Tuesday, February 19, 2013

What's Important?

The last time I posted to this blog, before the holidays, I knew that another New Mexico State legislative session was coming up.  Since it started, it's been coming up and up and up.  I haven't seen something come up this often since eating a bag of Doritos after a half-gallon of moose tracks.  (Rimshot!)

Seriously, our local rag - newspaper to the folks back home - feels the need to give column inches to every crazy law proposed by every crazy lawmaker.  They may all be - both laws and lawmakers.  In any case, the most serious discussion occurring right now is over a statewide minimum wage to match that passed by Albuquerque voters last November.  (I was a voter but voted no for this one.)

'Snot that I don't like people getting paid a fair wage for a fair hour's work, but I do think that government shouldn't meddle.  Once upon a time, the worker had the choice of quitting a job for which he (or she - don't want to catch a case of mysogeny) was underpaid, and the worker had a reasonable expectation of finding a better one.  The politicians and the TBTF banks have done away with any reasonable expectations, particularly those of finding a job, even a badly paying one.

I feel for the struggling business owners running on a very thin margin.  How can this help their employees?  If you have 10 employees and raise the minimum wage from $7.50 to $8.50 an hour for each, then you have to come up with ten more dollars for every hour's work.  OR, YOU CAN JUST CUT ONE WORKER'S TIME AN HOUR AND YOU COME OUT AHEAD.  Business operators are not stupid.  Well, I've tried to run my own business and they may be crazy, but they're not stupid.

Then there are the protesters.  Boycott business A or B into compliance.  How does this help the worker?  Business A may say to hell with it and fire everyone, turning to his family for assistance in keeping the business going.  Business B may just try to keep on going, but are customers going to come in past the picket lines?  No customers, no money coming in, no tips.  I ask again, How does this help the worker?

If I get a chance to post again before the legislature adjourns - and I hope they do before they do more damage - I'll cover the drivers licenses for illegal aliens.
Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.