NCSEN: The N&O goes off the rails on the minimum wage | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Brant Clifton sees the irony in a failing liberal business extolling the virtues of structured markets in his "bare knuckles" Conservative online publication known as The Daily Haymaker.

    It sure didn't take long for The miserably-failing Raleigh branch of the McClatchy empire to return to form as propagandameister for all things left-of-center. The N&O has released an unsigned editorial laying down a mop-up bombardment on Thom Tillis regarding the minimum wage. I know, I know. I'm doing yeoman's work reading this wretched end-product of the low-T, soap-watching, Prius-driving crowd on McDowell Street so you don't have to. (Speaking of — Mr. Drescher, where's your pet shih-tzu? Haven't seen his byline in a while.)

    Okay, take a deep breath. Here we go:

    [...] Hagan also has a comeback for Tillis' tired old claims that raising the minimum wage would force layoffs and cost those low-paid workers their jobs. "It (a higher wage) really gives people more funds to spend to buy, and to help grow those small businesses," she said. Yes, and businesses have to have a certain number of workers to get their goods made or distributed. To say that forcing them to raise pay a little for some workers would result in big layoffs is little more than wishful Republican thinking. Businesses would cope with a wage hike, as they have in the past.

    Indeed, holding the wage at a level set in 2009 is an unfair subsidy to employers. [...]

    Wow. Letting business people keep more of their money is an "unfair subsidy"? How is letting someone keep their own money a subsidy?

    These people and their senator are so utterly misinformed — so profoundly stupid. A mandate requiring an increased minimum wage increases the cost of doing business. People go into business for the purpose of making as much money as possible. If the government forces a business to spend more money on something that does not expand the business or lead to increased profits, profits are reduced. Investors have to be paid somehow. So, prices go up. Worker hours get cut. Fewer jobs are created.

    Wage levels need to be set by the market. They are determined by the cost of living in an area and what people are willing to work for. That's one reason why stuff costs more in Boston than it does in Boone.

    This kind of class warfare demagoguery is utterly despicable. The last thing we really need in this horrid economy is to slap one more weight on top of business people struggling to make ends meet so some corrupt politician can score a few more points in the polls and a few more years at the public trough.