March 07, 2014

Annals of hypocrisy, continued

I love it when people who don't give a damn about poor people pretend to care. Any effort to raise the minimum wage usually brings such people out. The main argument, which was also used to oppose emancipation, goes like this: trying to help them only hurts them, so the best way to really help them is to stick it to them.

One novel version of this argument was heard at the WV legislature this week, where crocodile tears were shed over the fact that a rise in wages means fewer public  benefits. Uhhhh, isn't that the point? And since when did these people care about public benefits, other than those extended to rich people and corporations?


5 comments:

Susan J said...

soooo... is it your belief that anyone who doesn't think the minimum wage should be raised, by definition "doesn't give a damn about poor people"?

I'm new to following your blog - just want to be clear on where you're coming from, and what you've already determined about my character....

El Cabrero said...

Not everybody, although it seems to fit pretty well for some I've heard this week.

hollowdweller said...

My belief is that anybody who doesn't think the minimum wage should be increased doesn't give a damn about WORKING people.

You could be a bleeding heart liberal and instead of thinking that we should raise the min wage you should think the gov't should do what it has been doing now, which is to essentially subsidize substandard wages paid by companies.

However if you are not for raising the min wage AND not for expanding gov't help for people then I would classify that person as somebody who doesn't care about the poor or working people.

My personal preference would be raising the min wage, and scaling back some of the gov't subsidies for people, repealing the Taft Hartley act and making anybody working over 40 hours get paid double time.

We need to get people working and the only way to do that is to make work pay. You can't starve them into it.

El Cabrero said...

Agreed, Hollowdweller. If unions really had the right to organize without intimidation, a lot of things would take care of themselves.

Meanwhile, we did win with a good minimum wage bill, better than I expected. It all seemed about to fall apart up to the end.

So if I'm for stronger unions, higher minimum wage, AND good programs, what does that make me? On second thought, don't answer that!

Hollowdweller said...

"So if I'm for stronger unions, higher minimum wage, AND good programs, what does that make me? On second thought, don't answer that!"


The Second Coming of FDR!