Fox News offers Congress a plan to “encourage job growth” that includes abolishing the minimum wage and anti-discrimination laws.
(And, yes. This is a real screenshot.)
There are several problems with this.
First, and foremost, is the fact that minimum wage jobs do not grow an economy. Look at Rick Perry’s Texas, for example. There has been a massive expansion of minimum wage jobs during his tenure as Texas governor, but the poverty level in his state has only gotten worse, and his government has run massive deficits. (Using hated federal money to balance his books, at that.) As much as Perry wants to tout his economic savvy, his pandering to corporations has done little except drive his people and his state into massive debt. (But his buddies did get a shiny new football stadium, whee!)
Secondly, history tells us that corporations will abuse their power without the checks that labor unions and employment laws provide. These are beneficial to the economy because they protect peoples’ jobs and provide stability for families, thus growing your tax base; besides, I can’t see anything wrong with a company having to substantiate in writing that a person has been given opportunities to succeed, and failed, before terminating their employment.
And finally, unemployment insurance. Unemployment is economic stimulus by definition, because people who are unfortunate enough to have to take it are guaranteed to spend it. Furthermore, the millions of Americans who are forced into this situation largely spent decades paying into the system, so I see no reason why they shouldn’t see benefits for those dollars they paid in. You can’t convince me that we’re too poor to assist unemployed workers in a country that gave corporations hundreds of billions in bailout money. It simply does not make sense.
