Economics For Dummies

This might sound radical, outside of the south, but, if raising the minimum was a bad thing, what if we eliminated the minimum and enslaved all the people currently working at the minimum? Wouldn't that be a huge boon to the economy? If less is better, nothing has just got to be best!

Prior to the Civil War, Vicksburg. Mississippi was the wealthiest city in the country, due to the cotton trade and the nonexistent payroll of slavery. Do the math on that. It's hard to argue with wealth. And this time there won't be the overhead of actually buying someone. They are already here for one and there's no shipping and handling involved this time.  And even better, for you folks trying to play the race card- minimum wage workers come in all colors, from all walks of life. It will be fair this time around. Pretty much....

You see, America is not looking to pick on any one race. As republican historians have pointed out, the slavery of old was started by black slave traders themselves and actually worked out well for the blacks because they lived pretty well (better than in Africa where their own people were capturing them and selling them into slavery!) and, thus, fared much better here than there where they had no opportunities and no wages. So, even back then, slavery wasn't about slavery.

Then, as now, it was about economics. We are all seeing it now more than ever: Paying people costs money! That's basic economics. You eliminate payroll (the bulk of it)  and profits soar! Tens of millions of people currently make the minimum wage. Do the math yourself because I went to Math School on a basketball scholarship but, minimum wage workers work anywhere from 20 to 70 hours a week. Times that by $7.25 an hour times umpteen tens of millions of employees and...that's many millions of dollars that would be better spent as bonuses for CEO's.

Here's the thing. You can barely survive in America on the minimum wage. Any CEO or republican congressman will tell you that there is no way The Greatest Country In The World can afford to pay more so, there's nowhere to go but down. We can't lay everybody off and we already tried illegal immigrants so, it's got to be slavery.

And don't you worry about your own, current, well-paying job. Sure, a kid just out of college can do your job- maybe not as well, yet- but certainly a lot cheaper. But, this is America- we take care of our own. Don't you worry. We'll find a place for you in our organization. Are you handy with a whip?