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

 

Freedom of the Media was and is an Illusion

 

Freedom of the Media, the Press, was intended to mean that the media was allowed to take position opposing those in power. With President-elect Trump we have a complete rebirth of freedom in Media as the leftist media has been permitted total freedom in denouncing, condemning, delegitimizing and casting overt dispersion in such rapidity that the Maxim machine gun is jealous of their repetition rate against all items Trump. The only threat the American, and its twin of the European media and much of the western and developed world’s media, is facing is that largely, with few notable exception, is pure leftist progressive slant where anything which is not in line with their politically correct, censored, straight-jacket narrow view of the world is denounced as demonic, evil, Nazi-esque and potentially leading to censorship closing down all opposing views of the right wing. The media and their vociferous echo chamber of NGO’s, political advocates, full array of supportive leftist and progressive alternative media, and various leftist lobbyists all standing together making as much racket as the world might stand. That is one of the precious secrets of the Progressive leftists, they are all for one and one for all even more so than the Three Musketeers. This becomes evident in the one area where the left progressives have mastered something that the other end of the political spectrum has yet to even consider, let alone adopt.

 

Watch any demonstration for any leftist Progressive cause and you will soon understand how they get hundreds or more at every demonstration, universal representation. Go to an ecology rally against perhaps coal powered electricity plant in your city and there will be all sorts of ecology demonstrators including anti-nuclear power, pro-wind power, save the whales, clean our rivers, save the oceans, clean air and any other ecology cause imaginable. But that is not all. There will likely be others there who support other causes and are not particularly worked up about the ecology of the Earth and more concerned with the pro-choice, anti-death penalty, anti-racism, and even pro-Palestinian or BDS or other anti-Zionist, anti-Israel movements all there for one reason, the leftist you scratch my cause I’ll scratch your cause. Often at a demonstration for some cause there will be protest signs for other causes within the demonstration because if you protest one leftist Progressive cause, you are there representing all leftist progressive causes. And the mainstream will give favorable coverage with inflated numbers of protesters and enthusiasm and will take their pictures selectively attempting to only get the right standards despite others also on prominent display. Many will accuse me and ask how it is I know this. Well, once upon a time many years ago I was one of those liberals back when being a liberal meant keep the government out of my life, respect for all people, equality for all, live and let live, and, believe it or not, gun rights was not an automatic exclusion from the club. To be honest, the one cause which had tepid support was gun rights, but at least in those days it was not a cause which caused one to be disassociate and shunned.

 

Back then one went to every protest just as is the means today. There were people who would pay people to attend protests which were considered vital. These were often the protests against particular politicians or counter rallies to out shadow any right wing causes by having greater numbers at the counter rally thus making the coverage all about the liberal progressive cause which opposed the scheduled protest. Often the counter protest did not have any license or permit and actually be technically illegal but they were seldom forced to disperse and were given much freedom. The exception were the anti-war demonstrations which the government took a dim view and would use violent force to break up such demonstrations. This was back in the late 1960s and into the 1970s and with the times the position of the establishment changed as the left took command during the Administration and Presidency of Jimmy Carter. That was a turning point as from that point on the left progressive tours de force began a simple tactic, the just ignore everything between progressive majorities and just pick up right where the last front left off. This made for a force which became all but an inevitability which could never be opposed by anything the conservatives could establish.

 

This became evident when President Jimmy Carter simply picked up where President Lyndon Baines Johnson left off with the Great Society, affirmative action, wealth redistribution, ecology restrictions on industry through emissions and every other leftist progressive cause. Then there was a break for a dozen years of the Reagan and George H. W. Bush Presidencies. Then came President William Jefferson Clinton who continued expanding the progressive cause and then came another Republican, President George W. Bush, who was not so much a counter to the progressive causes than a slightly different approach in establishing big government programs which the “No Child Left Behind” program. This brought on the yet another rendition of ‘new math,’ ‘full word recognition’ and stressing minority contributions from the past replacing history with little mention of any contributions from white males and especially Judeo-Christian ethics and instead an anti-ethical education which removed any standard history of the United States and other Western histories which when mentioned it received condemnations of how it was exclusive not as meaning something exemplary but rather as racist, prejudiced and intolerant. Any traditional history was belittled and condemned by using modern day morality and equal rights viewpoints making everything from the past appear hateful and vengeful being racist, prejudiced and xenophobic. Making normative history where Christian, white male formed history such as the Founding Fathers were cast as hateful slave owners and thus not ethical or acceptable because such was unacceptable in these modern times and the European greats such as Da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Isaac Newton, Galileo and others were also intolerant, supremacist, racist, sexist and likely homophobic or full of other forms of hateful white supremacist views which would be condemned in today’s world. This version of history left much of traditional history untaught or presented as something to be rejected and spurned as horrible examples of a hateful past.

