A "Big Issue" for
conservatives whenever there is an election around the corner. The fact is that the majority of businesses who might pay employees at minimum wage have already moved those jobs to Mexico or Taiwan. In this economy, not many unskilled workers can hope to get an employer who's willing to employ
United States workers.
But just wait until there is an election year. You would think, to hear the conservatives talk, that every corporate CEO who belongs to a Country Club will be bankrupted if the minimum wage goes up.
This lie will soon be told once too often, but you can bet it won't be before Georgie! gets through running for The United States' Most Pitiful Reason to Vote.
Let's be realistic here: it's not crazy to have a minimum wage, and it makes sense to have that wage rise along with inflation (which it has, more or less, throughout history). Both
Democrats and
Republicans know this in their hearts. But since they both get so much political capital from their big fights, it makes more sense for them to argue rather than to tie the minimum wage to the rate of inflation.