From the Socialist Party USA website:
On Wednesday, April 15th members of the Chicago Socialist Party and Indianapolis Socialist Party joined together in the Fight for 15 march along with more than 5,000 fellow workers to fight for a better standard of living that has been long owed to them by the capitalist establishment. The march began at University Hall at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and wound through the streets of the city into the heart of downtown. This massive march was but one of 200 demonstrations nationwide involving everyone from fast food workers to temporary workers, university faculty, students and retail workers.
I don’t understand the thought process of certain Libertarians who say “If communities impose minimal standards on businesses, then businesses will leave town.” Yes, in a capitalist world that is the reality, but it is not a good thing. It is something we should be extremely unhappy about and endeavoring to change.
Think about it. If you and the other citizens in your local community have no power to regulate basic labor and environmental standards, then what power do you really have? What freedom do you really have? The freedom to get up and move when your local pond becomes a cesspool?
Liberty, properly understood, implies self-determination. That is, the power to control your own destiny rather than be a victim of the vagaries of the marketplace.
Lurking behind the “government is always bad” mentality is the idea that people shouldn’t try to regulate and/or control what is happening to their communities (eg, that which determines their own lives). Instead, they should trust in the market and in the knowledge of their betters (eg billionaires and corporate masters). In the form of the NAP (which is basically the 21st century version of royalism), it becomes wrong to even try to regulate corporate behavior, as corporate property (and consequently their control over that aspect of our lives) is sacrosanct.
I’m not saying a 15$ minimum wage is necessarily a solution to any particular problem. I just think the idea that people shouldn’t even try to regulate the abuses of local businesses in their area to be a classic case of self-defeating thinking. We are talking about the processes that determine our destiny and the destiny of our children—corporate abuses ARE our business and leaving the regulation to the vagaries of a (corrupt) marketplace is pretty much krazy imho.
I live in Seattle, Jill. I have for most of the last 36 years. Income disparity is massive in Seattle. Fast food in the downtown and hitech South Lake Union areas is priced toward all the tech money that has flooded this city. It seems to me that unless a person is one of the thousands of techies who are making six figures a year, you can’t afford anything. But the link I included makes it clear that the restaurant industry is booming in Seattle – which is one of the main industries impacted by the increase in the minimum wage. Albiet focusing on the what the rich can afford to pay. And it did not go up to $15 an hour. That was the goal, but what was actually passed was a gradual phase in of up to $15 an hour over the next 5 or so years. And it only applies to larger businesses. If a company employs below a certain number of people the wage increases do not apply. Small businesses are closing, but that is because commercial rents are also sky high. Which then encourages high end retail, service etc companies to replace the less expensive businesses. Or so it seems from what I read and hear.
Deran, I don’t think things are as smooth in Seattle as you may think. Last week a friend of mine (who is working in Seattle because he can’t find a job in So Ca), posted on FB that a co-worker had gone to get lunch at McDonalds, and came home empty-handed. He ordered only a Big Mac, and was told it was something a bit over $5 (I don’t remember the exact amount). The co-worker said that he only wanted the sandwich, not the whole meal, and was told that was the new price for only the sandwich.
I’ve owned and run a small business for over 30 years. Raising minimum wage to $15 WILL result in higher prices and/or fewer jobs. This is basic economics.
LOL – it is utter bs to say an increased minimum wage will cause capitalist enterprises to leave locations.
Seattle has already proven that is propaganda. When Seattle decided to increase the minimum wage the propaganda was that the restaurant industry would collapse in Seattle. The facts have turned out differently.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/04/10/3645268/new-evidence-buries-lie-about-seattle-minimum-wage/
And the auto industry abandoned Detroit because the US gov created NAFTA and on the public’s dime they moved to Mexico, and then further afield as “free trade” agreements gave the corporations gauruntees against unions, enviro regs etc.
If the socialist party wanted to do something meaningful, they would offer to help educate the low wage worker and help them to earn more money by being more marketable.
That’s true, Steve, but most of the socialist parties don’t seem to be motivated by concern for the poor, as much as they are by resentment of the rich.
When the businesses leave and take the jobs with them, Chicago will wither and die like Detroit. that is a marvelous plan.
I have long advocated helping people to better themselves. I have personally helped people learn a trade so that they could make a living wage using the skills that I teach on a regular basis.
If the socialist party wanted to do something meaningful, they would offer to help educate the low wage worker and help them to earn more money by being more marketable.
Sincerely,
Steve Scheetz