Saturday, February 7, 2015

Bookstore Owner Under Fire for Criticizing "Living Wage" Law




Remember the proprietor of a San Francisco bookstore who closed his doors because of that city’s “living wage” law?  Well, that poor man is under fire for speaking truth to power.  The Washington Free Beacon reported the following:


San Francisco’s Borderlands Books will be forced to close as the city increases its minimum wage, and its owner Alan Beatts is tired of being criticized for talking about it.

“Most critics say ‘how dare you blame the minimum wage increase for you closing,’” he told the Washington Free Beacon. “It’s bullshit.”

“They’re either calling me a liar or chastising me for telling the truth.”

Borderlands is a specialty bookstore that has been able to carve out a niche in San Francisco for the past 18 years. It has been able to support a staff of five, most of whom have been working together for more than a decade.

Beatts said he made a mere $28,000 in gross salary last year.

With the added labor costs the city’s new minimum wage will eventually impose on the business, and the fact that books come pre-priced leaving no room for price increases, Mr. Beatts sees no way it can survive.

“At this point the business is doing fine but I look down the road and the business is losing $25,000 a year,” he said. “It’s going to put me out of work.”

He is more concerned about how the store’s closing will affect his employees though. “We’re all friends,” he said. “In some ways this is harder on the employees than me.”

Yet, according to Democrats, this business owner is nothing more than a greedy, fat cat oppressing his workers.  Now he’ll sail off to some comfy, vacation home in the islands without a care in the world while his former employees eat dog food. 


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