Liberal Utopia is Only a Failure Away

Utopia is only a failure away.  Those who are harmed will get over it, because in the end, it all equals out.  That’s libtardism in a nutshell.  Unfortunately, we are witnessing those policies being played before our very eyes with the Democratic Party’s income inequality meme. 

Recently, a Seattle CEO of a credit card processing company decided to put into practice what liberals have been carping on for decades: implementing an income equality workplace.  Many conservatives predicted this was a doomed experiment.  The surprise was it only took three months for that prediction to become reality.  Skilled and dedicated employees were making as much as entry level workers causing dissention and resentment.  The survival of Gravity Payments is in question.

The living wage experiment is also proving to be a failure.  This time it’s not from some small regional company from the left coast, but from a megastore headquartered in America’s heartland.  Wal-Mart has bought into this utopian concept of higher wages for entry level employees equals a happy work environment.  That would probably be the case if they raised the wages of everyone else, but income equality doesn’t work that way.  Here is an excerpt from Bloomberg News:

 When Wal-Mart Stores Inc. chief Doug McMillon announced plans to boost store workers’ minimum wage earlier this year, he said the move was intended to improve morale and retain employees.

Yet for some of the hundreds of thousands of workers getting no raise, the policy is having the opposite effect.

In interviews and in hundreds of comments on Facebook, Wal-Mart employees are calling the move unfair to senior workers who got no increase and now make the same or close to what newer, less experienced colleagues earn. New workers started making a minimum of $9 an hour in April and will get at least $10 an hour in February.

“It is pitting people against each other,” said Charmaine Givens-Thomas, a 10-year Wal-Mart veteran. “It hurts morale when people feel like they aren’t being appreciated. I hear people every day talking about looking for other jobs and wanting to remove themselves from Wal-Mart and a job that will make them feel like that.”

Liberal utopianism doesn’t care whether or not we appreciate their outcomes; it’s the sentiment that counts.  Equality, fraternity and liberty to fleece other people’s wallets and ambitions are part of the Democratic Party’s transformation of America.  It worked so well for France during the Reign of Terror, why shouldn’t it work here?

Source:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-06/an-unintended-consequence-of-wal-mart-pay-raise-unhappy-workers

http://costonscomplaint.blogspot.com/2014/05/minimum-wage-hike-is-pay-cut-for-middle.html

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/08/03/seattle-ceo-who-set-firm-minimum-wage-to-70g-rents-house-to-make-ends-meet/

Liveable Wage Takes Back Seat to Welfare in Seattle

If you raise the minimum wage, they’ll evade work.  That wasn’t supposed to happen in Utopiaville.  The chronically oppressed and consistently downtrodden were to receive a hand up from their poverty imposed hovels.  The liberal mantra of a liveable wage didn’t factor in welfare benefits.

The twist is just one apparent side effect of the controversial -- yet trendsetting -- minimum wage law in Seattle, which is being copied in several other cities despite concerns over prices rising and businesses struggling to keep up.

The notion that employees are intentionally working less to preserve their welfare has been a hot topic on talk radio. While the claims are difficult to track, state stats indeed suggest few are moving off welfare programs under the new wage.

Despite a booming economy throughout western Washington, the state’s welfare caseload has dropped very little since the higher wage phase began in Seattle in April. In March 130,851 people were enrolled in the Basic Food program. In April, the caseload dropped to 130,376.

At the same time, prices appear to be going up on just about everything.

And once again, conservatives have an, “I told you so” moment.

Source:

http://www.myfoxorlando.com/story/29616731/seattle-sees-fallout-from-15-minimum-wage

Living Wage Smacks Around San Fran Comic-Book Store Owner

Nothing is more comical than watching a liberal get smacked upside the head with reality.  San Franciscan business owners, who without a doubt are proud libtards, are finding out the cost of progressive policies.  They thought raising the minimum wage to a “living wage” sounded good but in reality is harmful to their livelihoods.  Here are the exasperations of Brian Hibbs.  He is the owner and operator of an iconic comic-book store in the Bay area. 

“My jaw dropped. Eighty-thousand a year! I didn’t know that. I thought we were talking a small amount of money, something I could absorb.”

As you can expect, those who voted for this idiocy never think of the consequences.

