Patti, friend and frequent GentleWhisper reader, has posted an interesting article:
Minimum wage & Inheritance tax
Patti talks Politics
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Copyright 1993-2008 Amy Maxwell
OMGosh! I’m famous
Seriously though, thank you so much for posting the link to that blog entry. Sometimes I blog and figure I’m the only one reading it. LOL
Comment by Patti — July 30, 2006 @ 4:02 pm
Thanks a lot for writing me a comment the first day that I started the English page of my blog. I hope you like reading it.
PS. the photo of your (crazy) kids is really lovely…
Comment by fakhredinblog — July 30, 2006 @ 5:19 pm
That cracked me up - I love it people are passionate about things - AND Logical at the same time!
I just read John Stossel’s new book “Myths, Lies, & Stupidity” and enjoyed his take (common sense) on a lot of things.
Comment by Robin — July 31, 2006 @ 8:51 am
Since I can’t comment on Patti’s site, I will just comment here.
Before reading her post I didn’t have opinions one way or another on the issue. Her inheritance tax issues seemed logical enough. But I can’t help but believe that the person who wrote comments like the ones quoted below must not have contact with a lot of the poor and the young, and the small business owners in her community. She says:
“Take a look around you… who is applying for jobs where the minimum wage is the standard wage?”
and
“No one but zit-faced teenagers or adults with no life goals work for $5.15 an hour.”
and
“Don’t even start with me about how the minimum wage needs to be raised because people can’t support a family on it. People aren’t supposed to support a family on the minimum wage. If someone has so little motivation that they stay uneducated and can’t demand more than the pittance wage of an entry level position doing a job that requires nothing more than basic math and English skills then maybe that person isn’t in a position to be supporting a family. It’s a classic example of survival of the fittest.”
I wonder if she would make such comments if she had worked with a woman like Clariese, a 20-year-old single mom, who was required to drop out of school because she made a mistake and got pregnant. When the father bailed two years later, she had to put her life back together, support herself, AND try to go to school to get her GED and training to be a day care worker while paying for childcare for her toddler and paying rent, utilities, car insurance, phone, and somehow find enough money left over for diapers and groceries.
Likewise she is probably not acquainted with many college students who depend on work study to get through school, which mostly pays minimum wage. Not everyone has parents who can send them to school Scott free.
I would guess she’s probably never met a 50-year old stay at home mom like Patricia, whose husband was the family bread winner in the family and who had a debilitating stroke and is in the hospital. Because she has no work history and because of her age, the only kind of work she can get is a minimum wage job to support herself and her child and pay the doctor bills and probably the cost of long-term care in a nursing facility for her husband.
Or disabled vets like Buck and Keith, who served our country to support such ideas as capitalism, but who now are unable to do physical labor, which they did all their lives to support themselves, and who find that in the years when they should be retiring, they can’t afford to live on what disability or social “insecurity” as they call it provides. They don’t want to depend on the government, hate it as a matter of fact, but neither can they live on what they make if they get a minimum wage desk job either.
Sometimes people are the victims of poor decisions they have made, but equally there are as many people who have just had a tough break. No one looks out for these people.
While I appreciate Patti’s passion, I seriously take issue with her sentiments and her generalizations. Especially when I see up close on an almost daily basis the faces of many people who are exceptions to them.
Additionally, (and conversely to the points I make above) if you think that employers are more than happy to “pay for what they get” or that “no one hires at minimum wage,” I suspect you’ve never tried to run your own small business, only to be told what pay your employees, and then to have the government raise that amount without your input, or looking at your budget. It forces some small business owners to choose between cutting staff or cutting benefits. I worked in management for a food place that hired staff at minimum wage. I know these things to be true.
I also worked at a restaurant in high school, which employed both legals and illegals. The illegals got paid much less than the legals did (less than half). I am not endorsing the hiring of illegals, but I say it to illustrate that there are employers out there who would indeed pay people much less than the job is worth if they could get away with it, and that is why a standard minimum wage is needed.
Comment by Judi — July 31, 2006 @ 3:07 pm
Actually Judi, you’re wrong. I have worked with variances of every situation you described. I still stand by what I say. I currently work at Target, with a range of people from high school students to retired people. Our situations are the sum total of our choices. I don’t want to debate this here on Amy’s site, but if you want to email me and discuss this more, I would love for you to email me. Thank you for your comments. I think differing opinions are crucial to the thinking process. When we’re made to back up our opinions with fact, it exercises our brains and makes us accountable. People need to know why they believe what they believe.
Comment by Patti — July 31, 2006 @ 4:28 pm
Wow! Look what I missed while I was off in the mountains roasting marshmallows and hiding from civilization.
Comment by Amy — August 3, 2006 @ 8:59 pm
I’m a little too tired to read and understand where everyone is coming from on this minimum wage issue; so I won’t point/counterpoint anyone in my ranting here about the minimum wage.
Personally I think it is ridiculous for the government to try to mandate a minimum wage. That accomplishes only two things:
First it eliminates jobs and makes jobs harder to find. There is a price I am willing to pay in order to not have to do a given task. I will pay someone $5 to do my dishes. There is no way I would pay them $8. That means, I will either have dirty dishes or I will clean them myself. The job that was up for grabs in the economy is now gone. (Same test works with any task, there is always a price someone will and won’t pay to get to do something).
Second, it creates inflation. If I have to pay my fry guy an extra $2 per hour, your fries now instantly cost more. This is damaging because my supervisor that was making $9.50 an hour will still make $9.50 an hour; but because everyone like me raised prices, he can now buy less and received a pay cut.
Last point, the market will always dictate what the minimum wage is. In Columbia, South Carolina McDonald’s is begging people to come to work for $7 per hour. In Springfield, Missouri and Ada, Oklahoma it is $6.50. Their signs have been out as long as I can remember, and their hiring standards aren’t real high.
One other side note, and I guess I am kinda counter pointing although I don’t remember who said what. We are all products of our decisions. Bad things happen to all of us, but how we react to the bad things determines who we are. We can be pro-active and turn evil to good, or we can be a victim and complain about how bad we have it. It is all about choices.
Comment by Joel — August 4, 2006 @ 1:55 am
well, for what it’s worth, the bill died in the Senate today. I don’t know what the official vote tally was, nor have I taken the time to see how my Senators voted. I’m not surprised by the outcome though. I’m glad the minimum wage wasn’t raised, for points I made in my post and points that Joel brought up. Sure would like to see something done about the death tax though.
Comment by Patti — August 4, 2006 @ 5:45 pm
oh yeah, one more thing, welcome home Amy and Joel! Glad you made it home safely.
Comment by Patti — August 4, 2006 @ 5:46 pm
Well, that was fun and interesting.
I found Patti and Joel’s comments about minimum wage to be right on. I really enjoyed Patti’s other blogs as well. Good thought process.
Comment by Jack — August 7, 2006 @ 12:47 am
Thank you, Jack
Comment by Patti — August 7, 2006 @ 11:57 pm
Missouri will be voting on raising the minimum wage to $6.50 an hour or the Federal minimum wage, whichever is higher. At least we get to vote on it in November, and I think you know how I will be voting.
Comment by Joel — August 9, 2006 @ 2:47 am