Comments on: Raising the minimum wage leads to job losses in American Samoa

By: Carlos

Carlos — Sat, 16 May 2009 20:27:33 +0000

But gosh, Philip, you’d think Pelosi would be doing handsprings over the fact that the poor, common American Samoan was at least making a minimum wage comparable to ours now. That is what all this donk crap about “living wages” is all about, isn’t it?

And maybe you’d better go back and check your congressional records closer. If the donks really wanted to block the bill, and since they controlled both houses of Congress, I think they probably could have found a way to do that instead of caving to the intense pressure of the Republicans.

And finally, since Pelosi had and has a major interest in the minimum wage level of that place, I wonder if she lobbied against the legislation or even voted on the bill, since it would seem to me to be a major conflict of interest in either case?

By: Rick554

Rick554 — Sat, 16 May 2009 00:10:54 +0000

Poor Nancy Pelosi, she gets caught in a bald-faced lie, THEN her Tuna canning side job goes bust. Alas…. you’ll do just fine on unemployment Nance.

By: Big Dawg

Big Dawg — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:22:02 +0000

Want to get a real big thrill: google nancy and Paul Pelosi and see how connected they are to Chicken of the Sea. Nancy just got $25 Billion from stimulus for American Samoa. I am so glad the country finally sees what a liar she is. Recall Pelosi

By: Philip

Philip — Fri, 15 May 2009 21:07:23 +0000

It’s easy to cast blame on the libs for this… but it was actually Republicans who forced American Samoa’s inclusion into the latest federal wage increases. Until then, American Samoa was exempted from the wage rates under the FLSA. But, Am.Samoa became a political football. The GOP blamed AmSam’s wage exclusion on its faint connections with Pelosi… one thing led to another… and bam… AmSam was included in the federal minimum wage act.

sucks for us south of the equator.

By: Great White Rat

Great White Rat — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:54:41 +0000

The whole idea of minimum wage isn’t to help the poorest people. Historically, every increase in the minimum wage leads to job losses among those people it pretends to help.

No, it’s actually a tool for unions to use in their negotiations. Once the minimum wage is hiked, unions can complain that their people are underpaid in comparison. It’s no coincidence that the unions are among the biggest supporters of minimum wage increases.

And, if you’re a leftist, the job losses have the added benefit of making more people dependent on the government dole, and therefore less likely to vote for terrible ideas like tax cuts and less government spending.

Finally, the leftists will never admit their responsibility for the layoffs – have you ever known a liberal to admit he’s screwed up? They’ll target the tuna companies as the villians.

So the liberals frankly do not care how many cannery workers lose their jobs here. They see it as (1) a good payoff to their union boss masters, (2) a step toward consolidating their power, and (3) a way to bash greedy corporations for the layoffs. To them, this is a no-lose situation.

By: Lorica

Lorica — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:40:53 +0000

These guys are clueless. Imagine paying your bag boy at the local supermarket 9.50 per hour. Some 16 year old kid is making almost as much per hour as some of the local factory workers who actually do make something. This is just nuts, but what can you expect when Dems run the congress. You know it wasn’t so long ago, that the Dem party went to war over the issue of states rights. Funny how time changes things. – Lorica

By: Tom TB

Tom TB — Fri, 15 May 2009 12:04:51 +0000

It’s interesting that the proponents of ever-increasing mandatory minimum wages are people like Senator Ted Kennedy; who is an heir to his father’s fortune, and never started and ran his own business in his life. The simple reality is: by forcing business owners to pay more for entry level jobs, they are forced to hire fewer people, thereby leaving more people without work experience and then dependent on the Government, who gets revenue from business owners. Bad cycle, unless you work for the government!

By: BPT (Australia)

BPT (Australia) — Fri, 15 May 2009 06:34:12 +0000

Ouch. When government interferes they also mess things up.

By: Carlos

Carlos — Fri, 15 May 2009 03:27:24 +0000

As has been noted before, libs are excellent at coming up with feel-good solutions that make the individual and collective lib feel morally superior to those greedy capitalist pigs, but, as is nearly always the case, they couldn’t care less about what the real consequences of any of their “solutions” are. All that matters is they feel good about themselves and morally superior to any other cretin on earth.