The Coming Destructions of the $15 Minimum Wage

 

There are a number of Democrat run and owned cities which feel they have found the solution to poverty caused by those working merely for the paltry $7.25 per hour; the new dawning of the $15 per hour minimum wage. These cities see no problem with doubling their minimum wage and believe that the businesses, such as burger and other fast food restaurants and retail shops will have no choice as they will be unable to move from the city. They have missed another alternative that those unable to move beyond the city limits will face, total disappearance as they find it impossible to sell their merchandise at the inflated price required to pay their remaining help the overly inflated salaries. Where the minimum acceptable wage is already around $10 per hour the increase will still cause hardships for the retailers and manufacturers. Their higher priced goods will cause financial distress for those residing within the city limits without the means to get to the suburbs where the prices will actually be lower. Even the real estate will lose value as it becomes more difficult to rent their retail and manufacturing spaces and the cities slowly fall into disrepair as the people find they have little if any choice but to leave the city. With what jobs currently exist being initially cut just to remain viable, the economic base for these cities will be cut from under them. The loss of jobs will lead to decreased business which will again lead to more job loss in a slow death spiral. These cities will slowly turn into husks collapsing under their bureaucratic foolishness. They are signing their death warrant in their misguided attempt to right a nonexistent wrong.

 

When I first entered the job market the minimum wage was all of $1.25 per hour; yet nowhere in the entire area around the city where I resided could one find a job at that wage. The minimum wage by 1975 had risen to the unbelievable heights of $2.00 per hour and even that was not high enough to affect work in my home city. The reason was simple, nobody would accept such a wage nor could any employer find workers even for digging ditches at such a wage. My first job was washing dishes at a diner which paid more than $1.50 and was among the lowest paying of jobs. As it turned out I was a poor dishwasher and was fired within the first few weeks. From there I found work stocking shelves at a chain shoe store which paid even more and eventually became a commissioned sales person where minimum wage never became a consideration. Still, even friends who took construction work actually digging ditches or, as I did one summer, building railroad tie walls in a new community development were paid well above minimum wage. I know that across the nation there were many places where the minimum wage was the guideline for minimum wages of employment but that was always a starting salary. Anybody working at a minimum wage who was still making the minimum wage within six months or a year was usually soon to be seeking a different line of work as they were not up to par. Minimum wage was a test salary which was offered largely as one learned how to work at their chosen job and once they proved proficiency their salary would rise above that minimum rate. This fact was one of the truths I found wherever I moved was that any employee worth their salt made minimum wage only for the shortest of periods and once they proved their worth they received a more decent wage. Are there those who make minimum wage to start and will continue making that level no matter how hard they work? Yes, but these are a very small minority and few of them are raising a family on their salary. Those who only make minimum wage for extended periods of time will not benefit from a $15 per hour minimum wage as those will be the first people who will be let go. Often those making minimum wage for prolonged periods of time often are kept on the payroll not because they are price efficient but because their employers realize they are doing the best they are able and they remain employed more for spiritual or social reasons than economic ones.

 

 

The reality is the world is a hard and cruel place with little sentiment, though fortunately there is more sentiment just not in the workplace. In the workplace every salaried individual must fulfill a simple parameter; they must make more money for their employer than their employer pays them. Businesses are not for generosity or charity, even those in the business of charity as even they must show a profit for every employee. Their secret is the majority of their employees are largely volunteers and thus can easily take in more than they cost. Businesses need to make a profit or they serve no purpose and would soon go out of business without a profit margin. Let us take an example of a business which makes exactly the money as it pays out in salaries. How long would the owner and his family survive if this was the case? Owners only receive a salary from profits after all expenses are paid and thus employees must make more than they cost or the owner has no reason to remain open. Further, what is the owner to do when the rent for the store space comes due, the water and electric bills, the gas bill, taxes on the property and on sales, and how do they pay for the insurances for their employees such as medical (Obamacare does not come cheaply to the average business) and unemployment and payroll taxes etc. And then there are the other incidentals an employer has such as the Christmas party and cupcakes for employee birthdays and of course meals for their own family. If it is a large company then there may be stockholders who also demand profits otherwise they will take their investment capital elsewhere.

