News-Record.com

"On June 1, the N.C. House voted 66-52 not to raise the minimum wage to $6.15 per hour."
The majority of those "fartknockers" are rich business owners themselves. Do the resarch. They are either Attorneys, convenience store owners, or live off "old" money.
I am not surprised Alma's bill did not go through.
Thanks Alma, for trying. You will get my vote if you run again.

Too bad the extra dollar wasn't kicked in. That would've bought a few more six-packs and a premium pack of cigs.

steve, do you really think that is what the extra money would of gone towards?
Gee, you seem so negative lately. Why? Was it something I said?

It is every individual's responsibility to demand the salary they want. People have got to stop thinking of the business owners as the kings and start thinking of themselves as kings, because that's what they are.

Every individual, no matter how poor he or she may be, is a free agent on this earth. Minimum-wage workers need to take control bargain for higher pay.

And then, to tackle this issue from a different angle, I quote Rusty Sheridan: "Why not just make the minimum wage $100 an hour? Then everyone would be rich."

Paul:

I agree individuals should "stand up" for the salary they want, but it's not that "People ... think of business owners as the kings ... ", its the business owners that act like kings. Now not so much your local drycleaner (only because he's not part of "Corporate America" .. yet) ... but the Huge Corporations certainly do.

The problem is this: (I'm generalizing, but the point is Very Valid, and 1/2 of a brain can find countless examples of this) Huge Corporations contribute heavily to politicians, literally write the laws for their own benefit, and the politicians pass the laws of their buddies and sponsors. This is how it is now working - "government" is "corporation", "corporation" is "government" - and that is a big reason why this country is in Huge Trouble.

You want a quick example? Many in this area don't like the Hispanic immigrants, but they support the president who wants to let 'em all in (even though it's against immigration policy to come here for financial benefit - but everyone openly states that's the real incentive). The president wants to let 'em all in because they "do the work American's don't want" .. although the truth is they do the work American's don't want to do for $5 / hour. but by letting them in, businesses have a source of cheap labor so they can diss' as "lazy" the average American schmoo. Related is the destruction of the textile job .. but just look at the compensation of the CEO's that make the outsourcing happen, and use part of the profits to fund "Manufacturers Alliances" that lobby congress for more laws to spiral the trend.

Here's the real bitch: Corporation are arguably required by law to do that: In 1916 or so, THE Henry Ford went to it's board to get approval to use the soaring profits to build more factories for the expressed purpose of giving jobs to the American people, and help raise their lives and their families - but the shareholders sued him, going all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that as a corporation, profits had to go to shareholders first, everyday folks looking to work didn't count.

Here's my suggestion to you, Paul, because I think you are the Libertarian guy (is that right?): Just for fun, copy your web site into a word.doc and do a global replacement - replace every "government" with "corporation". Let us know the results, because I'll bet it still reads well (makes sense), and is closer to the truth.

Hold on, boys and girls. What happens to the increase any worker gets? It goes into the price of the product and we all get to give out a raise.

Corporations have a predetermined profit level they wish to achieve and the dollar, plus the profit required, goes into the product price we all pay. Just go down the street passing out dollar bills to those you can afford to support and everyone will be better off.

I agree many corporate bosses are grabbing too much of the gravy but a minimum wage increase is not going to solve that problem.

Too, don't be too hard on the corporations...how many of you contributed to the building of the hospitals, libraries, parks, etc. we all enjoy? Look around, you'll find the names of many of those you abhor connected to these worthwhile efforts. Though these projects are really paid for by the consumers of the products and services they sell, company owners could have just as easily kept it all and even half a brain can see where the community would be if that happened.

I guess I'm just a cynic, Doug. For the most part, the company owners are you and I (as stock owners, mutual fund investors, etc), and we let the upper 5% of management, including board members, put huge sums of cash in their own personal pocket.

A good comparison might by the ratio of compensation - lowest paid to highest paid - in a given corportation. Foollw the trend - at one time is was 10's to one, not it's thousands to one - not a good thing, in my opinion.

I guess I thought America was For the People - not for only a few greedy ones.

Even though I would like "more money", I am not going to force companies to pay $1 more an hour to people that probably don't deserve it nor will I request more money unless I think I deserve it. I cannot think of a job that is mimimum wage unless it is a burger flipper at McDonalds or a Cashier in Wal-Mart and most of the people working those jobs are High School kids. What are they gonna do with that extra money? Buy beer and cigarettes?

Janitors are paid above minimum wage (I was one when I was a wee little lad), UPS workers make around $9 to unload boxes out of a semi-tractor trailor (I did this during my summers while in college), construction laborers make around $9 (did this while in college), pharmacy technicians made around $7 (did this through high school and college and this was when minimum wage was below $5), and part time bank tellers make around $9.50 (did this in college as well).

My opinion is if you are an adult and still working a job that only pays minimum wage it's your own fault. There are several places to work that pay more and it is everyone's personal responsibilty to find a better job. It is not; however, the government's (nor the community's) responsibilty to reward them for being lazy nor should we have to pay a higher price to support more people because we all know the companies are not going to shuck out the money...it will be passed on to the consumer. We pay enough in taxes already and we don't need to have higher prices because a politician is trying to appease a certain population of people.....

And by the way, did anyone even consider the fact that it may drive businesses further away from our state? We already seem to have enough problems retaining companies so why should we be even harder on them?

P.S. I agree that CEO's are WAY overpayed. If they can't live off of a couple million a year they have a friggin' problem and I can't for the life of me figure out why companies continue to appease them.

Give me a two million dollars (one time and not yearly) and I would retire at the ripe, ol' age of 25!!!! The heck with the fancy cars and big houses...just give me a house, a truck, a fishing pole, a wad of money, and a few beers and you won't ever hear from my fat butt again...LOL!