DGS49
Diamond Member
It makes me nauseous when I hear any politician refer to hard-working Americans. Almost invariably the speaker is a Democrat, and in most cases the speaker has never been gainfully employed in his or her own life, so what would they even know about hard-working Americans, other than rumors they might have heard about them? But on to my point
Our Beloved President has been quoted recently at numerous friendly venues on the subject of raising the minimum wage, and in at least one case he used exactly the following words:
I believe that every hard-working American should be able to earn a living wage. When he says this, the audience of Democrat partisans invariably breaks out into spontaneous applause.
As stated, the point is inarguable. Of course, people who work hard should be able to earn a living wage. But lets look a little closer.
The President with his statement creates a class of people that he calls hard-working Americans (hereinafter, HWA). Unless these are just empty words, there must be people who are excluded from that classification; otherwise, why create it? He could as easily have said, people who are employed in the United States, but he chose to use, hard-working Americans. For the purposes of clarity I will refer to those outside the group of HWA as, slackers and foreigners. They are either not hard-working, or not American, or both. And obviously our working population includes tens of millions of slackers and foreigners. In fact, I think we can say conservatively that at least 25% of high school graduates, and everyone else who failed to legitimately graduate from high school is most likely a slacker or a foreigner, and thus would be excluded from the Presidents vision for the new, higher minimum wage. The total of slackers and foreigners is AT LEAST 30% of our working population.
So what about those slackers and foreigners? Should they be able to earn a living wage? The President doesnt say explicitly, but presumably not, since he must have created the class of HWA for some purpose and not just to pass gas through his mouth. Clearly, in the Presidents vision the ability to earn a living wage should be limited to "hard-working Americans."
Should there be a separate minimum wage for slackers and foreigners? Who gets to decide who is a slacker and who is a HWA? Obviously, we cant allow EMPLOYERS to make this crucial decision; the rich-but-selfish EMPLOYERS are the whole reason why we think we need a minimum wage in the first place. If it were up to them, everybody would be either a slacker or a foreigner. I think we need a new Federal Government agency to classify prospective employees into HWA, slacker, or foreigner.
Should it be possible to be promoted from slacker to HWA? How? It just gets complicateder and complicateder the closer you look at it.
Moving on what about the expression, should be able to earn a living wage? What does the expression, to be able, mean? As a golfer, I can truthfully say that I am able to hit a perfect shot every time I address the ball. I know that I am able to do it because I have done it countless times in the past. In fact, about half the time I hit a perfect shot and the rest of the time my shots are imperfect. So if I want to ascertain whether HWAs are able to earn a living wage, that doesnt necessarily mean that all HWAs ARE earning a living wage at all times, but only that s/he is able to earn a living wage. And one need only look at the fact that there are about a hundred million people in America who ARE earning a living wage to conclude that any HWA is able to earn a living wage. He may have to educate himself in a useful trade, form his own company, re-locate to a more promising geographical area, or apply for work at a hundred different firms, but obviously it can be done; it is done every day all over America. If s/he is already employed in an unsatisfactory job, s/he may even have to go out and FIND A BETTER JOB! This possibility is lost on Democrat politicians, I assume because none of them have actually experienced gainful employment in the private sector. Lacking this experience and any common sense, they seem to think that if you start your career stocking shelves at a grocery store, your only possible path to a living wage is for the grocery store owner (or McDonald's franchisee) to eventually pay you a living wage for stocking his shelves (or flipping burgers). But in the real world, there is no question that every HWA is able to earn a living wage. Hell, Im a slacker and I earn a pretty good wage myself!
But what does any of this have to do with the MINIMUM WAGE? The minimum wage doesnt just apply to those who are hard working, and it doesnt just apply to Americans. It applies to every lazy, inexperienced, incompetent, youthful, unproductive, illegal-alien, counterproductive, non-English speaking, differently-abled, or comatose human who is lucky enough to talk an employer into hiring him. So even if I agree with Our Beloved President that every hard-working American should be able to earn a living wage, what the hell does that have to do with the statutory minimum wage?