 

These are the most basic of reasons that the $15 per hour minimum wage is going to bust many of the cities employing it. There are probably a select few cities such as San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago and a maybe others where the minimum employable wage, not the minimum wage but for that location it acts as the minimum wage, is already over $15 per hour. These cities could make the empty statement that they are raising their minimum wage to $15 per hour knowing that virtually every employer, especially their main employers, already are paying $16, $17, $18 or even more just to find worthy candidates to fill their positions. The problem with their taking their minimum wage above the national average is it places an upward pressure on smaller and less affluent cities to follow suit when their economic situations cannot support such a wage scale. It is all well a good for the major cities where there are no shortages of employable people compared to the job base to make offers to raise their minimum wage to less than the going rate as they and their employers will not suffer. But as this is not about their minimum wage, it is about making a case to raise the Federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, which the Democrat Party has been pushing, which would have disastrous results especially for rural neighborhoods and farm laborers. Small towns would find the higher prices near impossible for families to meet and employers would run their businesses as lean as humanly possible possibly leaving numerous former employees unemployed. These communities would soon be faced with taking their economies off the grid, so to speak. They would most likely turn to a barter system which is untaxable and makes things relative and neutralizes the minimum wage as what is the worth of bushels of wheat in exchange for a new roof on the barn? Soon these communities would drive out any competitors who could not accept bartered goods such as the chain stores which run only on dollars and cents. No, the $15 per hour minimum wage argument is mostly being pushed in Democrat controlled major cities such as Seattle, where their Federal Court Judge heard a case and has attempted to nullify President Trump’s immigration vetting delay from terror ridden nations. These cities already have virtual minimum wages well above that $15 per hour and thus are only going to hurt small Mom and Pop stores and other smaller enterprises or workplaces with low profit margins such as miniature golf courses, etc. The whole reason behind the minimum wage argument is to give false hope to young employees who see such a higher minimum wage as their salvations not realizing that it will only bring about a bout of inflation until the new minimum wage will be equal in buying power to the present minimum wage and will only result in the American worker becoming more expensive and thus chase more jobs overseas. This is a bad argument and can only harm America, but what do the politicians care if they can garner a few extra votes in November?

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

How the United States Got These Candidates

 

With all the brouhaha over how negatively both major party candidates are received with Democrat Party Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton somewhere over 55% negative rating and Republican Party Presidential Candidate Donald Trump often reaching beyond 65% negative rating, it would appear an impossible situation; yet here we all are. One of the two it is obvious why they were chosen, they were promised as their 2008 consolation prize the next open candidacy for President after President Obama, thus the Democrats were to be stuck with Hillary Clinton. What is absolutely stunning, and is one reason she easily could lose, she had to resort to dirty political tricks and slanting the playing field in order to beat out a non-Democrat card carrying socialist who started his campaign on a shoestring of financing and at 3% in polling. By the time we reached an almost photo-finish, Bernie Sanders had nearly closed the gap and passed Hillary Clinton sending the inevitable one home with no crown. Imagine this, a former First Lady and Senator of New York lost to a relative newcomer with one strong speech nationally in 2008 and all but lost to what can only be described as that crazy uncle who lives the life of a hermit and is the quintessential loner who nobody has ever taken seriously in 2016. This is the candidate the Democrat Party elites plus the Democrat candidate support including her campaign teams and the mainstream media, but I am all but actually repeating myself, are claiming is the greatest Presidential candidate since the invention of the wheel? I want some of what they’ve been smoking. The Democrats could not have intentionally have designed and built from the plans a weaker and less appealing candidate, which makes it a good thing they already had one. Hillary Clinton could not have beaten almost any Republican no matter how unknown at the start. So why is Hillary Clinton up in every poll?

