14911: Dorce: Re: 14834: Re:14815 Math Jay on minimum wage (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: LAKAT47@aol.com

In a message dated 2/16/03 3:34:33 AM Pacific Standard Time, Jepiem@aol.com
writes:

<< I hate to sound like a republican but it seems to me that to keep raising
the minimum wage is the demagogic way of addressing a problem of running away
inflation. It's like the dog chasing its tail. Never reaches the goal. Where
are the needed infrastructure and societal changes that wiil boost
production, revive tourisn and improve living conditions in the country. >>
,,,,,,,,,,,,
Well, I'm glad someone has gotten the message that sounding like a Republican
is a bad thing...good for you, Math Jay!  (I mean that in a lighthearted
way.....sort of)  I would like to respond to your point that increasing the
minimum wage is a bandaid and not the answer to runaway inflation (which
started with the US embargo during the 1991 coup).  I would agree with you if
the minimum wage was livable at this time.  We are not talking about going
from $5.25 an hour to $6.00.  We are talking about a minimum wage that has
been dwindling down to almost nothing for the last 9 years because of the
exchange rate.  Prices went up during the embargo (adding many dollars to the
coffers of the wealthy) and have never gone back down.  The US should fix
that since they caused it in the first place.  I'm absolutely shocked that
they haven't but then they mean for things to happen their way and money is
their leverage.  So you are saying that a person working like a dog in very
bad conditions in a factory should be making less than a dollar an hour when
a sack of rice costs more than this person makes in a day?
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
>>It sounds good when a poitician says more wage money for the worker, but
when the worker can't buy anything with that wage money or can't even find a
job to get paid, it's all an exercise in futility that only benefits the
seeker of vote and popularity from a populace that knows no better.Math Jay>>
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Aristide has been trying to help the worker get a decent wage for as long as
he has been president, including his first abbreviated term.  I once met an
American man at an art show who told me he had an automobile parts factory in
Haiti in the early 80s and was paying the workers a very good wage though
much less than US pay.  He said he made a very nice profit and the people
were happy and productive.  The Haitian government (J.C. Duvalier) and the US
government (embassy) contrived to arrest this man and take his factory
because he would not lower the wages to what other factories were making.  A
Reuters journalist took an interest in his plight and wrote about him daily
or else he thinks he might have died in prison in Haiti.  They let him go
with the stipulation that he never return to Haiti and he never did.  He came
home penniless but alive.  I'm thinking that those who do not want a decent
minimum wage for workers, inflation notwithstanding, are more interested in
profits for the wealthy than providing acceptable working conditions
(including a living wage) for the people of Haiti.  (Reagan was president
then)

Kathy Dorce~