Low minimum wage means race to the bottom
Here is a simple question for Joe Sawchuk: what economic credentials does he have that enables him to talk with even minimum authority on anything to do with economics?
He certainly shows no deeper understanding about economic theory than he hates socialism.
At least I studied economics and commerce at a university level and don’t have a political agenda as such. But his “unbelievable” letters, are just that, full of unbelievable cow hockey pucks such as with his latest rant on raising the minimum wage.
People are too quick to believe the lie that life is good at the lowest possible prices. That is the thinking of CEOs and right-wing politicians and is known as the race to the bottom. That lowest price comes at too high a cost to society. It drains money out of the economy and impoverishes the middle-class and further impoverishes and takes away hope for the poorest in society to ever get ahead.
Apparently, Mr. Sawchuk doesn’t know about the Multiplier Effect in economics which holds that when people have money to spend, each dollar that they spend will be income for someone else. And that that income will in turn be part of the income of someone else and so on. Everyone who buys into the lowest possible price theory is just as guilty as the CEOs in turning us into a part-time economy, low wages, and few if any benefits.
Mr. Sawchuk has no problem with the extreme wealth inequalities in society that have developed under predatory capitalism. For the record, I believe in modified capitalism, which includes the greater good of raising the minimum wage so people can rise above poverty levels which providing the goods and services we want.
It isn’t just a socialist thing to be disgusted when people like the owner of Amazon can add $70 billion to their personal worth during the pandemic while millions go hungry. It is the understanding that such inequity causes far too much strain on societies which have collapsed for far less drastic income inequalities. It is the role of government to mitigate that inequity with progressive taxation to relieve poverty and the social strains such poverty causes.
[On another note]
Trump is a fascist, racist president. Those Proud Boys running around with their Confederate Flags inside the Capitol Building are his chosen people. Those on Fox News, people peddling conspiracy theories even in this paper, are the useful idiots and the enablers which have allowed Trump to live in his alternative universe.
If there is a lesson in what happened yesterday for us in Canada, it is that we can see what happens when you don’t confront the right-wing politicians, evangelical groups intent on returning us to the Middle Ages, and above all, confront and rebuke every conspiracy theorist or peddler of disinformation that shows up to play Whack-A-Mole.
I might not support pure socialism, but I am not so far into my dotage that I would ever support the social conservative agenda of which Mr. Sawchuk and Mr. Foster write ad nauseum about. The Republican mindset that created Trump has no place in Canada, but unfortunately, it is already here and writing letters to the editor.
Robert T. Rock
Mission City
