re: #133 subsailor68

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.

I have, among the employees, 2 ex cons, 3 mentally disabled, and about 20 high school drop outs. If these folks hit the streets after losing their jobs they will have a hard time finding new ones. Especially as other similar businesses are hit with the same cost constraints.

Our economy is actually good at creating service jobs that unskilled workers can fill. But they are marginal jobs in marginal businesses. I know several progressives who speak in sweeping terms about people having meaningful, well paying jobs that last 30 years and come with full pensions. They never seem to get their hands around the details though. They call these jobs “McJobs” and sneer at them. I have learned in life to never sneer at any job.