The late, great economics legend Milton Friedman used to say that “there are always two groups of sponsors” for minimum wage laws: “the well meaning sponsors,” and “the special interests who are using the well-meaning sponsors as front men.”
Which category do you believe Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Sheila Oliver (D-Essex) fit into, Save Jerseyans?
I have a strong hunch. Save Jersey contributors have repeatedly highlighted the dire economic consequences associated with the Trenton Democrat plan to hike New Jersey’s minimum wage by constitutional amendment.
Not just the theoretical/statistical/historical/philosophical reasons why it’s a horrible idea, but also the practical everyday toll such a move would exact on local businesses and, by direct extension, the job market. Yet no amount of persuasive rhetoric supported by empirical data seems capable of swaying the minds of the State House’s dominant party; both chambers continue to advance competing but equally terrible proposals.
Examining the political factors at work, there’s little doubt in my mind that the legislature’s majority leadership is heavily influenced by special interests. The numbers don’t lie, and the pattern is long-standing. But it can’t be just that, can it?
Ignorance must play a part here, too. Consider their professional biographies. Sweeney is an ironworker union chieftain who has never ran so much as a lemonade stand; he doesn’t exactly view the employer-employee relationship as symbiotic. Oliver went directly from academia into the nonprofit world. Unfortunately, fundraising ≠ profit. She’s clueless.
So I fully appreciate it’s a long shot, Save Jerseyans, and that the perceived political imperative of scoring points against Chris Christie is likely to overwhelm the necessity of serving this state’s taxpayers, but it’s still worth imploring leading Democrats to listen to struggling small businessmen.
There are thousands of them in New Jersey just like this guy from California (featured below) where the minimum wage is already 75 cents more than our own. And anyone who has watched the news in the last several years knows that California’s economy is one of the few that’s infinitely worse off than our own!
Please watch… it’s enlightening…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0xVojIYA-o
This is exactly why we need businessmen like Governor Romney in the halls of power.
The response can be headaches or cold and flu like symptoms.
Electrostatic or electronic filters need to be laundered regularly.
Given that the average lifespan of a standard air conditioner is 10-15 years, those 8 year olds and above might
not run as efficiently.