Today, a bunch of folks got a raise.  What?  You didn't get a raise?  I didn't get one either.  Not to worry.  There is another magic pay raise coming soon.  Sadly, we won't be getting any of that action either.  How fair is that?  Afterall, you and I will be paying for these raises right away. 

I want you to pay attention over the next several months to the unemployment figures.  I want you to pay attention to the cost of goods at your local grocery store, convenience store, mom and pop shop and even WalFart.  If you are really attentive, you might see a couple stores close...go out of business. 

The last recent time the minimum wage fairy sprinkled its magic pay raise dust, a business man I know who operates several grocery stores said it cost him over $200,000.00.  Why?  A political stroke of a pen.  Appeasement.

But he's a rich guy.  He owns a store...he can afford it.  If that thought crossed your mind, you're an idiot.

Using just this one example, let's imagine what else this store owner could have done with that $200,000.00 instead of having it stolen from him...giving him NOTHING in return.  He could have hired dozens more parttime workers and or many more fulltime employees with benefits.  He could have purchased new freezer cases for his store creating income and jobs for all the people down the food chain from the salesman to the electricians to the machinists to the fabricators to the designers to the truckers to the...you get the picture.  He could have replaced his parking lot asphalt creating jobs for all the companies and people down that chain.  He could have built a new vacation home in the Hamptons creating jobs and income for a multitude of people from realtors to surveyors to contractors to roofers to bricklayers and on and on.  Oh, and no matter what he could have done with that money, it would have generated new tax revenue to the state...the nanny state.

On the flip side, do you think this businessman is just going let that $200,000.00 go away after he worked so hard for so long to achieve it?  Do you think that amount of cash doesn't effect a pre-determined business budget?  Do you think it will be his lifestyle that changes?  His business plans?  No way!  He will pass that 200 large on to you in a number of ways like laying people off, offering less services, less selection, higher prices, shorter hours of operation, less insurance benefits for his employees, etc., etc.  So, who suffers?  Is it better to hire employees at say $6/hr or fire employees at $7?

This one businessman is just one of hundreds of thousands all over the country that these magic pay raises effect just like this.  Actually, they effect all of us...right in our wallets.

Now, in fairness, if a stroke of a pen can take money from one guy and give it to another for no reason, shouldn't we all be granted an equal percentage raise?  Where do you draw the line?  Don't give me the line that without the minimum wage people would be paid pennies for work.  That's BS and you know it.  The brain surgeon is worth a little more than the dude mopping floors, but both are essential positions in the big picture.  The just demand much different rates of compensation.  The market always does what's best for the market...not government edict.  The government is the antithesis of the free market.

Bottom line...minimum wage jobs are not intended to raise families of four.  They are minimum because the jobs they apply to are the minimum skill, entry-level, often parttime type jobs.  If you have been making minimum wage at the same job for more than a year, that is your fault.  You are either afraid of change, haven't built any marketable skills for yourself, or don't like to work.  If you think it is a politician's job to make your life better, I honestly feel sorry for you.  You have a lot to learn and it may be too late.

So, pay attention.