Purveyors of Classism

This from this week's Federalist (The Federalist - Current Edition):

This week's "Purveyor of Classism" Award: "The so-called economic recovery has left millions of workers behind, and...low-income workers have been left the farthest behind. The federal minimum wage hasn't been increased since 1997. It's current level of $5.15 an hour keeps millions of hard-working families below the poverty line. It's long past time for Congress to act. No one who works for a living should have to live in poverty." --Ted Kennedy **We know you'll be disappointed to hear it, but Socialism just doesn't work, Teddy.

1. What in thee hell does Ted Kennedy know about a) poverty, or b) what it's like to be "hard-working"??? He's never worked a day in his born-with-a-silver-spoon-in-his-mouth life. He's never wanted for anything material.

2. The Federal Minimium Wage Law does more to PROMOTE poverty than it ever has done to END poverty. I don't care how high you raise the bottom rung on the ladder of success, IT'S STILL GOING TO BE THE BOTTOM RUNG. Re-read Teddy's statement: "It's [sic] current level of $5.15 keeps millions of hard-working families below the poverty line." What a load of crap!

Nothing, no one, no law, no rule of any kind in this country keeps anyone poor! Nothing, no one, no law, no rule of any kind forces anyone to work for the minimum wage.

Tell me (please!) do you know of anyone who is working for $5.15 an hour? It's a cinch Teddy or John Kerry don't know anyone either. No one worth an ounce of grits would stay at a $5.15 job for more than 20 minutes before either a) demanding a raise (after proving yourself), or b) quitting and moving on to another job.

I know several small business owners besides ourselves and we just can't find people -- people that you'd want working for you, like people who bathe, etc -- that will work for $5.15 an hour.

By promoting the myth that somehow the minimum wage is supposed to be adequate to support a family of four, pay for a nice house and a nice car, not to mention a nice TV and of course a nice computer, the Democrats actually do more harm than good. Instead of encouraging people to get a better education (vouchers, Hello???), seek more training or just improve their people skills and personal attitude by reading more positive books, they create an atmosphere of class envy. 'Hey, he's got more than me! The gubbamint should make him pay me more!'

After dropping out of high school, my first job outside the home was a busboy/dishwasher in a restaurant for $1.50/hr plus whatever the waitresses tipped me for bussing their tables. Within a month I moved up to night cook for $2.50/hr. Before long I was doing the breakfast shift for $3.00. I left that job after 3 years because they wouldn't give me a 9 cent raise. I had a wife and a kid by that time. I moved to another job driving a bread truck for $3.09. I stayed there 4 1/2 years and got a annual raise, but I realized that job was going nowhere so I quit and went back to school. I got a 2 year degree and turned that into an engineering job at a large aerospace company in 1981 for $9/hr. With annual raises and promotions, when I left that job I was making just over $20/hr.

My point is not to tell you my life story. The point is, nowhere in that scenario did it ever occur to me to stay at $1.50/hr for the rest of my life and whine to the gubbamint that I wasn't making enough money. It never ocurred to me to blame the gubbamint for "keeping me in poverty". Hell, I didn't even know was IN poverty! All I know was I wasn't going to stay where I was. (As my Mom used to say 'There's nowhere to go but up!')

The whole basis of freedom in this country is having the liberty to pull yourself up, change jobs, change careers as often as you want to, without the gubbamint forcing you to work in this mine or on that road crew.

If you're making $5.15 an hour it's because that's what you're worth, plain and simple (you might even be worth less, but the law makes your boss pay you at least that!). If you want to make more, then make yourself worth more, either by working harder, improving your education or skills, or doing whatever it takes to make you more valuable to your employer or in the marketplace. The Federal Minimum Wage Law -- WHATEVER AMOUNT IT'S SET AT -- should be taken as an insult to every working American. You should be outraged that our gubbamint sees fit to determine what your value is in the marketplace is. That is for you to determine! Not the likes of John Kerry or Ted Kennedy.

John Edwards "Two Americas" mantra is a crock. "One America pays the taxes, while another America gets the tax breaks."

Well he's got that right, sort of, but not in the way he intended. 50% of the lowest-income Americans (who pay Federal taxes at all) account for only 4% of the tax burden. Did you get that? In other words, the top half, anyone who earns at or above the national average income contibutes 96% of Federal Income tax revenues. (Source: Top 50% of Wage Earners Pay 96.03% of Income Taxes)

So while 50% of the workers are paying 96% of the taxes, the no/low-income Americans who benefit from various forms of welfare and other public assistance are reaping the tax breaks! (i.e., "tax breaks"; receiving government services and benefits without paying for them).

So where is this "Middle class" the Democrats keep pointing to? They're all in the 50% or higher category! The reason people like Kerry, Kennedy and JohnJohn Edwards can't see it is because they're sitting on such a huge pile of money they need binoculars to even see the middle class!

No John, there is only one America on the entire planet. And if you can't even get that right from the git go, how in the world are you ever going to get anything else right?

In the one America there is unbounded opportunity, unlimited possibilities and endless chances to be successful, support yourself, raise a family and make your mark in society. But you have to go get it. You have to make it happen. No one is (or should) be just handing it to you. No one is keeping you in poverty, except the Democrats who feel they are your shepherd and you are their sheep.

Larry

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