re: #92 karmic_inquisitor

Hi Karmic! I understand you’re not looking for sympathy, and everything you wrote makes very good sense. It goes to my ongoing concern about unintended consequences.

For example, you cite marginal/unskilled workers. Proposed legislation like the heath bill, and existing legislation like the minimum wage laws, are poison for these poor folks. Minimum wage laws make politicians feel good, but - in study after study - seem to result in lower employment for these folks. And that makes sense. If you have 10 workers at $10.00 per hour, and the minimum wage goes up 5%, you now have 10 workers at $10.50 an hour, an increase of $5.00 per hour - half the pay of an additional worker you might like to hire. Somewhere there’s someone who’d like a job, but it just isn’t there for them.