Liberals subscribe to magical thinking, believing that free college tuition and free health care to illegals will somehow end up a net win for the public. But reality often intrudes on this magical thinking like a big pimple on the end of your nose, and it is painful and unsightly. In this case, the laws of economics are intruding into the magical thinking of liberal politicians in San Francisco (as if there were any other kind there), and it is a growing problem.
San Francisco has declared that the minimum wage in the city, now being replicated in several other fact-challenged cities, will rise to $15 by 2018, and polls there predict happy, better-paid workers who will finally have a “living wage.” They have also insisted that this will not increase inflation and that it will be a boon to the minimum wage worker. That is a lie. And the impact is just now showing up as the first mandated rise from $10.74 to $12.25 is being implemented by certain retailers.
See who is raising prices in San Francisco, page 2:
I was in Chicago last summer and twice had to go to drugstores, different chains. Each one had one counter with a clerk…and one clerk taking care of six self-serve stations.
It is an article of faith with the left that you can raise the price of something and people will not buy less of it, and you can raise the price of something a lot and people will not only buy less of it, they will not find substitutes.
It’s an article of faith for me that Lucy Lawless is even now desperately hoping she will someday meet an older, balding guy who is Jewish.
A 90 cent increase? I wonder if I’ll even notice? You guys must be broke. Raise it another 20% I say.
That has already happened…….
Jordan Tirrel you are so used to being a slave inder the modern economy you are fighting your brothers for table scraps while the rich laugh at you. Minimum wage 30 years ago had more than twice the spending power it does now. People at the top are making 400 times what their average employee is. You are arguing for your right to be abused. Sad man.
Clifton Day it’s a hell of a lot easier to blame the guy next to you that looks different than it is to understand 40 years of systemic deconstruction of financial regulation, globalization, monopolization… That takes effort… And the type of person that just wants someone to blame and someone to be better than isn’t concerned with much beyond what they see in the mirror. That reality has driven right wing politics in this country since desegregation, and will be our downfall if nothing is changed.
Agreed Shane, without true and unbiased historical perspective, WE I STRESS WE AS IN EVERYONE, is doomed to repeat petty self-centered mistakes.
How bout we all address the solution rather than adhering to failed authoritarian ethos?
Yes I have watched the stock market. What record profits are you seeing?
Do you all think they are going to invest it in there employees. Wake up. It’s there company there money so they can do as they please. Now if minimum wage goes up across the country, geuss who’s gonna start flipping burgers. This guy.
The minimum wage was IN FACT intended to be a living wage.
But we have millionaire and billionaire business owners dominating the conversation, attempting to change its intended purpose for their own gain.
Look, as long as Walmart can pay minimum wage and keep hours under 20/week, their employees get paid by our tax dollars, which they spend in Walmart stores.
If you agree that minimum wage shouldn’t support a basic standard of living, then you also accept that your wage is subject to be cut to minimum at any time, regardless of your education, training, skills or experience.
Even doctors have seen pay cuts since this mentality started permeating our nation.
But make sure hedge fund managers pay almost no taxes so they can make $4 billion a year
If you can’t afford to pay someone to pay someone a decent wage then make your own fucking burrito.