Subj : Socialism in America To : All From : Lee Lofaso Date : Thu Jan 02 2014 19:18:35 Hello Everybody, The federal minimum wage in the USA is currently $7.25 per hour. In 2013, there were 19 states in the USA that had set minimum wages higher than the federal standard. On New Year's Day, 2014, that number rose to 21 states. New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, ... The community of Sea Tac, Washington decided to up the ante to $15/hour, but a judge decided to step in the way putting an end to that. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren wanted to raise the federal minimum wage to $22 per hour for everybody, but U.S. Senator Ted Cruz started shouting "Remember the Alamo!" in the Senate chambers, scaring anybody who dared to listen, including Santa Claus, forcing Sen. Warren to table her bill. With Washington state now having the highest miminum wage in the country at $9.19 per hour, and California planning to raise its minimum wage to $9.00 per hour in July, why aren't Republicans eager to jump on the bandwagon? President Obama's call to raise the federal minimum wage to $9.00 per hour is beginning to sound very conservative, given the number of states which have already raised their own minimum wage. Liberals like to think that raising the federal minimum wage is a good thing. Conservatives like to think that raising the federal minimum wage is a bad thing. Some conservatives even think there should be no minimum wage at all, the whole idea of a minimum wage being evil (socialist or communist). Who is right? Who is wrong? Sweden is regarded as being the most socialistic country on earth. And yet Sweden has no minimum wage as we do in the USA. An employer and employee negotiate an agreement, and that is that. None of those rules and regulations stipulating how much an employer must pay to employees. Republicans simply want to give Americans the same freedom as Swedes. Let employers and employees negotiate their own contracts without government interference. Contract America will set us free as we have never been free before! There is no minimum wage law in the state of Louisiana. As such, the minimum wage defaults to the federal rate of $7.25 per hour. Just think of the benefits we are missing due to this anachronistic wage. Why should taxpayers be subsidizing corporations who use it (the federal minimum wage) as a basis to pay their workers? I call it wage theft. Democrats keep it going by deceiving people into believing they are getting a good deal by raising the federal minimum wage by trivial amounts once a decade or so. Republicans are no better, going along with this scam since the days of FDR. This is our current policy, which has been going on for decades - Low Wages + High Profits + Escalating Government Subsidies = Fat Profits for Corporations Liberals will argue that raising the federal minimum wage by $2 per hour will force corporations and other employers to use part of their profits to improve the salaries of their minimum wage workers. This is Reaganomics (trickle down economics). Ronald Reagan is not dead. He came back to life as Barack Obama. The New Coke for a New Generation. But its the same old Coke folks have always had before. --Lee --- MesNews/1.06.00.00-gb * Origin: news://felten.yi.org (2:203/2) .