http://channel-surfing.blogspot.com/2006/06/random-thoughts-on-senate-race.html

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Sen. Menendez voted in favor of increasing the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour this week, announcing on the Senate floor that "nine years is far too long" for low-wage workers to wait for the federal government to boost the wage, which currently stands at $5.15 an hour.
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Nine years is too long for those who work round the clock, hoping to save a little extra for groceries, for those working so they can buy schools supplies or clothes for their children, or for those saving so one day they can live in a place they are proud to call home. I ask members of Congress who receive a cost-of-living adjustment, how can they vote to not give those hard working Americans earning minimum wage the first increase in nine years?

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Can we talk? Minimum wage!
The minimum wage isn't for the poor hard working Joe six pack. Minimum wage laws really benefit a very interesting group.

First, the highly paid government "workers" get raises. A rise in the minimum wage jacks up the bottom of the pay table. So all the higher and highly paid "workers" all get a raise.

Second, all the union workers who have a pay table in their contracts gets a bump up.

Third, the politicians get the "moral high ground" as champions of the "little people" while rewarding the government and union workers.

Basat's Law tells us to look for the silent hidden losers in any "economic problem". SO who loses here?

Everyone loses because now they have to pay higher prices. Taxpayers lose because government workers now have to be paid more and, of course, pensions are keyed to that higher rate. People on fixed incomes get a double whammy in higher taxes and higher prices.

So, ANY politician, regardless of flavor, who advocates a higher minimum wage, shouldn't be elected. You shouldn't EVEN consider voting for them. Either that politician is: too stupid to understand the minimum wage is a bad idea OR too dishonest to admit what the truth of the minimum wage.

Is he dishonest or just dumb as a stump?

By the way, minimum wage jobs are the bottom rung on the economic ladder. People don't work at minimum wage jobs for life. They don't support households on them. But they are the training ground for the future great jobs.

The little businesses, the typical employer of minimum wage employees, are hurt by the raise and either have to fore go hiring, layoffs, or downsizing.

So raising the minimum wage is like pulling up the economic ladder to a better life.

And, just a little side effect, an unintended consequence, it impacts the young and the minorities disproportionately.

Oh, and by the way, this law, like all law, is the use of force on a peaceful market transaction. The worker doesn't have to work at that lower rate. With this law, the government puts its guns at the head of the workers and the employers.

Sigh. It seems so obvious!