Nothing. It is a vacuous statement, uttered by an incorrigible liar.
So what else is new?
Our Beloved President has been quoted recently at numerous friendly venues on the subject of raising the minimum wage, and in at least one case he used exactly the following words:
I believe that every hard-working American should be able to earn a living wage. When he says this, the audience of Democrat partisans invariably breaks out into spontaneous applause.
As stated, the point is inarguable. Of course, people who work hard should be able to earn a living wage. But lets look a little closer.
The President with his statement creates a class of people that he calls hard-working Americans (hereinafter, HWA). Unless these are just empty words, there must be people who are excluded from that classification; otherwise, why create it? He could as easily have said, people who are employed in the United States, but he chose to use, hard-working Americans. For the purposes of clarity I will refer to those outside the group of HWA as, slackers and foreigners. They are either not hard-working, or not American, or both. And obviously our working population includes tens of millions of slackers and foreigners. In fact, I think we can say conservatively that at least 25% of high school graduates, and everyone else who failed to legitimately graduate from high school is most likely a slacker or a foreigner, and thus would be excluded from the Presidents vision for the new, higher minimum wage. The total of slackers and foreigners is AT LEAST 30% of our working population.
So what about those slackers and foreigners? Should they be able to earn a living wage? The President doesnt say explicitly, but presumably not, since he must have created the class of HWA for some purpose and not just to pass gas through his mouth. Clearly, in the Presidents vision the ability to earn a living wage should be limited to "hard-working Americans."
Should there be a separate minimum wage for slackers and foreigners? Who gets to decide who is a slacker and who is a HWA? Obviously, we cant allow EMPLOYERS to make this crucial decision; the rich-but-selfish EMPLOYERS are the whole reason why we think we need a minimum wage in the first place. If it were up to them, everybody would be either a slacker or a foreigner. I think we need a new Federal Government agency to classify prospective employees into HWA, slacker, or foreigner.
Should it be possible to be promoted from slacker to HWA? How? It just gets complicateder and complicateder the closer you look at it.
Moving on what about the expression, should be able to earn a living wage? What does the expression, to be able, mean? As a golfer, I can truthfully say that I am able to hit a perfect shot every time I address the ball. I know that I am able to do it because I have done it countless times in the past. In fact, about half the time I hit a perfect shot and the rest of the time my shots are imperfect. So if I want to ascertain whether HWAs are able to earn a living wage, that doesnt necessarily mean that all HWAs ARE earning a living wage at all times, but only that s/he is able to earn a living wage. And one need only look at the fact that there are about a hundred million people in America who ARE earning a living wage to conclude that any HWA is able to earn a living wage. He may have to educate himself in a useful trade, form his own company, re-locate to a more promising geographical area, or apply for work at a hundred different firms, but obviously it can be done; it is done every day all over America. If s/he is already employed in an unsatisfactory job, s/he may even have to go out and FIND A BETTER JOB! This possibility is lost on Democrat politicians, I assume because none of them have actually experienced gainful employment in the private sector. Lacking this experience and any common sense, they seem to think that if you start your career stocking shelves at a grocery store, your only possible path to a living wage is for the grocery store owner (or McDonald's franchisee) to eventually pay you a living wage for stocking his shelves (or flipping burgers). But in the real world, there is no question that every HWA is able to earn a living wage. Hell, Im a slacker and I earn a pretty good wage myself!
But what does any of this have to do with the MINIMUM WAGE? The minimum wage doesnt just apply to those who are hard working, and it doesnt just apply to Americans. It applies to every lazy, inexperienced, incompetent, youthful, unproductive, illegal-alien, counterproductive, non-English speaking, differently-abled, or comatose human who is lucky enough to talk an employer into hiring him. So even if I agree with Our Beloved President that every hard-working American should be able to earn a living wage, what the hell does that have to do with the statutory minimum wage?
Nothing. It is a vacuous statement, uttered by an incorrigible liar.
So what else is new?