minimum wage only applies to folks age 21 and above, who do you think will get all of the low skill jobs?  Okay, we have identified who won't be hurt by the minimum wage laws with O'Reilly's idea of only raising wages for the adults.
• There will be another round of manufacturing and assembly jobs that will become cost effective to move out of the country with the 40% increase in wages and the 50%+ increase in benefits like health insurance
• With higher prices for goods manufactured here, we will be less competitive in the world market reducing demand and employment in this sector
• With the inflation occurring, we will buy fewer things, and that will lead to lower employment everywhere from mining to manufacturing to retail
• Everyone whose skills are worth less than $10/hour will be permanently unemployed

Real unemployment in this country is already well above 10%.  Of course, the government doesn't count people who have given up on finding a job in the unemployment numbers.  We already have a minimum wage of sorts in the social welfare subsidies the MessAPolitico has put in place.  There is a growing class of unskilled workers in America that have never worked and will never work in a legal enterprise.  The government transfer payments have made it impossible to make enough money to justify them ever leaving the house for a job that would cut off the government subsidies.  Couple that with the minimum wage driving all jobs these folks are qualified to do to low cost countries around the globe, and you have a whole class of permanently unemployed people.

The best way to eliminate unemployment in the USA would be to eliminate the minimum wage completely, end all welfare, and end the unemployment compensation.  I personally know a person who was unemployed for a couple of years.  He was asked to apply for some good jobs during that time, but they weren't jobs he wanted to do.  He just wasn't hungry enough to take something he didn't like.  Several months ago, his unemployment was coming to an end, and he suddenly found a job.  Imagine the luck.  He was unemployed for several years, but the imminent end to unemployment compensation helped give him the desire to find a job quickly.  I believe everyone would find a job to put food on the table and a roof over their heads if they had to do it themselves.

The MessAPolitico insists that it is only fair to give people a little assistance when they're down.  It's the compassionate thing to do.  Pretty soon the help from the MessAPolitico has ruined their lives completely.  They become wards of the state that truly can't live without liberal politicians.  Unfortunately, these folks don't have enough intellect to realize that they are voting for the assistance offered by the same politicians that made them unemployable and permanently impoverished.

Please join me in the upcoming primaries to oust the status quo, liberal RINO's from the Republican party.  You may feel that you could find a "blue dog" Democrat to vote for in the primaries to help move this country forward and get it back on track.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I think the Democrats are too far gone.  You can't find a "blue dog" left in Washington these days.  Either way, the problems will never be fixed unless we get the right selections made in the primaries.