Yesterday's SOTU was rather pedestrian. But a couple of things did catch my attention. One, was Obama's silly positive take on the economy and its "recovery." Please. It is to laugh.
Two, was his proposal to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour to help alleviate poverty. That one was bizarre on so many levels. $9 won't do much. Why not, say, $20? That families with kids earn $14 500 a year is not the fault of rich folks or capitalism unhinged, can it be part of the issue is the PERSONAL CHOICES we make? But liberals tend to discount that. Anyway, it was a rather meek idea and points directly to Obama's rather childish views on the economy.
Three, a proposal to make available to families pre-school facilities to help prepare for the future. Just what the Americans need, yet another layer of bureaucracy not for any practical reasons but for ideological purposes. This is Obama's method of "creating" jobs.
My wife's first instinct - it should be noted she is an elementary teacher of 20 years with a Double Major and Masters in Early Childhood Psychology - was "that won't do anything. They're children. You can "educate" them to a point."
The point is pre-school kids need to be cared for, fed and above all PLAY.
You don't need a paternalistic bureaucracy getting in the middle of the educator-family relationship. Sadly, it sees no trouble in coercing itself into the doctor-patient one.
Sign of the times.
Sigh.
Where are you, Calvin Coolidge!
The country needs real wisdom!
The problem with alleviating poverty with a raise in the minimum wage is that poverty is relative to the economy. Poverty in the U.S. is currently at $23,050 for a family of 4. $9 per hour equates to $18,720 so it would lift singles and married w/o children above the poverty level for a short period and then they would sink back into it as costs of production drove up the cost of living. It's a waste of time.
ReplyDeleteIt was remarkably amateurish. I can't believe people think this is sound leadership.
ReplyDeleteAs for the $14 500 a year example, that was also silly. As if people work full-time for 14g's not by choice. Whoever is doing that either lacks ambition, can't do other work or is plain ignorant. Don't try and tell me it's otherwise and that a miniscule god dang minimum wage hike will improve that.
Forget that the any costs incurred by business IS PASSED on to the CONSUMER. In the end, guess who gets to hold the bag?
People find themselves in minimum wage jobs for a variety of reasons. When I mustered out of the navy, I became a minimum wage cushion stuffer (aka "upholsterer's apprentice"). It paid the rent and enough to eat on but not much more. In 1971, I worked as a minimum wage janitor at a drapery factory. It didn't come close to paying expenses for a man with a wife and toddler but it helped. Both of these were "place holder" jobs as I waited for better opportunities. Minimum wage jobs are entry level and menial jobs you take during hard times when you are ineligible for unemployment benefits. Or they are second (or third) jobs to augment the pay from your main one.
ReplyDelete