The default, Federal minimum wage for tipped employees is $2.13 an hour. It's higher than that in 31 states but $2.13 is as low as you can go and it's been set at that figure for 23 years now. People are making noise about raising it and of course, the usual suspects are making noise about how awful it would be for the country- and the servers themselves- if servers were paid more.
Here we go again. The economy of THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD is so fragile that it can be destroyed by Denny's waitresses getting a wage increase. How the hell did we get this far in the world?
Well, by convincing stupid Americans that stupid, nonsensical shit like that is true. Like republican legislators in Tennessee are warning Volkswagen workers not join the UAW because if they do they'll vote against future expansion of the current Volkswagen plant and that will cause them to relocate to Mexico or some other country. Essentially they are threatening American workers- the very Tennesseans they purportedly represent- that if they seek more money, the legislature will cut off their own nose to spite their own face. That is not representing the people.
They still have the balls to say it is. The argument that they make against the raise in server wages is the same against the too-low minimum wage. It will cost jobs, they say. It'll raise prices. It will cause dependency on government. Genius stuff like that. They say that to maintain the American dream, we the people have to make a few concessions. Like giving up on the American dream, I guess.
They think nothing of a CEO getting a multi-million dollar bonus essentially just for being there but freak out if a single mother of three might make rent without having to work three jobs. More and more it seems that wages for working people are being seen by legislators as a "hand out". And CEO bonuses aren't? Or are they tips they get for keeping their companies from paying taxes?
This is why I'm so hard on these assholes on Topix and elsewhere on the internet. Be a republican. Be a conservative. Even be a racist. That's fine.
But don't be all those things AND a stupid, fucking idiot who believes that fucking their self and their fellow Americans will pay off in lower prices. It hasn't yet. Why should it? I read people on the internet saying that, "well, corporations have a responsibility to shareholders" that somehow supersedes any responsibility to society in general and the American consumer in particular. It's not just that corporations are people too, my friend- they are better, more important people than you. In Tennessee, Bob Corker and his legislative friends are taking it even further, telling a corporation that they have to toe the line of the other corporations that Corker and his klan actually represent.
The big picture here is the corporations versus us. You're being told you don't want "Big Government" telling you what to do. You're not being told that in big government's place would be BIG BUSINESS. What is the difference? If one is the devil you know, how is the devil you don't know better? I know the government isn't under any obligation to make a profit. That may seem wrong but you don't know why. You'd know why though, if ever year the president got a bonus in the neighborhood of $8 or $9 million dollars no matter what kind of year the country had.
I don't know about you but I think our legislators are making quite a bit of money in tips from their better customers. We the people are not the good customers we have thought we were.
Let's see if a hike in the minimum wage ruins the country. Let's give it a chance. They've been wrong about the ACA ruining the country and they've been wrong about Obama confiscating guns and they've been wrong about a lot of things so, let's see if they're right about poor people not being so poor anymore ruining the country. Let's call that bluff. Raise the minimum for all and for servers as well. Let's go out in style like the greatest country in the world should!
Sure, they'll get even by raising prices. The fuckers were going to raise them anyway. They always do even while labor stagnates. What are they really going to do to us if we stand together? Move all the jobs to Mexico?
4 comments:
What's interesting here is that raising the minimum wage primarily shifts income for the working poor from government subsidies to their paycheck. Instead of tax payers picking up the tab, now the employers do. People will always eat a Big Mac no matter what it costs. Shift some of that expense onto their customers, who are disproportionately low income themselves. The burden on the tax payers is reduced and the cost of that reduction is disproportionately placed on low earners.
So somebody remind me again why Republicans are opposed to this? It's right up their alley.
byline: Deer Whisperer/Luke
"This just in" (as heard on the color TV)
Volkswagen workers in that Tennessee plant voted last night against unionizing.
Let's review:
1. Tennessee state legislators were public about crowing about "right to work", and "sanctions" (like tax relief) against Volkswagen if unionized.
2. U.S. Senator Corker was public, and in lock-step with the state legislators.
3. Volkswagen publicly declared neutrality.
>>> they have a positive record of working with organized labor.
>>> they are (I think) 2nd in world sales.
>>> reputation for quality.
4. Volkswagen big cheese made a public statement that distanced the company from the strong-arm tactics of the aforementioned legislators.
(for all of Volkswagen's public statements, who knows what anti-union machinations they were playing with -- just sayin').
I don't think workers won here. e the
I hear ya, Luke. I think the Volkswagen folks knew full well what they were going to get, going into a third-world area of the US and and while labor-friendly at home, when in Rome (Georgia?) do as them thar Romians does.
Beretta is moving much of its operations out of MD for TN because it claims it wants to go into an area where the 2nd ammenment is appreciated. A lot of work is headed into third world counties in Tennessee. The funny thing is, Italy, where Berretta's home headquarters is located has stricter gun laws than MD has adopted or plans to adopt.
Sun Products is closing its Baltimore plant where they make "Whisk", and also moving to TN claiming they want to be closer to their customers. People in Baltimore, DC, Philadelphia and NY don't wash their nice white shirts but Tennesseans do? If Crest ends up moving to TN claiming the same, then we know its a lie!
Too funny
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