 

The reason is the Republican Party appears to have been set from the start to give the American people a worse and even less attractive candidate to run against Hillary Clinton cinching her getting the golden ring and all the honors she can steal and leaving the United States to look forward to four years of some of the most memorably intolerable speeches possible. We have had some question our professing that the powers that be controlling the Republican Party were seeking a candidate who would lose and lose big to Hillary Clinton. Hear us out and after that we will go one step further on the conspiracy train. Going into the first Republican debate, who was the knighted candidate in shining armor gilded and his accounts loaded with the stuff campaigns survive upon, cash? Thinking back the big story was we were about to witness Clinton-Bush, the rematch. The race for the White House was going to be Jeb Bush slugging and scratching and eye-gouging with Hillary Clinton. This was going to be the faceoff of the two biggest families in modern American politics. The seats for the debates with these two anointed ones promised to be high value and cherished items. Jeb ran into some traction problems and the Republican rank and file was not hungering for anything more from the Bush family. So old Jeb struck out and left the game rather early on.

 

Blame Game Starring
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

 

This is where the fifth estate took center stage. The Republican elite were in a quandary as to who would now be their candidate. They basically splintered and flittered from one candidate to another never congealing in one place. This left the playing field kind of open and the media knew immediately that there were only two candidates who could give Hillary Clinton a strong run for losing the election. That’s right, we said fight to lose, not win, the election. These were Texas Senator Ted Cruz and New York loud-mouth Donald Trump. The media took to Donald Trump hard and fast over Ted Cruz simply because they knew he would produce the largest and voluminous gaffs and misspeaks over anybody. So the media became the Donald Trump for Republican candidate for President campaign central. The news cycle on television, radio, print, online, on Twitter, Facebook with any and everywhere one looked it was all Trump all the time. Donald Trump was allowed to trample over the debates being granted nearly 50%, possibly over, of the air time while the rest scratched over the remaining morsels. The media chose Donald Trump with Ted Cruz coming in a poor second sort of the reserve option, the relief pitcher should Donald Trump manage to be thrown from the game or some other means of becoming ineligible. They gave Donald Trump, as some estimates have stated, up to if not more than a billion dollars of campaign coverage. Sure everybody was patting Donald Trump on the back for his masterly use of the media in support of his campaign. It was all smoke and mirrors concealing the media’s gross miscarriage of practice by completely discarding their supposed equal time rules and replacing them with Donald Trump 24/7. About the only thing they did not do was adopt the Trump campaign slogan, “Make America great again,” as their sign on and off phrase of the moment. They may as well have as it really would not have made their fawning over Donald Trump any less or more obvious.

 

The media got their man in Donald Trump who they could find a path for Hillary Clinton to be ensconced in the Oval Office the end of January. Here is where the near perfect certainty of the plan, the plot thickens, so to speak. The media believes that they built Donald Trump up into being the Republican Party candidate for President so they should easily be capable of tearing him down. Trump has bigger negatives than Hillary but there is a problem here. Hillary has high negatives even with many presumed and so-called supporters while Trump’s negatives lie largely with people who would never have voted for him anyways. This makes whatever base is supporting Trump solid and unwavering while large sectors of Hillary’s base is somewhat soft and squishy leaving her to shore these voters up instead of cultivating new votes from the undecideds as Trump is attempting to do. Even the most feeble of attempts is superior to no attempt at all. This is part of the plan with the barrage of disheartening polls where every hour Trump is being cast as an ever bigger loser to Hillary. This is aimed at Trump’s base attempting to have them feel it is useless, so why bother voting if they can pal around with their friends, especially if their friends are Trump supporters and engaging in such activities breaks the back, the will of Trump support.

 

The media has brought forward some ordinarily devastating quotes, leaks, accusations, improprieties and other disparaging trash against Trump. Any normal Republican politician would have walked away in shame begging the world’s forgiveness as they checked into a psychiatric home to receive therapy for all their shortcomings. The Republican Party itself would strike their name from every roll and committee and that candidate would be ruined. Not Donald Trump as he takes hit after hit right in the chops and bellows, “Is that all you’ve got,” in that native New York in your face, never back down wisecracker. Trump is not a shrinking violet who would allow a few paltry accusations of what was at the edge of indiscretion thirty or forty years ago be applied and judged by the prissy modern politically correct judgmentalism which demands that if you are a white, male, Christian then you had best know your place and get down on your knees and confess, it is good for your soul. Of course, since Trump has refused to do so the media is exclaiming that they knew it, Donald Trump has no soul. Trump is a soulless zombie that preys on women and weaker souls who are ill prepared to face such a monster, a beast who sends the delicate and wonderful ones shrieking in horror running for their safe zone. Donald Trump written in chalk on a college campus or so has proven the evil that is Donald Trump. Thusfar the media is failing to destroy Trump and his support and this frightens them all the way to their boardrooms. A horrible creature they believed they created now refuses to heel and obey. Next you know they will come for Trump in the night with pitchforks, tar, oil and torches and burn everything down as this creation must be stopped before it is too late. November 8 is their deadline, after that either they will sigh relieved Hillary Clinton prevailed and won or many media and Hollywood thespians will need be placed on suicide watch.