 

I’m hearing from a lot of customers, ‘I voted for that, and I didn’t realize it would affect you.’

Of course, not.  They thought the fat cats would’ve been the ones skewered, but in reality, they’re the ones getting all the breaks.  National Review reported the following:

And the problem goes still deeper. While forcing hundreds of Bay Area small businesses to close, cut staff, or overhaul their practices, San Francisco lawmakers have given multimillion-dollar tax breaks to lure or keep technology giants such as Twitter and Zoosk. “There’s lots of room for the rich and the powerful,” Hibbs observes, “but, really, they’re not doing anything to help small business.”

Mr. Hibbs confessed he believes in capitalism and wants to work within the market.  Maybe, he should consider crony capitalism and work within the halls of city government like Twitter and Zoosk.

Source:

 http://www.nationalreview.com/article/417763/when-minimum-wage-hikes-hit-san-francisco-comic-book-store-ian-tuttle

https://www.ijreview.com/2015/05/310771-san-francisco-business-owner-threatened-minimum-wage-law-asks-important-question-possible/

It's a Bumper Sticker Life

It’s a bumper sticker life!  Such is the political philosophy of liberals.  Everything they believe can be summed up in sound bites or hash tags.  We’ve all seen their inanity plastered on the rear end of vehicles.  Here are a few examples:

Reality: The tenets of Islam doesn’t allow for peaceful coexistence. 

Reality: Increasing the minimum wage raises the cost of goods and services; lowering the purchasing power of the middle class, not to mention, the concomitant pay cut skilled workers encounter when non-skilled are making as much as they.  Unless, of course, they too get a pay raise, which we all know isn’t going to happen.

 Reality:  Women have a choice to kill a fetus, but the taxpayers didn’t have a say when Planned Parenthood raided their wallets.  Pro-choice is a one way street to liberals.

Reality:  Global warming is a fraud of epic proportions.  Enough said.

Someone should write a play entitled: Lil’ Lost Liberals.  We can rewrite a Little Orphan Annie song, “It’s a Hard Knock Life,” into “It’s a Bumper Sticker Life.” 

  

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. 

Source:

http://freebeacon.com/issues/san-francisco-bookstore-closing-due-to-minimum-wage-increase/

San Francisco Bookstore Falls Prey to "Living Wage"

San Francisco bookstores are closing their doors because they can’t afford to pay entry level workers a “living wage.”  Borderlands Books, along with other small businesses, have fallen prey to liberal, economic policies.

 

Borderlands is closing.

In 18 years of business, Borderlands has faced a number of challenges. The first and clearest was in 2000, when our landlord increased our rent by 100% and we had to move to our current location on Valencia Street. The steady movement towards online shopping, mostly with Amazon, has taken a steady toll on bookstores throughout the world and Borderlands was no exception. After that and related to it, has been the shift towards ebooks and electronic reading devices. And finally the Great Recession of 2009 hit us very hard, especially since we had just opened a new aspect to the business in the form of our cafe.

But, through all those challenges, we’ve managed to find a way forward and 2014 was the best year we’ve ever had. Overall, Borderlands has managed to defeat every problem that has come our way. At the beginning of 2014, the future of the business looked, if not rosy, at least stable and very positive. We were not in debt, sales were meeting expenses and even allowing a small profit, and, perhaps most importantly, the staff and procedures at both the bookstore and the cafe were well established and working smoothly.

So it fills us with sorrow and horror to say that we will be closing very soon.

In November, San Francisco voters overwhelmingly passed a measure that will increase the minimum wage within the city to $15 per hour by 2018. Although all of us at Borderlands support the concept of a living wage in principal and we believe that it’s possible that the new law will be good for San Francisco — Borderlands Books as it exists is not a financially viable business if subject to that minimum wage. Consequently we will be closing our doors no later than March 31st.

Remember, the “living wage” is part of the Democratic Party’s middle class economics platform.  Enjoy!

Source:

http://www.aei.org/publication/minimum-wage-maximum-sorrow-san-francisco-bookstores/

Senator Kay Hagan's War on the Middle-Class

One can take so much of this shameless shilling by the Charlotte Observer for their pet snake, Senator Kay Hagan.  This Sunday’s birdcage liner is replete with praise for North Carolina’s first term democrat, who in their eyes, is a moderate, independent politician who bucks her party, but doesn’t want to mention those particular issues because it might alienate her base.  Please!