 

 

Some of such views are being presented in the media where past events are presented under a modern viewpoint and leftist microscope where anything which was acceptable back in history becomes unacceptable and regrettable as it fails to measure up to the modern ethos and leftist yardstick which was unheard of and did not exist when the history occurred. This method was designed and makes children ashamed of their past history and thus leaves them unattached to their past and because of their being separated and unanchored their views can be molded in such a manner as to overturn their ethics and allows them to be made to accept anything as one who has no past can be given any defined future. This is an actual method for disconnecting children from their parents, their history, their religious affiliations and anything which might define them as a continuation of their actual society and are instead given an entire redefined ethos which has nothing connected to their history and disconnecting them from parents and everything which would allow for a continuation of history and a continuation of the historic societal models. This is reinforced by the mainstream media which works using the identical redefined ethical framework leaving a youth which when they take the reins of power, they will start a society completely detached from past realities and all of history. The casting of all former history as evil and ruinous and without any worth was beautifully exemplified by President Obama when he returned the bust of Sir Winston Churchill as he refused to retain the visage of a colonialist, racist, evil, hateful individual and not the man who saved the world from Nazi Germany’s world conquest. This is indicative of the new morality that the mainstream media and education which are both completely under the thumb of the progressive, leftist rewriters of all history and religious anchors in order to create a brave new world where for all intents and purposes they could teach children that 2 + 2 = 5 as truth and the children would have no anchoring to know it was a lie. Thus is the prospect for the future in Europe, the United States and the remainder of western society, culture and the developed world should it remain under the sway of the progressive leftists whose remaking of society has actually been in progress under even the ‘conservative’ politicians since Theodore Roosevelt and shifted into high gear by Woodrow Wilson and accelerated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (yes, a relative of Theodore) and moved along even faster by Lyndon Banes Johnson and the line held by Jimmy Carter and slight advancement by William Jefferson Clinton and George W. Bush and then taken airborne and breaking virtually every barrier by Barack Hussein Obama with the future remaining to be seen. The main reason for the apoplectic fits and near convulsive contortions by progressive leftists over the election of Donald Trump is they fear those who hold their religion as holy, their ethics as cemented in a tradition worth preservation, their history as ethical and who desire moderation in progress where changes are evaluated over time, instead of great leaps being taken blindly without looking back and burning all the bridges and even the castles and fields behind them assuring there is no chance of retrieving any morsel from our collective past as they are ashamed of their Judeo-Christian history despite it having been the basis for many positive developments.

 

They refuse to credit the Judeo-Christian ethics with the end of slavery instead blaming it for slavery, bringing about the Renaissance instead dwelling instead on earlier Church anti-science standings ignoring the truth that things changed and the fact that many of those precious progressive ideas they hold as sacred have their roots in the Judeo-Christian ethos that people are all equal in the eyes of Hashem and instead teach that religion was all about exalting white, male Christian superiority and all the evils which can be appropriated to such a viewpoint. The fact that history has been a progression of events and evolutions caused often by the very past which originally opposed change but with time softened and became champions of the progressive changes in society. The reason for the new view demonizing the past of the youths’ parents and ancestors and pressing that all their views which are actually the logical result of the Judeo-Christian ethics, they want to disposes the past and make the youth divorce their history and thus be pliable and moldable into whatever the latest untested theories for society the progressives can invent. Where this will lead is to an entire unanchored generation which will fall before any anchored group which has a strong history and religious anchoring who are willing to fight for their beliefs. These types will rule the day simply because, as the old adage goes by G.K. Chesterton (we realize that anything old, especially adages, is unacceptable and makes any argument unacceptable but tough), “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.” This probably states why the progressives work so hard to disconnect the youth from their past.

 

Beyond the Cusp 

 

America the Destructible

 

America still has her fruited plains, purple mountains majesty, amber waves of grain all from sea to shining sea. None of that has actually changed and America can still feed herself even if that would mean no morning coffee, or just for the few who could afford Hawaiian coffee. America has grand rivers and a highway system and trains and everything that made her great yet she stands about to fall. America has been missing one set of elements which had kept her great, justice, equality before the law, religion, unique sense of morality, seeking goodness over wealth, doing that which is right, foregoing expediency and a government under control. All these things which all of America had in great abundance such that it ruled even in the highest levels of business and governance are now no longer prevalent. Sure, these are still the watchwords ruling many an American household in the area the political elite call flyover country. Sure many, but insufficient, numbers of political representatives have these qualities and hold them dear initially but the coasts of America hold an allure that is all but irresistible which will wear-down all but the most stalwart of men and Washington D.C. is the epicenter of this corruption. This is where the force which tempts and eventually shoves forcefully to press all political souls into compromise on their principles, and almost all fall in the end tiring of making the good fight. That is the truth which should frighten all.