 

We will need such no matter which one wins, or if the only thing worse, proof of malfeasance or trickery performed on the voter rolls or votes or counting thereof is proven beyond any doubt. Any dishonest, underhanded or low-down misappropriations of votes which renders the process to be unreliable and broken in order to present false counts or even change who won fairly, the United States falling to such mischief is all but unthinkable. If in America the vote is not sacrosanct, then where can an honest election be found. Such disappointment would cause every democratic, parliamentary and republican form of government and even the laws themselves would all fall into doubt. That, above all else, is why this coming American Presidential Election is so vital to the Western World and all held precious. If we cannot trust the vote, we do not have fair and trustworthy governance, period.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

I Have Seen This Campaign Before

 

I have seen this exact style and lack of truth in an election built entirely on one overriding misdirection repeated ad-nauseum. I reserve the right to keep you guessing and in the dark, just as the media coverage of the American Presidential Election has and will continue as they have chosen and scripted their coverage for one side, Hillary Clinton’s coronation. One might ask why there has been so little a cry from the Republican elite and leadership. The reason has much to do with their complete lack of pushback against Donald Trump’s initial success while their golden candidate, Jeb Bush, completely crashed and burned without any Republican emergency response team to douse the flames. They were assisting and even secretly arranging in quiet ways Donald Trump’s victory as this was necessitated for a Hillary Clinton victory in the general election. Any honest and readily supportable Republican candidate with the possible exception of Ted Cruz, unsurprisingly the sole Republican who had any hope of toppling the Trump nomination, would have beaten Hillary like a drum. That was the requirement the Republican Party power brokers delivered upon just as directed in the Hillary coronation directive handbook which everybody appears to be playing by except The Donald. Thankfully The Donald is extremely well adapted for the role of the unscripted wildcard.

 

There was an excerpt from the comedy show “Third Rock from the Sun” where John Lithgow’s character boils over (normal for his character) about the election and the anguish mixed with insanity he suffers over how to decide through all the lies and confusion (see video below) and Jane Curtain’s character quotes, rather loosely, Winston Churchill about the horror that is Democracy as a form of government. If you are a Lithgow fan, as am I, then you will love this. This is also unfortunately how all too many voters in America are likely feeling and this confusion does not stop at the shores, it extends to wherever people are involving this election into their lives. Unlike Lithgow, many will not be burdened with having to make that fateful choice; only Americans can be so cursed. Some have defined this election as between a crook and a megalomaniac. Well, it could always be worse; they could both be megalomaniacal crooks which some claim is also the case. Our solace is that even if we still resided in the United States, our state is the second most extreme such that there is no chance of countering the overwhelming majority which makes all predetermined. What makes this election so beyond most not overly familiar with American political theater and how most of the states are all but preordained to vote one party or the other with near 100% accuracy. What this produces is the election will rest on as few as five swing states to a maximum of a dozen potential swing states. As Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida alone could elect Hillary Clinton if she wins all three, the election may be all but decided early. If not then after Ohio, Illinois, and a remote Michigan swing will end all expectations as after that Colorado and New Mexico are unlikely to make the difference, but one can never be too sure. Imagine if it has been announced that Hillary will win and then, against all the odds, California goes for Trump. There would be a lot of news anchors with egg on their faces at that.

