There is not a person I talk to who is not feeling the pinch in this economic downturn. Particularly do I hear this from business owners.
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What are politicians here in Michigan doing about it? With 15% or so unemployment (almost double that in some cities), they are proposing a new minimum wage of $10/hr. and mandatory medical benefits for part timers. Now there’s a real job creator!
 
What is wrong with their heads? A forced increase in wages by government can only decrease the desire of businesses to hire. Also, as discussed in Living Life As If Thinking Matters, businesses that jump wages must get the money from somewhere. They get it from increasing the price of their products. Then, when employees go out to buy these products, they cost more and thus there is no net increase in their wage.
 
But forcing businesses to increase wages is a real vote getter, so we will continue to hear perennial demagoguery about the "fairness" of increasing wages. Smart voters should see through this.
 
But back to what's wrong with politicians' heads. For those who put forth such policies, they are empty. They are empty because many politicians have no history to fill them properly. For example, those in the government now who are advancing the trillions of dollars of indebtedness have no experience to qualify them to manage such economics. Most have no experience other than publicly supported schooling taught by publicly supported teachers who were taught by other publicly supported teachers.
 
They have never had to make it on their own in the business world, contend with government regulation, meet payroll, pay unemployment to employees who were fired for due cause, and live hand to mouth while working sixteen hour days to build a business. Too many politicians have no perception beyond "public support," entitlements, and perquisites. They do not seem to realize what feeds "public support," namely business.
 
Politicians who are now masterminding the largest and most complex economic system in the world have never so much as run a Kool Aid stand. Experientially they are idealistic kids in grown-up bodies, pandering for votes, and given far more power than they deserve.
 
A prerequisite for government office should be a minimum of ten years running a business created from nothing.
 
What a different, more realistic, and better country this would be.