2006 July | Liberally Conservative

Minimum Wage Increases and Chicago “Muscle”

by Don Bistroff @ 10:25 am. Filed under Govt. Regulation, Politics

Minimum wages are a product of government at its worst. It is no more or less an act of control over business by congress. The late Richard Daley, the “Boss” of Chicago often said he would send one Democrat to Washington to be a Congressman because he was too dumb to be an alderman. Daley also use his “muscle” to get things done nationally and locally.

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Chicago has passed a law requiring the “big-box” stores such as Wal-Mart, Home Depot, and Target to pay each worker, regardless of skill, experience, or education a minimum of $13 an hour by 2010. This wage is broken out at $10 for salary and $3 for benefits. Other cities may soon follow suit.

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Enterprise zones were established to lure business to areas in an effort to trump up economics and decrease unemployment locally. Increasing minimum wages including mandatory health care or benefits packages will defeat this purpose.

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Mandating wage control over the likes of Wal-Mart and Home Depot will only cause these companies to expand and open multiple stores around big cities, not within their borders. In addition, the “everyday low prices” offered by big box stores will become a thing of the past. Unemployment will increase as lay offs take effect.

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FDR and his inept fiscal policies actually extended the Great Depression in the U.S. The anti-business attitude of Roosevelts administration hurt business and did nothing to provide employment because mandatory wage increases and price controls did not allow business to adequately re-invest, expand and hire more people. As costs increase the consumer pays the freight of this consequence and business activity deflates.

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Examine car prices. Safety features are one small cost to the increased cost of manufacturing automobiles. Luxury features also increase the price tag. However, a closer look at the cost of manufacturing an automobile is union control, which drastically effects wages and benefit. which go into the price of the car and comes out of the consumers pocket.

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Time magazine had a feature story in the early 80′s about the UAW, auto worker wages and benefits. They examined one worker who sat on a stool and every few seconds pulled a trigger on a robotic rivet gun. The workers complete wage and benefits package was $80,000 per year. This was 1980 and we wonder why the “Big-3″ U.S. automakers are constantly in trouble. Costs have risen, UAW workers have very large wages and benefits all controlled by someone other than the business.

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Americans are still willing to pay for expensive cars but how long will they shop at Wal-Mart and Home Depot when prices hit the ceiling? How long will Wal-Mart be willing to pay a greeter $13 per hour? That individual will no longer have a job.

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Reported in the Wall Street Journal, a study by the economics firm Global Insight calculates that the presence of Wal-Mart and other low-price retailers saves working families on average more than $2,000 a year. MIT professor Jerry Hausman has found that, although Wal-Mart does slightly reduce wage rates in nearby areas, its lower prices swamp that effect. The biggest beneficiaries are families with incomes of less than $10,000 for whom “a super center makes a 30 percent difference in what they can buy.”

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WSJ further notes, when activists kept Wal-Mart out of Chicago’s South side last year, the company opened the store in nearby Evergreen Park instead. Now that store collects an estimated $530 million a year in sales from Chicago residents without a penny of sales tax going to Chicago. The location where Wal-Mart was going to build remains an empty lot. Partly as a result of such anti-business policies, Chicagoans spend $5 billion a year shopping in the suburbs.

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It’s business as usual in Chicago but this time the “dumb” Democrat isn’t going to Washington, he and she reside in their over paid positions on the City Council. That’s Chicago “Muscle!”

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July 30, 2006

Fair, Balanced and Juan Williams

by Don Bistroff @ 10:39 am. Filed under Media

Fox News Sunday, Fair, Balanced and then we have the ignoramus Juan Williams from NPR. Williams has written and won awards concentrating on African-American issues, worked in editorial and op-ed for the Washington Post for 23 years. Here is Mr. Williams bio:

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Before coming to FOX, Williams spent 23 years at The Washington Post, where he served as an editorial writer, op-ed columnist and White House correspondent. From 2000-2001, Williams hosted National Public Radio’s (NPR) national call-in show Talk of the Nation. In that role, he traveled to cities across America for monthly radio town hall meetings before live audiences. Williams is currently a senior national correspondent for NPR.

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The recipient of an Emmy Award for television documentary writing, Williams also won widespread critical acclaim for a series of documentaries including, Politics, The New Black Power, and A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom. He is the author of the non-fiction bestseller, Eyes on The Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 and Thurgood Marshall, American Revolutionary. Williams has also written numerous articles for national magazines including Fortune, The Atlantic Monthly, Ebony, GQ and The New Republic, in addition to appearing on numerous television programs including ABC’s Nightline, PBS’ Washington Week in Review and Oprah.

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Williams is a graduate of Haverford College.

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Mr. Williams is a “whiner” and he is as misguided on reality as any left-wing ideologue in America. Williams never fails to side with terrorist organizations, and countries such as North Korea and Iran. Williams is on the side of diplomacy and has not said anything about Israel’s right to defend itself.

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Williams believes in the United Nations and Kofi Annan. He often repeats the “theory” on WMD and Iraq although Saddam Hussein used WMD on his own people and in the war against Iran.

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In the last two weeks the feckless Williams has complained about the killing of Lebanese civilians, many of whom live in Tyre, the “capital” of Hezbollah Lebanon. Williams absolutely fails to see any relationship between Syria, Iran, Hezbollah and “citizens” who participate hiding terrorists and their weapons.

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I understand Fox’s attempt to have Fair and Balanced guests on it’s panels but Williams brings a third dimension to the program, the “unbalanced” dimension.

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Weekly Patriot Awards

by Don Bistroff @ 10:10 am. Filed under Patriot Awards

From the Patriot Post, here are their weekly awards:
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This week’s “Alpha Jackass” award:

“The President made a big deal about bringing the Iraqi prime minister to address Congress. The Iraqi prime minister is an anti-Semite. We don’t need to spend $200, $300, $500 billion bringing democracy to Iraq to turn it over to people who believe Israel doesn’t have a right to defend itself.” —Demo National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, insulting a domestically constrained ally for cheap political gain

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Although we wrote earlier Mr. Maliki should condemn Hezbollah, he remained silent. Howard Dean has gone beyond any reasonable discussion, he is simply irresponsible and ignorant. Dean also attacked Katherine Harris, former Florida Secretary of State who certified George Bush’s victory in 2000, which was her responsibility.

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Dean said in Wednesday’s speech that Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson is “going to beat the pants off Katherine Harris, who didn’t understand that it is ethically improper to be the chairman of a campaign and count the votes at the same time. This is not Russia and she is not Stalin.”

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If Dr. Dean decides to go back into medicine he could be the next Dr. Kevorkian.
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This week’s “Braying Jackass” award:
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“If I was president, this [war in Lebanon] wouldn’t have happened… The president has been so absent on diplomacy when it comes to issues affecting the Middle East. We’re going to have a lot of ground to make up because of it… This is about American security and Bush has failed. He has made it so much worse because of his lack of reality in going into Iraq.” —John Kerry pontificating from a bar in Detroit

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Kerry was a repeat Moonbat Award winner here at Liberally Conservative this week.

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