 

Fruited Plains – Purple Mountains Majesty – Amber Waves of Grain

 

Today America selects their next President and determines the make-up of the government with which said President will be made to work with. Many have claimed that this is by far the worst of all possible outcomes which placed Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump as the top candidates who won the primary selection process of the two main parties, the Democrat and Republican Parties respectively. Many a person has been baffled that these two were who were chosen from amongst the three-hundred-thousand potential Americans where at least two-thirds, a whopping two-hundred-thousand, were eligible to take the nomination. What we additionally learned was that Hillary Clinton was as much anointed by the Democrat Party as she was chosen; and that, contrary to the recent coverage, the media played a huge role in making Donald Trump the eventual victor for the Republican Party. Since selecting these two less than perfect and potentially unacceptable candidates the American electorate have come to a dazzling set of potential solutions, each more viable in the long run than the one before, and these are;

1) Just boycott the election altogether,
2) Write in any name from Daffy Duck to John McCain to Bernie Sanders,
3) Vote for a third party such as the Green Party, Constitution Party, Libertarian Party or other such party recognized by the Federal Election Commission (FEC),
4) Vote against the less desirable candidate by supporting the other party’s less than perfect but probably less problematic than the certainty of their opponent.
5) Brainwash oneself into honestly believing one major candidate is exactly what the party ordered and the party knows best.

After today comes the first of four years of tomorrows where the nation will live with whatever result is voted into the Presidency this today, be it through honest representation, voter fraud, illegal immigrants utilizing drivers’ licenses to vote using National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (Motor Voter Act), foreign interference or any other acts which affect the Electoral College outcome. This is where the proverbial rubber meets the road. Should America and the world be fortunate, then we should have a tabulated and verified result and the Electoral College delegates be set and promised to perform their duties honestly and as required by law; thus setting in stone the winner and next President of the United States and Leader of the Free World by default and by definition. This Leader of the Free World position was left largely vacant for the past eight years just as planned by President Barack Hussein Obama from the outset as he worked tirelessly to, in his own words at a campaign stop on October 30, 2008, in Columbia, Missouri where he stated, “Fundamentally Transforming the United States of America” as if the nation suffered from some debilitating disease from which the world need be protected from contracting through any form of American contact (see actual excerpt video below). At this point one can extrapolate from campaign statements, past actions, candid statements allowed to slip out either as an intentional plan or one of those rare moments where a politician or person of perceived importance actually says something they honestly feel deeply within themselves and is a defining principle, we have heard that most actually do have such guiding limitations and are often items the politician does all in their power to keep suppressed in case it might adversely affect voters, especially potential supporters. No matter how successful a politician may be, their actions, deeds and votes on the little or seemingly items of lesser importance are where their true and hidden side is often revealed. These telling moments will be either concealed by the mainstream media for their favored darlings or exploited and maximized in importance for those they desire to depose come Election Day. This is just one more deceit from which America currently suffers, a bent and twisted media which acts more as if they were the propaganda arm of the one party and an attacking beast for all others.

 

 

How long America survives as the spine and supporting strength of the free world is difficult to ascertain. One need remember that despite the fall of Rome as the ultimate power for much of Europe, Roman laws, currency, ethics and attributes remained as the guiding path down which the surviving states which had vanquished Rome would adopt as their own. Roman roads remained in use until approximately fifty to one-hundred years ago and their water systems are still in use, especially for some vineyards across Europe. To this day some of the concepts which were the basics of Rome, the ideas expounded by the Greeks and Torah and the words of the Prophets of the Temple Periods all remain as valid and necessary to Western civilization as one could imagine. These are the precepts, philosophies, tenets and arguments which form the framework of the modern state and are set in stone in the Ten Commandments and in Torah plus understood and lived through such historic documents which brought about the freedoms, independence and liberties enjoyed by many across the planet today. Such documents as the Magna Carta, The Declaration of Independence and numerous treatises, essays, journals and various other political and even some science fiction writings expound the necessary state for humankind is exercising their incontrovertible and indisputable rights which were defined in the Declaration of Independence as “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The insurance and unassailability of said rights was to be the first and foremost demand of government. It was to buttress, protect and preserve these rights, freedoms and liberties that government was to be tolerated. Government was intended to be weak and solely in support of the people and it was with the people that the bulk of the power was to be vested. This is the opposite as is had today and this concept and its principles are exactly what will save America for our grandchildren and their children and grandchildren but only if we and our children make the ultimate sacrifices today that such can be assured of preservation.

