Nightly Ramble: Minimum Wage, Those Who Don’t Vote

First stop this morning was in New Paltz New York, essentially within shooting distance of McPhillips. I regret my schedule doesn’t leave me enough time to offer him some coffee. It would be an interesting meeting, I think.
I managed to get a late start to the week, so I will probably be out until Saturday morning anyway.

Got my grocery shopping done, and I’m all set for food for the week. Still seems kind of strange to me, talking about grocery shopping for a truck, but that’s what happens when you maintain a kitchen in your truck.

Speaking of groceries, I’ve gotten into the bad habit of not putting my ice bottles for the cooler into the freezer over the weekend. It’s not warm enough outside yet where the powered cooler really needs the ice, but I’ve got to get back into the habit, because those warm days are coming very soon now.

I’m noticing huge flocks of geese flying north through Central New York and its a nice thing to see. Everytime I see a flock of them, I smile and say “welcome back guys”. It’s the surest sign of spring. The surest sign of renewing of things.

I became involved the other night in an online discussion about the Democrats and their constant pandering about raising the minimum wage.

  Let’s cut right to the chase. The minimum wage in these United States of America should be zero. Nothing. Nada,zero, zilch. Not a thing.

Now, of course, some of you are going to respond, “Hey, that’s crazy, you can’t pay somebody nothing”. And that’s exactly right. You can’t. And that’s my point.

Look, let’s imagine a world where a minimum wage doesn’t exist. Where government hasn’t stuck its nose into that situation. Would anybody actually work for no wages? (Now mind you, I’m ruling out volunteer work here for the moment. That’s an entirely different matter. )

Well, no, of course they wouldn’t. And equally obvious is the idea that people will work more willingly, as wages increase to what would be considered acceptable levels.

But, and here’s the thing, why is government making that choice? I submit that the exchange of ideas and labor and employment between the employer and the employee create a natural minimum wage. No government involvement required. Or, for that matter, desired.

We either believe in the free enterprise system, or we don’t. I do. So too, the most of the people reading this, or they wouldn’t be here.

We tried wage and price controls back in the seventies at the hands of a socialist in the guise of a Republican. You remember, Nixon? The fact it was, is, and always shall be that government control of wages and prices do not work. They don’t create jobs, they kill jobs.

Have you looked at the restaurant business in San Fran lately? How many of them have dropped off the planet since they upped the minimum wage to $15 an hour so that they would be considered to be “doing something to help working families?” The damage there hasn’t even begun yet.

I tell you. I don’t want government setting my wages, any more than I want unions setting my wages, and both for the same reason. They’re going to demand a piece of that action. In short, they need that minimum wage more than I do. Because they’re going to get the majority of the difference between what I would be making negotiating such matters on my own and what I’d be making with the union supposedly representing me. Or for that matter, the government.
When the minimum wage goes up at the behest of unions and the government, unions and the government get more spending cash. I don’t. Neither do you.

And of course, it gives the Democrats an issue to demagogue. Remember, the worst thing you can do to a Democrat is giving a solution to a problem because once you do that you remove power from his hands and demagoguery is power.

And oh by the way, less of us get paid it all because minimum wages kills jobs. That’s been demonstrated over and over again.

I hear some of you saying, but what about the poor? Well look, the poor have been voting for the Democrat Party for generations. The Democrat Party has been demagogy the minimum wage, and pandering to the poor with that issue for generations. How’s that one working out for them? Last I saw it, they’re still poor.

A wise man once said that the definition of insanity is running the same play over and over and hoping it’ll come out differently each time. Or, as I’ve been saying for years now, stupidity is painful, and it should be. Keep voting for Democrats, you get what you deserve.

Other matters.

I notice that the largest block of eligible voters that aren’t voting are evangelical Christians. This goes directly to the heart of my decade long argument that the reason the GOP has been losing elections year after year after year is because there is nobody out there to vote for, and so nobody does.

I notice also that Ted Cruz is looking to court those non voters. The last person to actively do that, who was actually conservative, was Ronald Reagan. The results of those Elections should stick out in your mind.

Mind you, I have some questions about Cruz, but based on what I know about him so far I could live with him in the White House.

Finally, I see Peter King promising to jump off a bridge if Cruz gets the nomination. Can we hold you to that promise Peter?

The country needs a lot less of Peter can get a lot more of Ted Cruz.

The honest truth is, I would rather see a democrat taking over Kings seat Then I would to see Peter King continuing in it. the reason is simple enough. When the occupant of that seat votes for big government, as King has done repeatedly, at least the Republicans don’t get the blame for it.

Down the road I go. See you tomorrow.