The Cost of Labor

ALL ACROSS AMERICA the working class is making democracy and free enterprise work by choosing not to continue to work at fast food restaurants unless said business establishments raise their pay to fifteen dollars, double from the usual seven thirty five minimum wage fast food wage. These people don't seem to care whether the price of a mcdouble jumps from one dollah to three; they just want to pay the rent, or at least be able to. So everybody plays the game properly; owners trying to get the cheapest possible labor to maximize profit, workers trying to get the best possible pay by dangling before the owner the possibility of finding another job. rush limbaugh says minimum wage is market wage, funny, becuse usually conservative say theat minimum wage is below what the market would pay, and that it therefore hurts, rather than helps workers. The free market is au naturelle, and therefore, sacrosanct, sayeth conservatives. One might wonder why. But just remember, conservatives miraculously turn into liberals when it comes to getting government involved in, say, matters such as abortion and marijuana. Big government liberals with their demands for higher minimun wage,or big government conservatives with their meddlesome interventions in morality, take your pick. If one person ever ends up owning half the national wealth of the united states, maybe the rest of us should step in with a little confiscatory socialism, just for a minute or two. It has been interesting during the "I Have a Dream" commemoration to hear conservatives try to turn martin luther king into a conservative capitalist. King, who said that the way to end poverty is immediately, by redistribution of wealth. King thought that everyone should work hard at whatever job, which is proof of his capitalistic beliefs! An economc system based upon the laws of nature, cutthroat and competitive, is inherently good, and works best for everybody, because it is natural, is the way the twisted logic goes. Its natural, therefore its logical, like a hurricane.Maybe fifteen dollar an hour burger slingers would raise the cost of a burger greatly, or maybe it would turn billioniares into mere multi millionaires. Remember; the cost of labor affects more than the price of the manufactured commodity, it effects the profit margin of ownership. So, everybody is playing the game properly; workers using whatever tools tehy have to increase their bargaining power and income, ownership doing what it can to exploit labor for the enhancement of profit. Everybody is doing their job. Capitalism works.