 

 

The nicest thing about the American election is that the tense and shrill back-and-forth screaming and accusations being exchanged blow for blow will all be decided within two and a half weeks. The less than nice thing is whoever wins will be the President of the United States for, at a minimum, four years. Whichever candidate prevails, the media will be filled with either criticisms or adulation every day from inauguration through their run for reelection. The one thing of which we can all be assured is that the next President of the United States will take office facing more than the usual set of challenges facing them immediately as they take office. The world has seen perilous times with ominous omens and exceedingly high threat indexes but rarely at the levels as all indicators press are rapidly approaching. The state of the world begs the question of why anybody would actually seek the Presidency at this time. The obvious answer would be either an inflated, larger than life ego or an overbearing feeling of being preordained and whose time has finally come though overdue. Looking at the two candidates we find that we have one of each, imagine that. Who could have imagined such an interesting election where only two personality types would seek the Presidency and then get both personalities? Usually one candidate appears so much more fitting the times and they rise to the office but here we have two. With both fitting one of two differing profiles, the voters will need to decide which candidate as well as which profile and then which is more necessary to face the coming difficulties and possible scenarios which will likely present themselves in the upcoming months and years.

 

This is not an election to envy the American voting public as if they were to choose poorly, the world will pay a horrific price, perhaps things which completely change the world as we know it today with massive change of the progressing of civilization and the laws by which we are governed. There are few points throughout history where the right person is in the right position when their world needs their type, style or quality of leadership. Even more unlikely has been the right person elected where they ward off a coming threat. Probably the most obvious example was British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain as having the worst possible qualities for leadership facing the rise of Nazi Germany. Fortunately the British made a better choice once they realized that a war for survival was upon them choosing Winston Churchill. We can only hope that the world does not face a repeat of such as what led to World War II. The world would be far better off avoiding any war which would sink any sizeable parts of the world if at all possible.

 

Centers of World Conflicts

 

There can be little doubt that the world is once again approaching another central pivoting point where a future for the foreseeable future will be determined. If one were to plot out a logical future, it would point to a failing of technology to prove decisive in a coming conflagration. The main and possibly only hope the advanced Western technological edge would have to preserve the underlying social structures of passivity, full equality, gender blending, sexual independence, complete tolerance and the abhorrence of the use of force is if their technology can circumvent the fierce religious observance and intractability following the strictest interpretations of their religious dogmas as possible, demanding the conquest and submission of all who are in any way different. Their strictness in observances leads to intrareligious inflexibility forcing rejection of those following even the slightest difference of interpretation or of historic views of the passing of leadership such as the detestations which existed in Christianity during the reformation. The world is shrinking in unprecedented ways and rapidity which is forcing the disparate religions, societies, governances, philosophies and every other predispositions that separate the varying formations of humanity closer and into competitions which forces clashes in every manner of difference possible. The resolutions of these conflicts will determine the future, or even if there is a future, of humanity. This makes every election worldwide and especially in the West, especially the United States as the flagship, and the manner of succession in undemocratic lands and the resolution of wars before their effects spread endangering other lands, as with Syria, and in such a manner as to advance peace and not more conflict. Bringing conflicts to an end and preventing future conflict while advancing intersocietal tolerance are the most important of the coming challenges we are going to face as a planet. Whoever can advance strong, flexible, determined, intelligent, intuitive leadership with an understanding of the needs and respects demanded by others and being capable of incorporating such in their negotiations and even more urgent and feverish emerging engagements and confrontations would prove to be the most intelligent of leaders. Such a leader would also be required to choose wise and capable advisors with diverse backgrounds so they can present the widest of potential venues and paths forward. As the ancient Chinese curse read, “May you live in interesting times,” and we most certainly are doing exactly that.

 

Oh, and where have I seen this campaign before? In a comic book come television show then movie series, Batman. There was an election in Gotham City between Batman and Penguin. Penguin ran a campaign based on how you always saw him in the company of police while Batman was always in the company of arch villains asking, who would you prefer as Mayor, one who keeps company of the police or someone who is always in the company of arch villains and criminals? (see below) Plot killer, Penguin won the election, of course. The result, well, that is the question after every election, isn’t it.

 

 

Beyond the Cusp