By Ron Radosh in PJ Media
The Left, as well as most Democrats,
favor and regularly call for an increase in the minimum wage. They argue that
inequality is growing, that families earning the minimum wage cannot support
themselves at the current rate, and that the best way to address the issue is
to build up pressure for a mandated wage increase.
They are correct that growing income
inequality and the widening gap between the rich and the rest of the country
have to be addressed. Reform conservatives have in fact addressed the issue for
some time, as in this article by Matthew
Continetti, and this one by Pascal-Emmanuel
Gobry. Perhaps one of the most insightful articles by a conservative on the
issue is this piece by Prof.
Patrick Gerry of the University of South Dakota.
Conservatives by and large have made
the argument that increasing the minimum wage will not solve the problem, but
will only make it harder for lower income people to get beginning jobs, and
will adversely affect students who have to work while in college or during the
summer. Most have used this argument, made here by economist Stephen
Bronars. On the other side, Ron
Unz has waged a campaign in favor of raising it to $12 an hour.
This is already a large increase
from the federal minimum wage of $7.25. I understand the need to raise the
minimum wage, but wouldn’t it make more sense to do it over a number of years,
taking inflation into account? To instantly raise it by a very large amount
will produce a new set of problems that the Left does not want to address.
A few days ago, ABC
7 News in San Francisco reported that Alan Beatts, owner of the popular
independent bookstore Borderlands Books, announced that he was shutting its
doors. The reason he gave was the ballot initiative, passed in the previous
mid-term elections, which mandated that the minimum wage be raised to $15 an
hour by 2018. While the rest of the nation focused on the incredible Republican
victory in the midterms, “progressive” activists bragged that in the cities and
states, their campaigns and protests worked, as regular citizens voted on
behalf of their agenda.
After running the numbers, Beatts
determined that he could not afford the increase which would put him in the
red. He had survived the birth of Amazon and San Francisco’s current minimum
wage of $11.05 per hour, but $15 was the tipping point for him. (You can see
him explain his decision in more detail on Morning
Joe.)
Unfortunately, those who worked
there will be joining the ranks of the unemployed.
In his case, the small bookstore has
only five employees including Beatts, three of whom get the minimum wage. He
pointed out that book stores will be especially hard hit, because they won’t be
able to absorb the increase gradually by raising prices: the prices are already
printed on the book. But it would also affect other small businesses, including
auto body shops, gas stations, mom and pop stores, shoemakers, etc. In the
future, if not sooner, San Francisco may find large numbers of people
previously employed and paying taxes to the city unable to find employment, and
now adding to the expenses of the city and state.
All this reminds me of the fate of
the Eighth Street Bookshop, a very popular bookstore in New York’s Greenwich
Village which closed decades ago. Ted and Eli Wilentz opened the store way back
in 1947 and closed it 1979. At its height, it had a stock of 60,000 books, and
was a literary salon as well as a site where authors regularly appeared. After
a fire, it was rebuilt, and former employee and writer Bill
Reed noted:
The Eighth Street Bookshop rapidly
became a literary gathering-spot reflecting and in turn influencing the latest
local, national and international vogues in everything from poetry to
astrophysics. Over the next few decades Eighth Street would become as fine a
book emporium as any in the U.S., and a worthy rival to Blackwell’s in London.
The owners were on the political
left, and the store became a beacon of the 1960s counter-culture, and was known
throughout the nation by readers. Reed continues:
Most Greenwich Village retailers had
gone the way of high-tech security systems to snare shoplifters, Eighth Street
did not require one to “Please check all bags, etc. at the front counter.” So
lax was overall security that one employee who worked there was able to steal
many thousands of dollars from the till before getting caught. A self-styled
struggling artist, even though the Wilentzes paid wages nearly twice as high as
any other bookstore in the city, he most likely felt his actions justified. But
emblematic of the fluffy white cloud of paradox hanging over the place, when
this not-so-petty thief was finally uncovered and sent packing he was given
generous severance pay. Just what you might expect from a couple of only
partially reconstructed lefties like Ted and Eli. The aforementioned pilferer
notwithstanding, working at Eighth Street was considered a sinecure by most who
toiled there. Another time, an employee, known for his hangovers, mistakenly
ordered a mammoth number of non-refundable books: “Just give me one of
everything,” he had told a salesman. Typically, he was allowed to stay on.
So the brothers paid twice as much
as other bookstores in New York City, and even let an embezzler who worked
there off, because he was a struggling artist. But this did not warm the hearts
of the Left. In the ’70s, a fledging leftist group began an effort to unionize
small independent businesses, including bookstores. Whom did they choose to
begin their new campaign, and to post picket lines in front of?
The answer, of course, is the Eighth
Street Bookshop. The socialist writer and activist Michael Harrington (whose
own books were sold there and did quite well) led a picket line in front of the
store, chastising it for hiring workers who were not union members. That the
owners were small businessmen who were also leftists and who already paid
higher wages than other bookstores did not matter.
As Reed writes:
Under a headline reading, “Great
Moments in Labor History,” the October 1, 1979 issue of the Village
Voice reported that the store’s personnel had shown up for work
earlier that week to find, without prior notification, the locks on the door
changed. The Voice implied that Eli Wilentz, rather than give
in to unionizing his operation, as the majority of his employees were now
pushing for, Eli Wilentz decided to close up his store for good (although Eli
later denied that was the reason). A sign in the window read:
“To customers and friends — After
thirty-two years of running the bookshop, I have decided to retire. I
appreciate your friendship over the years. Long live Greenwich Village and its
poets, writers and readers.”
When it comes down to it, small
businesses (which are responsible for creating most new jobs) have to make a
profit and can’t run on a deficit the way that countries can. It doesn’t matter
how much their owners want to stay open or what their political beliefs are. In
the end the business has to be profitable to make their investment worthwhile
and all of their hard work worth it. That is the way economics works, no matter
how many wish it wasn’t so.
Ron is a professional historian, and author or co-author of more than 15 books. He became a PJ Columnist in 2008, and has since provided our readers with sensible conservative analysis of where we are and what we have to do to get our nation back on course. His hope is “to challenge those who believe they have no need to be tolerant or broad-minded, and think that anyone who sees things differently is a secret leftist, a fake conservative, or worse.”
When it comes to the content of his columns, Ron is passionate about exposing the ideas and attitudes of the influential American left wing, and revealing how they think and view the world in which we live:
Communism may have died, but its ideas and mindset live on, as the causes its adherents once supported are replaced by the latest fad. Occupy Wall Street is the most succinct example of how it hopes to keep going.
Ron also believes in the need to defend Israel, and many of his columns deal with the war against Israel and the fight against its enemies.
When he’s not working or writing, he and his wife take care of their six grandchildren. His other big hobby is folk, country and bluegrass music (Ron plays a 5-string banjo and guitar). He’s also a self-described techno nerd and is currently waiting for his brand new iPad to arrive.
You can follow Ron Radosh’s blog at http://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/
Poster's comment: I can remember when governments were supposed to promote commerce, vice the latest crowd in charge picking their own winners and losers.
No comments:
Post a Comment