Archive for December 19th, 2006
Eliot Spitzer and 12 other states are suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency to make the regulations of the Clean Air Act tougher. We are already suffering from businesses leaving our area and the State due to a hostile business climate and exorbitant taxes. Tougher regulations making business costs higher are the last thing we need!
Spitzer isn’t even governor, yet he is doing everything he can to make life in New York State more expensive. He is increasing the size of failed Public Authorities. He favors increases in school spending, even though New York outspends every other state. He fostered an atmosphere hostile to business with his grand-standing lawsuits. Now he wants to increase the cost of doing business in New York State with stricter regulations.
Eliot, the People of New York can’t afford you.
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A lot of criminals are getting rich while the taxpayers get poorer. All because of the failed war on drugs. Marijuana, if legalized, could be a source of tax revenue (I’m not advocating taxes, just being realistic) and eliminate a lot of crime because it would be more affordable to keep the illegal dealers out of the picture.
We would save money as taxpayers. We could reduce police services, prison costs, court costs and other associated costs with the failed war on drugs.
SACRAMENTO — For years, activists in the marijuana legalization movement have claimed that cannabis is America’s biggest cash crop. Now they’re citing government statistics to prove it.
A report released today by a marijuana public policy analyst contends that the market value of pot produced in the U.S. exceeds $35 billion — far more than the crop value of such heartland staples as corn, soybeans and hay, which are the top three legal cash crops. . . .“Despite years of effort by law enforcement, they’re not getting rid of it,” Gettman said. “Not only is the problem worse in terms of magnitude of cultivation, but production has spread all around the country. To say the genie is out of the bottle is a profound understatement.”
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When television and newspapers give us a portrait of a typical minimum-wage worker, they are almost always wrong. They usually portray a mother or a father with at least two children, who are unable to make ends meet on the $10,300 provided by the minimum wage (the poverty line for one person is $9,827, for a parent and child $13,200, and for a family of four $19,806). In fact, the great majority of “minimum wagers” are much different.
- The total number of workers making minimum wage in 2005 was less than 1.9 million.
- Sixty percent work part time.
- 53% are under the age of 25, mainly students and weekend workers.
- 12.7% of the benefits from a minimum wage increase would go to poor families.
- 63% would go to those with household incomes over twice the poverty level.
- 42% would go to those 3 times above the poverty level.
- 3.7 percent of the benefits from a $7.25 an hour federal minimum wage would go to poor African-American families.
- 3.8 percent would go to poor single-mother households.
- In 1954, before minimum-wage laws were expanded, joblessness for black youths was nearly even with that of whites, at 14 percent.
- Over the next few decades, the minimum wage rose sharply (from 75 cents to $3.35 per hour). In this same period, the unemployment rate for black teens soared to 40 percent, while the unemployment rate for white youth went largely unaffected.
- Ronald Reagan refused to raise the minimum wage in his two terms as president (1981-1989). Accordingly, unemployment among young black males declined from 38 percent to 32 percent — the lowest rate since 1973.
- Following two hikes in the minimum wage in 1990 and 1991, black teen unemployment shot back up to 42 percent in 1992.
Milton Friedman asserted, “These laws are defended as a way to help low-income people,” when “in fact, they hurt low-income people… The minimum wage law requires employers to discriminate against persons with low skills.”
Here is my favorite part of the article:
Perhaps the proposed legislation for the upcoming 110th Congress should be called the “2007 Minority Youth Unemployment Act,” or the “2007 Bonus for Middle-ClassSuburban Teenagers Act.”
Before anyone cites a story about someone they know who benefited or is an exception to the facts above, remember, there are always exceptions. Do we really want to be governed by exception or would your prefer politicians who understand the rules - the rules of economics.
A logical inference from these facts is that workers will continue to spend more money for social programs to pay for the workers displaced by minimum wage laws.
Source: Fraudulent compassion - Editorials/Op-Ed - The Washington Times, America’s Newspaper
