It's the end of the world as we know it.....

DirtBag

I was reading about a slew of new laws being passed across the country which will have widespread and probably unintended consequences.

For instance Arizona, California, Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania have all passed laws raising their minimum wage levels to around $7.50/hour. National Minimum wage is set at $5.15/hour. The vast majority of aid programs are calculated at that $5.15/hour rate. In an attempt to help out the little guys, they are going to help them right off other aid rolls. That happened in Oregon last time they raised the minimum wage. In raising minimum wage (which was loudly reported in all local news markets) they unintentionally forced 50% of those folks eligible for the State's socialized medical (welfare) program into inelligible status (yet oddly that failed to make the news) because they then made too much money (more than $750.00/month for a family of 4) but didn't work enough hours (35/wk) to be elligible for employer provided health care benefits or make enough to be able to make the employee contribution (about $108/every two weeks for a family of 4) on their own.

The other side of this is that when the minimum wage goes up prices and taxes go up. Those at the minimum wage level never truly get ahead. When I was making $7.25/hour working at the Casinos in Lake Tahoe I paid far more in taxes than I had paid a few years earlier making $3.35/hour working at Taco Bell. Net result: I took home less pay making nearly twice as much money.

Seems to me I recall something about the road to Hell being paved with good intentions.

Tha largest problem in this attempt to "do good" (and I question whether it's about doing good or securing future votes because I tried to help you) seems to be that legislators are looking at Microeconomics, studying the immediate impact on the individual or family unit, rather than Macroeconomics, which would tend to show the societal impact of such changes and result in much longer term and mor significant impacts on those same individuals and family units.

You cannot change one segment of society without weighing the across the board impacts. The simple fact of the matter is that in this system there are haves and have nots. While I am concerned that those who have not in large part are those of us breaking our backs to sustain the system the only viable alternative that I can see to our system is a Socialistic Democracy. While touted as the perfect government in that it is most fair to the workers (far more so than Socialism or Communism) no nation has ever successfully tried to implement a Socialist Democracy long term. I believe this largely in part because of personal greed. Those rising to power like power and want to stay in power. Subsequently any form of government that doesn't start out as such will have a tendency to devolve into either fascism, totalitarianism or a hybrid of the two. (If I were pressed to make a call as to what we are today I would have to state that while we are on paper a Constitutional Republic, Pretending to be a Democracy, we are leaning heavily towards a Fascistic Democracy). To that end there have never been truly successful Communist or Socialist governments either. As with a Socialistic Democracy they devolve into the same states fairly rapidly.

A Socialist Democracy recognizes the contributions of the workers and rewards them thusly, allows for controlled Capitalism (after all Capitalism creates competition, competion creates improvements, and improvements lead to the betterment of all) and an economically tiered system (those that contribute more deserve more after all) but also ensures that everyone gets the same benefits (health, education, retirement, etc...) It is, of course, far more complex than that but I don't have all day to launch into a diatribe.

The problem is that the worker bees have been so brainwashed by the powerful elites as to believe this is the only system than can or will ever work for the United States. Subsequently the powers that be truly legislate to their own benefit and occasionally throw the worker bees a bone so as to stave off uprising and revolution.

Thoughts (or Revolution) anyone?