Last week, the Charlotte Observer’s editorial board gave Senator Kay Hagan a lukewarm endorsement.  Here is the Washington Post’s synopsis:

• "Kay Hagan has been a disappointment"
• "She has done about the minimum you'd expect from a U.S. senator, with few if any notable legislative achievements."
• "She has a chronic reluctance to take firm positions on controversial issues"
• "...she needs to accept that while North Carolina is a difficult, divided state to represent, it deserves a senator who is not perpetually fearful of upsetting half the state’s voting population."
•  

The Observer ends the endorsement by noting that they "recommend voters give her another chance to show she is up to it."

What a load of crap.  Senator Kay Hagan has pushed her socialist agenda down our throats.  Can anyone say Obamacare?  And the Charlotte Observer has been one of her biggest cheerleaders.  Here is an excerpt from today’s rag:

“If an idea works for middle-class families, I am for it,” Hagan says in the ad. ‘The nonpartisan National Journal ranked me the most moderate senator.  Not too far left, not too far right – just like North Carolina.”

That is laughable.  So let’s take a look at Senator Kay Hagan’s not too subtle war on America’s middle-class.  I will use a friend of mine as an example.  He has a family of four and works for a major hospital in the Piedmont.  Since Obamacare has been implemented, his insurance premiums cost as much as his mortgage payment.  His deductible has risen to $12,000 a year.  Does that sound affordable to you?  And he works for a hospital!

Senator Kay Hagan also wants to raise the minimum wage.  Here is another misguided attempt at economic redistribution.  One must wonder if these retards think through the consequences of their actions.  Obviously, as Obamacare has demonstrated, they don’t.

If democrats raise the minimum wage the cost of goods and services will increase.  This should be a no brainer.  But another consequence is a pay cut for skilled workers who have put their time, energy and money into learning a trade.  How would you like some snot nosed kid, fresh out of school,  with little work experience and discipline make as much as you, a veteran of 10 to 20 years?  I believe I would be a little pissed off. 

Does Senator Kay Hagan believe an employer will give that skilled worker a pay raise commiserate with a minimum wage increase?  Has she thought it through?  Of course, not.

Democrats’ ideas don’t help the middle-class.  As a matter of fact, they practically declared war on them.

Source:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/10/27/kay-hagan-just-got-a-key-endorsement-but-she-might-prefer-that-she-didnt/

Mary Poppins Demands a Living Wage

Mary Poppins Quits with Kristen Bell from Funny Or Die

And here is a rebuttal:


 


And let's not forget, Mary Poppins is living in her employers house.  She is getting room and board along with a wage.  What an ingrate.

H/T:  Maggies Farm

Zillionaire Hanauer Slaps Skilled Workers' Faces

I don’t understand why billionaires suck up to Democrats by embracing their populist ideology.  Well, that’s not completely true.  Some do it to avoid a shakedown by government thugs.  Some do it to win praises from the progressive puppy mill that is the media.  Others may have a more nefarious objective.

Today, I listened to the Diane Rehm Show on NPR.  Her guest was entrepreneur and Amazon.com investor, Nick Hanauer.  His cause de jour is raising the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour.  He believes it would broaden the middle class and make the country more prosperous.  He even wrote an article imploring his zillionaire brotherhood to raise wages before the great unwashed grab their torches and pitchforks.

To me, it is obvious that raising the minimum wage is a pay cut for skilled workers.  Will those who’ve invested their time, sweat, blood and money into learning a trade get a raise as well?  I doubt it.  Will employers be mandated to raise their wages along with the unskilled?  I doubt it.  But what I do know is that price of goods and services will increase.  Inflation is inevitable.

Let’s face the facts.  A minimum wage increase is a slap in the face to skilled workers, and a punch in the stomach to the middle class. 

