WA Voters May Hike Minimum Wage to $15 an Hour

Soaring unemployment to follow

Is a high forced minimum wage "un-American?"

Mike West,  a 50-year resident of SeaTac, said he's never seen anything more controversial than the proposed $15 minimum wage for businesses in and around the Washington city's airport.

"It definitely seems very strange to us why a city would be telling the airline industry, the hotel industry, the parking lot and rental car industries how they should be paying their employees," he said. "It just seems un-American to me."

Comments

[PH2050]

Fuck, I'm so sick of hearing how "un-American" shit is, my ears have been assaulted with this term since BOOOOSSSHHH

[Bean Counter]

Well, "Un-american" is one of those words, like "Justice" and "Fair" that have no objective meaning. They pretty much mean whatever the speaker wants them to. So, forcing employers to choose between staying in business by laying off half their workers while trying to get the same amount of productivity out of the remaining half is "Un-American" if you look at the history of this country as a haven for free markets. If you look at this country as a haven for giving workers raises without worrying about unintended consequences, then it's quintessentially "American".
Me, when I hear those kinds of words, I either stop listening or look very carefully at the speaker's assumption. Usually I just wish I could stomach the taste of alcohol so I could get wasted when people start yammering about Justice, Fairness and American-ness.

[Scarecrow Repair]

It will be an interesting experiment if it passes and isn't thrown out by courts. Some businesses will have no choice but to raise prices, and consumers will scream bloody murder -- fast food joints, Starbucks, and so on. But their customers will also look for alternatives, including eating at home or packing more lunches.

Other businesses, like online warehouses, will cost so much more that teh businesses will either go out of business or move out of state.

Either way, unemployment will rise and people will pay a lot more for ordinary stuff, and less for other stuff.

I doubt the statists will learn anything from it except new arguments for blaming it all on teh greedy korporashuns.

[ant1sthenes]

I don't think it will matter that much -- according to the 24/7 summary, it just applies close to the SeaTac airport.