Today, the State Assembly’s Republican majority took action to keep the state’s minimum wage at $5.15, at least until 2007.
What a bunch of wimps.
That’s not my assessment: that’s what an anonymous writer calling herself Ms. Forward says in her column, “A wage-free society,” featured recently on the über-left website, Fightin’ Bob.
The upshot:
“The regressives who run our state government … need to stop being only wimpy half-regressive and say what they really mean. They should be working to get rid of wages for minimum wage earners, not just to keep them abysmally low.”
“If he were really honest any common sense pro-business pragmatist would argue that, for the good of the state, all workers should be paid nothing at all. … Just think of the enormous waste of profit in our current system. All those people getting paid to work; it’s ridiculous. We can start with the lowest-paid workers and work (so to speak) our way up.”
I don’t want to read too deeply into this: she’s obviously being sarcastic. The question is: how sarcastic does she mean to be?
Really, really sarcastic. Drippingly so. Right? She must be.
Honestly, I’m not quite sure. I can’t conceive this as anything less than utter, complete, fanatical satire, but I think she intends much less. Having read through her column more than once, I’m think her worldview is so alien to me that I can’t fully grasp what she’s trying to say.
And, I think, the conservative view is just as alien to her.
No conservative would ever suggest what she does, however sarcastically, for three reasons. The first is ideological: we don’t even think government should have the power to set a minimum wage, much less forbid wages altogether.
The second is logical: nobody will work for nothing, therefore the work wouldn’t get done. Business would go out of business.
Side note: maybe that’s her real motive: to cause the fall of capitalism. Bonus: political contributions to Republicans dry up, so liberals can finally rise to their rightful place, telling the rest of us what to do.
The third reason is purely selfish: if people are working for no money, they don’t have any money, and thus can’t buy anything. Fewer consumers, less consuming. Less money for business.
Ms. Forward does address this: according to her, foreign nations will pick up our economic slack, because “Since they have universal healthcare in those commie places, they have the well-being to enjoy their paychecks. … It is time to start using the rest of the developed world’s economic un-freedom against them.”
She also advises landlords not to worry: when their low-wage (now no-wage) tenants are evicted, the government will simply “reimburse you for any post-eviction room you are not able to rent out.”
At this point, she’s no longer trying to maintain the parody. Her real beliefs have come into view. People can only afford a decent standard of living if they’ve got universal government health care. Government will pay landlords directly, instead of through the “middle man,” the wage earner.
Not to mention, government decides how much you make, or whether you make anything at all.
In her worldview, the government is the great provider. Government gives us what we need: health care, a place to live, a paycheck. Any sense of personal responsibility or accomplishment is an illusion.
In mine, we’re better off – both as individuals and as a society – when government stays out of things, so we can do for ourselves.
I could dismiss Ms. Forward as a kook, except she’s far from alone. For example, Governor Doyle, legislative Democrats, and most recently a letter-writer from Minocqua have all claimed that preventing a quick increase in the minimum wage prevents $400 million or more in economic activity. That’s the amount minimum-wage workers would earn at $6.50 an hour, but won’t at $5.15. If they don’t earn it, they can’t spend it. The economy suffers.
In their view, that money doesn’t exist today, because the government hasn’t created it. If the government mandates a higher wage, that creates $432 million.
Makes you wonder: why not raise the wage even higher?
The money already does exist, of course, and is in the economy already. It was created by business, not by government, but people like Governor Doyle, the letter-writer, and Ms. Forward can’t understand that. To them, government gives us what we have.
I’m sorry they can’t understand my point of view. I’m glad I can’t understand theirs.
3 Comments:
I think you are reading too much into it. It is extreme hyperbole to make a point--albeit a heavy-handed one. The other thing is that I also believe that if corporations could figure out a way to pay workers nothing and they still would work, they would definitely implement it. But you are right--where would the consumers be? Instead, they want us painfully dependent on corporate jobs so that people who have dreams of being teachers, artists, or other non-corporate jobs are edged out by extremely low pay and forced to work in cubicles with everyone else at the cost of their dreams and real talents. Minimum wage is obscenely low--not keeping pace with inflation or the percent increases in other professional jobs. Something needs to be done because not everyone has had the privelege of being born with a silver spoon in their mouths, or have fallen on hard times, or have become divorced at an older age with no marketable skills and these folks as well as others should be able to make a living wage on sheer human/moral grounds. $5.15 is insane on any level, in any state, and in any country. The other thing corporations are doing is buying cheap labor abroad (people who will work for cents on the dollar). These people are tearing down the economic fiber of this country and exploiting workers in other countries and this should also be stopped. Minimum standards and requirements for fair business practice and adherence to human rights is not a leftist agenda. It's something we should all care about and require.
Great link to an utterly ridiculous individual. Thanks
Hey, Jude,
Wow! Evil corporations-- wishing to figure a way to pay nothing, painfully dependant, dashed dreams, wasted talents, obscene, abusing those sans silver spoon, hard timers, divorced, no marketable skills, insane, exploiters...
Governments and politicians-- relied on to 'do something', minimun standards, fair business practices, human rights, require...
I'm sure impressed by the intgrity that governments have historically shown to provide salvation for the unwashed masses through politicians' sacrifices.
Do I detect a presuppositional bias?
Post a Comment