 

As American election results roll in tonight and over into Wednesday we should each take some time and research our Representative and two Senators our votes have placed in Washington D.C. and evaluate how they measure up to a high standard of cutting the power out of Washington D.C. and returning it to the most local governance if not simply empowering the family and the individual trusting that those closest to the problem, dilemma, opportunity, selection and actual activities are the ones best capable of making things work and work well. Such representation would be working on all but eliminating the Department of Education limiting it to evaluating school systems or simply abolishing it altogether. That would be but a start. They would probably assist in writing legislation which would freeze if not decrease spending by 10% per year computed annually until such time that a sizeable surplus permitted paying the debt down to zero and then setting up a savings institute where the excess would be deposited such that there would never be a catastrophic event for which borrowing would otherwise be required. The cuts should be strived for every year and cuts in taxes should always be the first and prime effort of business in Congress. Further the congress should look into all regulations and determine if they serve a purpose of the people’s or serve granting government more power. If the regulation simply serves the government in any manner other than assisting the military, it should then be repealed; while otherwise it would still need review to improve the efficiency and assure it will not place an undue strain or demands on the people. A final review should be committed on all laws, regulations and requirements and test them to ascertain if they run afoul of Amendment X. Amendment X reads:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

 

Amendment X is a simple, short, concise spelling out of what has become the most trampled and hollowed out and ignored of the Bill of Rights. Reinstating and reinforcing this one short Amendment from the Bill of Rights could and would honestly rid the nation of America of so much red tape, so many regulations and minimize the Federal Government so honestly and completely that its application alone might save the nation. There should be one last little alteration to the means in which Washington D.C. need change, every regulation must be reviewed and spelled out before the Congress every five years and be validated to continue being enforced. All legislation too would receive the same treatment of a full review every ten years in order to remain enforceable. Such requirements would tie up the Congress thoroughly setting a strong limitation on the amount of regulation they could review thus limiting the damage and interference they could enact and retain in use. Forcing items to be constantly reviewed guarantees the laws remain arguably necessary. An example might be:

CFR › Title 27 › Chapter I › Subchapter A › Part 4 › Subpart D › Section 4.39
(a) Statements on labels. Containers of wine, or any label on such containers, or any individual covering, carton, or other wrapper of such container, or any written, printed, graphic, or other matter accompanying such container to the consumer shall not contain:
9) Any word in the brand name or class and type designation which is the name of a distilled spirits product or which simulates, imitates, or created the impression that the wine so labeled is, or is similar to, any product customarily made with a distilled spirits base. Examples of such words are: “Manhattan,” “Martini,” and “Daquiri” in a class and type designation or brand name of a wine cocktail; “Cuba Libre,” “Zombie,” and “Collins” in a class and type designation or brand name of a wine specialty or wine highball; “creme,” “cream,” “de,” or “of” when used in conjunction with “menthe,” “mint,” or “cacao” in a class and type designation or a brand name of a mint or chocolate flavored wine specialty.

All right, we can understand how many of these forbidden words could be used as misleading but why “Zombie”? Sure there is a drink called a Zombie which most certainly would never be confused with any wine. The standard manner to mix a Zombie is as follows:

Zombie Recipe

Blend all ingredients with ice except Bacardi 151 proof rum. Pour into a Collins glass. Float Bacardi 151 proof rum on top. Garnish with a fruit slice, sprig of mint and a cherry.

 

Because of this drink we cannot use the word Zombie in the name of a wine, and I hoped someday to ferment grapes with their skins included in the wine and call it “Zombie Blood,” Well, guess that how to get rich quick scheme is dead as research showed New Orleans, Los Angeles and San Francisco as the best places to market such a brew. Bummer, guess this proves that almost, if not, everything is illegal somewhere in the regulations just to stop everyone from committing an unapproved action. We think we best stop here and check the regulations and see if words being forbidden as we would not desire to be askance and standing in offense of the laws and regulations now, would we. Remember to vote unless in Chicago, then we advise as the old city bosses back in the day said, “Vote early and vote often.”

Beyond the Cusp