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Jan. 11, 2007 By a vote of 315-116 the House of Represenatives has voted to increase the minium wage to 7.25 an hour. This shouldn't come as a shock. The Democrats have always favored mininum wage hikes out of their love of socialism, and the GOP favors it out of political panic. Now with the party of the old deal in power, and determined to beat the U.S. economy into a recession(democrats are never happy unless the country is a mess) they have decided to attack the group of people the piously claim they are trying to help, the poor. This comes from a love of bad economics, but that is only for some. For most people in congress, and for most people in the country, it comes from economic illiteracy. Most people think that if you control prices, or force higher wages it will benefit workers and consumers. Like so many things, what looks reasonable on paper or appeals to common sense isn't always true. Price controls always limit supply. When you limit supply people can't get the goods that they want. When you increase wages, you also increase expenses. Labor is an expense, the more it costs to pay workers the fewer workers a business can typically keep on its payroll. This means that the newer employees,(who are typically the least skilled. That is they are the poor Congress claims it wants to exploit...er I mean help) get the axe and get a trip to the unemployment line instead of getting a pay hike. Fewer workers in the workplace means that there is less productivity. Less productivity means less business, and less business means that the economy goes down. Now, let's be clear. I am not predicting that the American economy is going to plunge into another great depression. What I am saying is that hiking the mininum wage doesn't help anyone, most of all the people who earn mininum wage. If the government wanted to help people on mininum wage they would abloish it. Labor, being a commodity, is bought and sold. Having a mininum pay for labor either forces employers to pay far more than what the labor is actually worth, or it allows employers to pay too little.(though that is usually not the case) Getting rid of the mininum wage allows labor to be compensated for what it is actually worth. If a worker does not like what he is being paid, he is free to take his labor someplace that will pay him more. Having congress setting wages and trying to control the economy is not only bad for the economy it is bad politically. The government wants to get into health care(see Senator Kennedy's demands for socialist health care) it wants to control the economy, Congress even wants to take over the role of commander in chief. If we wanted more freedom in this country we would give the Federal government less power, not more. ------------ About the author: Craig Chamberlain has written more than 100 articles for Useless-Knowledge.com. Email: craig_chamberlain@hotmail.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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