The Rising Wage Tide

Oregon helps lead the way on raising minimum

California’s recent decision to rocket its minimum wage from $8 an hour to $10 an hour in 2016 makes Oregon’s scheduled 15-cent increase in 2014 look microscopic by comparison…

Since indexing took effect in 2004, the hourly minimum has steadily climbed by $2.05.

The scheduled 15-cent increase will add about $300 to a full-time worker’s compensation…

The raises that these lowest-paid workers receive result in increased consumer demand. Fast-food businesses that complain about minimum wage increases often fail to mention that their own businesses are among those that reap the greatest benefits.

In Oregon, minimum wage increases have been a welcome boost for the state’s economy…

The Register Guard, September 23, 2013

 Gosh, These Guys Are Really Smart!

Did you know that here in Eugene we have geniuses who know exactly what people should be paid and what employers should do with their money?

Thinking that paying workers more money results in more money injected into the economy rests on the premise that this money came out of nowhere and that if it hadn’t been plucked out of thin air by employers it wouldn’t have existed.

No – that money is taken from the pockets of owners or shareholders and given to employees.

What do these RG economic giants think would have been done with the money had employers kept it? Burned it?

Anyone with an ounce of economic smarts knows that the money might have been spent on opening a new restaurant (and hiring more people). Or on a new grill (and hiring cooks to grill more burgers). Maybe it would have gone to hiring another reporter.

Here’s the real killer – and it’s at the core of Liberalism (Sorry. We meant “Progressivism”). The  editors think they’re so smart that they can decide for everyone the most efficient allocation of financial resources.

Note to RG: Thinking that experts can plan and direct the economy is the mentality that brought Eastern Europe and Cuba to economic ruin.

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