Striking Burger-Flippers Will Prompt Shallow, Incomplete Debate
Naturally, the issue that all these fast food employees are bringing up is far more complex than the MSM is portraying, and probably more complex than they themselves understand. There is alot to discuss, but I can assure you that there are three major factors of why people can't make ends meet that definitely will NOT be discussed:
1) Lack of Alternatives - in normal economic times, low wage workers typically move up the pay scale because higher wage opportunities abound. Thanks to Obamanomics, those opportunities are thin on the ground. Low-wage existence especially grates when there aren't enough paths out.
2) Wages Buy Less - part of the strain is caused not by what these people earn, but what they can buy with it. Despite what the Fed tells us, inflation is somewhere between trending up and raging. If you count hedonic adjustments, also known as the crapify, inflation is at the level where it is really biting. There is inflation in food, healthcare, education, which hits these folks hard. Inflation is largely the result of policy mistakes emanating from government, so the purchasing power hit these people are taking is not on the hands of their employers.
3) Government Bloat Hurts the Poor Especially - One of the biggest bills these people pay is their bill for government. Via taxes, tolls, and fees, the bill for bloated and inefficient government falls on them too. Governments have been on a revenue grab to pay for their base level inefficiency as well as their profligacy, corruption, and utopian schemes, so the burdens have been going up even for the working poor (think NYC subway fares). The burden of these costs fall on the poor and middle class hard - those McDonalds workers are paying for teachers' pensions and do-nothing jobs at the Bureau of EvironmentalHealthDiversityofPaperPushing just as much as the middle and class and rich. While Democrats would like to shift that burden, there simply aren't enough rich people around to fund all that waste and utopian ambition. The answer is not burden shifting, but burden elimination. The best solution for these people on strike is probably higher taxes on higher earners combined with massive down-sizing of government.
Naturally, this is the great source of our national debate and current polarization, and I have laid out my arguments before, but I see the act of striking for this cause and voting for Obama (and Democrats in general) as opposite and counter-balancing acts. Most likely, the overwhelming percentage of these people voted for Obama, if they voted at all. Vote for the policies that create the conditions over which you lament. So my sympathy is not extensive.
1) Lack of Alternatives - in normal economic times, low wage workers typically move up the pay scale because higher wage opportunities abound. Thanks to Obamanomics, those opportunities are thin on the ground. Low-wage existence especially grates when there aren't enough paths out.
2) Wages Buy Less - part of the strain is caused not by what these people earn, but what they can buy with it. Despite what the Fed tells us, inflation is somewhere between trending up and raging. If you count hedonic adjustments, also known as the crapify, inflation is at the level where it is really biting. There is inflation in food, healthcare, education, which hits these folks hard. Inflation is largely the result of policy mistakes emanating from government, so the purchasing power hit these people are taking is not on the hands of their employers.
3) Government Bloat Hurts the Poor Especially - One of the biggest bills these people pay is their bill for government. Via taxes, tolls, and fees, the bill for bloated and inefficient government falls on them too. Governments have been on a revenue grab to pay for their base level inefficiency as well as their profligacy, corruption, and utopian schemes, so the burdens have been going up even for the working poor (think NYC subway fares). The burden of these costs fall on the poor and middle class hard - those McDonalds workers are paying for teachers' pensions and do-nothing jobs at the Bureau of EvironmentalHealthDiversityofPaperPushing just as much as the middle and class and rich. While Democrats would like to shift that burden, there simply aren't enough rich people around to fund all that waste and utopian ambition. The answer is not burden shifting, but burden elimination. The best solution for these people on strike is probably higher taxes on higher earners combined with massive down-sizing of government.
Naturally, this is the great source of our national debate and current polarization, and I have laid out my arguments before, but I see the act of striking for this cause and voting for Obama (and Democrats in general) as opposite and counter-balancing acts. Most likely, the overwhelming percentage of these people voted for Obama, if they voted at all. Vote for the policies that create the conditions over which you lament. So my sympathy is not extensive.
posted by Donny Baseball at 1:03 PM
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