Comments on: Angles: Minimum Wage http://www.spanglishgringo.com/weblog/2006/08/16/angles-minimum-wage/ Stories, thoughts & insights on Jesus, college students, and the Bible; Los Angeles, immigration, politics, ethnicity and culture, and also about my daughter Isabel - from a spanglish gringo father living in, learning from, leading & loving life in East L.A. Sat, 19 May 2012 04:35:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.1 By: Spanglish Gringo http://www.spanglishgringo.com/weblog/2006/08/16/angles-minimum-wage/#comment-622 Spanglish Gringo Thu, 17 Aug 2006 19:23:58 +0000 http://www.spanglishgringo.com/weblog/2006/08/16/angles-minimum-wage/#comment-622 Tom - sorry about the "facts" intro. I was just trying to use his post title. While I don't buy all of his argument, I do have some resonance as it relates to part-time labor and youth. Maybe its the Milenial generation thing, but the entitlement to high-paying, entry level work is pretty shocking when I hear some of my students talk about finding work. That probably has more to do with the attitude than what is a just wage. As far as the Acton stuff, while I don't think simplisticly that the gov't is evil/bad, when a minimum wage increase is attached to a eliminating a permanent estate tax for the wealthy, it does cause me to wonder how equiped the political system of the US is to regulate wages. I know that makes it complicated - and once again, the poor get the short end of it - but that is where I resonate with the idea of limited gov't. Tom - sorry about the “facts” intro. I was just trying to use his post title. While I don’t buy all of his argument, I do have some resonance as it relates to part-time labor and youth. Maybe its the Milenial generation thing, but the entitlement to high-paying, entry level work is pretty shocking when I hear some of my students talk about finding work. That probably has more to do with the attitude than what is a just wage.

As far as the Acton stuff, while I don’t think simplisticly that the gov’t is evil/bad, when a minimum wage increase is attached to a eliminating a permanent estate tax for the wealthy, it does cause me to wonder how equiped the political system of the US is to regulate wages. I know that makes it complicated - and once again, the poor get the short end of it - but that is where I resonate with the idea of limited gov’t.

]]> By: Tom Pratt http://www.spanglishgringo.com/weblog/2006/08/16/angles-minimum-wage/#comment-618 Tom Pratt Thu, 17 Aug 2006 06:27:58 +0000 http://www.spanglishgringo.com/weblog/2006/08/16/angles-minimum-wage/#comment-618 Disappointed that you would intro Hispanic Pundit's stuff as "facts." I especially enjoyed the following comment: "The minimum-wage job itself is, for most Americans, the first step on a long and successful career path." Nobody disputes that poor people get good experience that helps them in low wage employment. And nobody disputes that most poor people rise above the 5 dollar an hour level eventually. But when you start at 5 an hour you can get quite a few bump ups and still make so little that you can't support a family. Wouldn't it help most poor folks if they started at $7 an hour? Hard to believe that case has to be made among believers. Why would a Christian person support a policy that would consign a huge number of people to pauper's wages in the midst of the most productive economy in history? And when the gap between the well off and the poor is greater than at any time since the Gilded Age? The Acton Institute stuff--which I've read before--strikes me as cartoonishly moralistic and abstract. Government is evil, personal responsibility is good, let folks pull themselves up by the bootstraps so that their souls will be safe, yadda yadda. Disappointed that you would intro Hispanic Pundit’s stuff as “facts.”

I especially enjoyed the following comment: “The minimum-wage job itself is, for most Americans, the first step on a long and successful career path.”

Nobody disputes that poor people get good experience that helps them in low wage employment.

And nobody disputes that most poor people rise above the 5 dollar an hour level eventually.

But when you start at 5 an hour you can get quite a few bump ups and still make so little that you can’t support a family. Wouldn’t it help most poor folks if they started at $7 an hour? Hard to believe that case has to be made among believers.

Why would a Christian person support a policy that would consign a huge number of people to pauper’s wages in the midst of the most productive economy in history? And when the gap between the well off and the poor is greater than at any time since the Gilded Age?

The Acton Institute stuff–which I’ve read before–strikes me as cartoonishly moralistic and abstract. Government is evil, personal responsibility is good, let folks pull themselves up by the bootstraps so that their souls will be safe, yadda yadda.

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