Mr. Hanauer cites the actions of FDR’s New Deal as a template for prosperity.  FDR implemented wage and price controls through the National Industrial Recovery Act.  This law benefitted big business by hampering their smaller competitors.  They simply couldn’t compete.   Some owners refused to comply, and were jailed.  Eventually, the NIRA was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

I don’t presume to know Mr. Hanauer’s heart.  But I do know he wants to use coercive tactics to raise the minimum wage.  He stated it in a radio interview, and he wrote the following:

I know that virtually all of you feel that compelling our businesses to pay workers more is somehow unfair, or is too much government interference. Most of you think that we should just let good examples like Costco or Gap lead the way. Or let the market set the price. But here’s the thing. When those who set bad examples, like the owners of Wal-Mart or McDonald’s, pay their workers close to the minimum wage, what they’re really saying is that they’d pay even less if it weren’t illegal. (Thankfully both companies have recently said they would not oppose a hike in the minimum wage.) In any large group, some people absolutely will not do the right thing. That’s why our economy can only be safe and effective if it is governed by the same kinds of rules as, say, the transportation system, with its speed limits and stop signs.

Raising the minimum wage won’t hurt Walmart, but it will hurt their smaller competitors; or, those who are in competition with one of Mr. Hanauer’s many enterprises. 

Source: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/06/the-pitchforks-are-coming-for-us-plutocrats-108014_Page3.html#ixzz37aaNIDs5

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2014-07-15/conversation-nick-hanauer-reducing-income-inequality

Minimum Wage Hike is a Pay Cut for the Middle Class

Again, the geniuses in Washington D.C. are trying to impose their will on our nation’s economy, this time by imposing a minimum wage increase.  They believe it will help the working poor, but in reality, it’s a pay cut for the middle class.  I was unable to find a think tank, or a pundit that could articulate this truth.  Instead, I found a letter to Asbury Park Press’ editor:

To quote Walter Kelly, the creator of the comic strip Pogo, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Once again we have shot ourselves in the foot with the passage of a N.J. constitutional amendment that not only raises the minimum wage by 14 percent but will automatically be increased each January in accordance with the Consumer Price Index. Unskilled labor will now get automatic yearly wage increases without qualification.

This is a slap in the face to skilled workers and middle managers who not only may not get any raise, but may be asked or forced to make concessions on benefits or even take pay cuts.

Gov. Christie made a compromise offer of a phased-in wage increase that would have been acceptable to business, but the left-leaning Democrats would not have it, knowing that the uninformed electorate would take the bait.

And who will pay for this pay raise? Not the rich or the ruling class, as they were the ones orchestrating it. Not businesses, as they will surely pass the expense on to consumers. Then who, pray tell? Why, the usual suspects: the hard-working middle class, whose members will become just that much poorer. And of course, the entry-level workers, mostly teens, who will lose jobs the amendment was purportedly intended to enhance.

It's just another case of the redistribution of wealth, with the exception of the masterminds, i.e., the ruling-class 1-percenters.

James Spickard

Tuckerton

As always, the citizenry demonstrates the superiority of their wisdom over our establishment overlords.

Source:  http://www.app.com/article/20131118/NJOPINION02/311180004/Minimum-wage-increase-will-hurt-middle-lower-class

OMG Raise the Minimum Wage Already

H/T:  Muskegon Pundit

Democrats Demand Minimum Wage Increase While Stiffing Interns

Democrats are always bellowing about income inequality.  They want to raise the minimum wage because it is the compassionate thing to do.  But how do these lawmakers treat their interns.  Not too good apparently.

A new study by the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) has found that 96 percent of Congressional Democrats who support the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 do not paytheir interns. The abstract of the study explained:

“…the same Members of Congress who are supporting a 40% wage hike on private sector employers are simultaneously failing to provide any wages to their own employee interns.”

In recent months, the Democratic party has embraced raising the minimum wage as a key part of its strategy for winning elections in 2014. The President’s senior advisor, Dan Pheiffer, described it as “an important value issue when it comes to fairness,” and President Obama is expected to discuss it in tonight’s State of the Union address.

Compassion and values go so far with a democrat.  You want an example of two Americas.  Look to Washington D. C. 

H/T:  Weasel Zippers

Source:  http://www.ijreview.com/2014/01/111417-study-96-percent-democrats-support-increased-minimum-wage-dont-pay-interns/

Welfare vs. Minimum Wage

Why work when you can squawk.  Apparently, it pays to suck the teat.


H/T:  Weasel Zippers

Marion Barry Smokes Out Walmart

Are these D.C. politicians on crack?  Oh, wait.  I guess they are.