Post by Logan on Jul 8, 2016 6:02:51 GMT -6
It is not easy to grasp the logic of Mr. Gianforte’s pronouncements. He claims to be greatly concerned with the fact that Montana has low wages. He says they are some of the lowest in the country. He seems to blame the current governor for this. And yet the very same Mr. Gianforte is opposed to raising the minimum wage, one of the few things the government could do to immediately raise the wages of the people who need it most.
With the same stupefying logic, he says “even if we raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour, it’s still hard to prosper on that wage.” So the solution is not to raise the minimum wage at all?
Mr. Gianforte seems unaware that there are tens of thousands of jobs in Montana that pay low wages and tens of thousands of workers that earn them. Does he intend to replace these workers with heart surgeons and computer designers? Does he think Wal-Mart and McDonald's are going to hire hi-tech, high-paid, whiz kid electrical engineers to stock their shelves and flip their burgers?
Mr. Gianforte’s millionaire solution to raising the average pay in Montana is to raise the top end, not the bottom end. He says he is “more concerned with maximum wages, not minimum wages.” So Mr. Gianforte would not care to raise the wage of a single mom eking out a living on $8 an hour; instead he would like to bring in a captain of industry earning $800 an hour -- to bring up the average. Most of us have no objection to the captain of industry, but is this big-hearted Republican infatuation with the “maximum wage earner” going to solve what most of us see as the problem with low wages and inequality? Let us note, that under Mr. Gianforte’s “solution” the captain of industry will still able to avail himself of the opportunity to hire dirt cheap low-wage earners to care for his children, clean his house, cook his meals, and care for his estate, certainly something that would appeal to a millionaire.
Read more: helenair.com/news/opinion/readers_alley/gianforte-s-wage-logic-confusing/article_f5c99901-4a93-52a6-8c9b-665941faf61f.html
With the same stupefying logic, he says “even if we raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour, it’s still hard to prosper on that wage.” So the solution is not to raise the minimum wage at all?
Mr. Gianforte seems unaware that there are tens of thousands of jobs in Montana that pay low wages and tens of thousands of workers that earn them. Does he intend to replace these workers with heart surgeons and computer designers? Does he think Wal-Mart and McDonald's are going to hire hi-tech, high-paid, whiz kid electrical engineers to stock their shelves and flip their burgers?
Mr. Gianforte’s millionaire solution to raising the average pay in Montana is to raise the top end, not the bottom end. He says he is “more concerned with maximum wages, not minimum wages.” So Mr. Gianforte would not care to raise the wage of a single mom eking out a living on $8 an hour; instead he would like to bring in a captain of industry earning $800 an hour -- to bring up the average. Most of us have no objection to the captain of industry, but is this big-hearted Republican infatuation with the “maximum wage earner” going to solve what most of us see as the problem with low wages and inequality? Let us note, that under Mr. Gianforte’s “solution” the captain of industry will still able to avail himself of the opportunity to hire dirt cheap low-wage earners to care for his children, clean his house, cook his meals, and care for his estate, certainly something that would appeal to a millionaire.
Read more: helenair.com/news/opinion/readers_alley/gianforte-s-wage-logic-confusing/article_f5c99901-4a93-52a6-8c9b-665941faf61f.html