Dan Lemon; your arguments about the Minimum Wage don't hold water.
First of all, your concern about small business. Here are the facts:
1.
Not one single small business has ever gone out of business because
they couldn't afford to pay their employees real living wages. Minnesota
State Senator Tom Bakk made the exact same argument you are making. I
asked him to provide proof... he can't provide such proof.
2. The reasons small businesses don't survive are many but here are the main reasons:
a. They can't compete with monopoly price fixing of the huge corporations.
b. Small business partners cheat and embezzle from one another causing the business to collapse.
c. High rents and mortgages.
d. High utility bills.
e. High legal expenses.
f. High insurance premiums.
I
can document all of this based on actual reasons small business people
have provided through bankruptcy proceedings and the records of the
Small Business administration, the Chamber of Commerce and the National
Federation of Independent Businesses, the National Association of
Manufacturers and other trade groups.
In all of my research on
why small businesses fail, I have not found one single documented case
where wages are the reason for failure.
If you have such
documentation by way of spread sheets or other financial records bring
this documentation forward to prove your point.
The bottom line
when talking about wages is that each and every worker doing a job the
employer requires to be done is ENTITLED to a real living wage which
means a wage that is tied to actual "cost-of-living" factors.
I
don't understand why you or anyone else would take the position that any
worker is entitled to any less in return for her/his labor... be it a
casino worker or someone working in a convenience store or at Wal-mart
or Target or McDonald's or Burger King?
If politicians or anyone
else are sincerely worried that small business will suffer from the
government imposing a real living wage on all employers, the solution is
really quite simple.
Just exclude small businesses from Minimum
Wage legislation--- allow the employer to do the work themselves or hire
their spouses, grandmas and grandpas and their children to work for
whatever wages they want to pay them.
Now, we have crooked and
corrupt tribal politicians like Carri Jones and crooked and corrupt
state and federal politicians all being bribed by corporations to keep
the Minimum Wage down... paying workers a real living wage will not put
any casino out of business nor will it put Wal-mart or McDonalds out of
business... what will happen is their profit margins will be slightly
less. These businesses are reaping super-profits from paying workers
poverty wages.
Leech Lake just raised the Minimum Wage to $10.25
an hour which is now the highest legislated Minimum Wage in the United
States. But, what is $10.25 compared to the profits being made by the
rich white mobsters who own each and every slot machine on the floors of
Leech Lake's three casinos?
Link to Leech Lake increase of Minimum Wage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOJXiX5pE2YCarri
Jones has the gall to talk about poverty when she is only raising the
Minimum Wage to one more pathetic miserly poverty wage.
What
causes poverty? Poverty wages. Pay a worker poverty wages and their
family is going to live in poverty. Any school child understands this---
the understanding is probably a little better if the child is going to
school hungry and dressed in rags.
The energy monopolies raised
the price of propane this winter. Now wages have to be increased so
people can pay their propane bills. Certainly no one can claim wages are
in any way responsible for propane going from $1.45 a gallon last
summer to over $4.00 a gallon this winter.
Fact: most wages have been going down.
Go to the grocery store--- everything is going up in price.
Been robbed at the gas pumps lately?
Paid an electric bill lately?
Wages going down--- prices going up; your argument holds no water.
Why
does Carri Jones refuse to disclose what the "take" is, the cream being
skimmed off the top, by the mobsters who own the slot machines and
table games and the interest rates being paid to the "investors" who put
up the funds to build these casinos?
How come everyone is entitled to profits but workers are not entitled to real living wages based on what it cost them to live?
Why
does Carri Jones refuse to sit down and discuss wages and working
conditions and engage in discussion about a union contract?
I would be willing to sit down and discuss all of this with Carri Jones in a public forum at any time and place of her choosing.
And,
by the way; what price are casino workers paying for working in these
loud, noisy smoke-filled casinos? Does their health amount to anything
to these corrupt creeps like Carri Jones or Archie "the come back kid"
LaRose?
Casino workers get poverty wages and ill health, lousy,
substandard housing--- ever taken a ride out to see how John McCarthy
lives? Here is his address. Go out and see how this wealthy, rich white
guy who heads up the Minnesota Indian Gaming Association lives as a
result of forcing casino workers into poverty:
8925 Cove Dr NE, Bemidji, MN 56601
By
the way... if you or anyone else wants to engage me in a public debate
on this Minimum Wage issue, just let me know the time and place and I
will be there.
By the way, why does Leech Lake gaming fire casino
workers for discussing wages and working conditions? This doesn't seem
too much like democracy to me.
And why does Leech Lake continue this disgraceful "At-Will Hiring and Firing" practice?
Let's get wages up there where they really should be for all workers everywhere.
You
say worker's wages should be tied to profits... I assume this means you
support wages for casino workers employed in the Indian Gaming Industry
being around $80.00 to $90.00 an hour? Come on Carri Jones... bring out
the books so everyone can see how much is being made by whom in this
gaming industry.
Alan L. Maki, Director of Organizing, Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council