Molly Calls for a Living Wage

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

Predictable. Unimpressive. Typical of the genre:

- A pro forma slam at corporate greed and executive pay.
- An absence of any acknowledgement of the composition of the minimum wage cohort
- Bringing health benefits in the discussion with the <30 hour week without mention that ObamaCare is the cause of this break point
- No mention or accounting of substantial benefits available to low wage workers, including health care subsidies
- No acknowledgement of other factors involved including lack of fathers in homes, illegitimacy, and low value placed on education and skills in some societal segments.
- No mention that minimum wage workers make up a tiny segment of all hourly workers
- Snarl language used ("mega profits") without any relevant data such as profit margins, jobs created, potential job losses.

But liberals need a cause and when they find one that gets traction among themselves there is no need to marshall all the facts that might be relevant.

MM might have disclosed her and her husband's total family income, their lifestyle expenses, and charitable giving totals to demonstrate the lack of greed that is presumed by her for others in her targeted group.

[Sandy]

I don't often find myself agreeing with Molly when it comes to her theological perspective. If you don't believe in an inerrant Bible, then it seems to me that citing its principles in support of a social policy that is distinctively Christian in its practice would be resting on shaky ground. If the part of scripture you are citing is in error, then the foundation of your principle is, too. But that's another discussion.

I can't help but shed tears for those fast food chains. These are businesses which have only the complete satisfaction, convenience, and health of their customers in mind. They work so hard to comply with all of those onerous regulations that the mean, nasty old government makes them follow, like keeping the place clean, and making sure the employees are healthy and aren't spreading hepatitis B. The costs of doing those things alone really cut into the profits. And of course, they don't cut corners on the quality of the product they provide. They go all out to make sure that the food you are getting is the best you can buy, not using fillers or cheaper products, but the high quality, real deal. So asking them to pay a living wage to their employees would bring it down to the point where they would only make a few cents off each hamburger and coke that they serve. So here we are, picking on these poor businesses, when the only thing they are trying to do is provide a public service and maybe make a few pennies in the process. I mean, if they had to pay a living wage, say, $10 an hour instead of what it is now, their labor costs would take an additional 2.3% of the $450 billion they made in profits last year. And I got that figure from Fox News, who reported it as if the 2.3% would be a back breaking, business busting cost.

I so feel the pain of these fast food executives, board members, and particularly the stockholders.

[William Thornton]

Forum mod libs should give sandy a half-trophy for being and economic liberal in spite of his biblical conservatism.

[KeithE]

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

[Dave Roberts]

For the minimum wage to match its level in 1968, it would need to be over $10 adjusted for inflation (Moyers and Company, podcast, 8/7/13). The old argument that every gain lifts all ships just doesn't work any more. A minimum wage family with two wage earners can no longer educate their children. I guess the con viewpoint is that it's okay to condemn these kids to a life of minimum wage or not being prepared to do any job. I guess that fits a Christian view in the con's eyes.

[Sandy]

[Dave Roberts]

[Stephen Fox]

William asks some legitimate questions seems to me; at the same time missing the big pictures. Unlike William I imagine Molly travels in circles that are familiar with the definitive writing on these matters including NormOrnstein of the conservative AEI, Tom Edsall's lifelong work beginning with his 84 New Politics of Inequality and the recent book the Servant Economy.

As much as I admire Molly some of Williams personal jibes at Molly as I think the now widow of a pretty wealthy doctor she married in her 40s. That said pales in comparison to Pressler's fortune or the relative wealth of John Bisagno, Jerry Vines, Johnny Hunt, or Billy Graham's Golden Boy heir to the Tea Party legacy of the Nixon administration 2nd Houston's Ed Young.

Instinctively I agree with William a 16 year old workin at McDonald's 20 hours a week shouldn't have the package of the President of UGA, still lot of family earners struggling, losing their health trying to work 60 hours a week trying to honorable house and feed children.

Illegitimacy is an epidemic in the Black Community. William is right.But I am convinced Molly and Suzii Paynter, Charles Marsh's Project for Lived Theology will get to whatever just remedy is possible in a fallen world before The Southern Baptist Convention.

But they do excel in Disaster Relief, so they should stay busy for some time to come

[KeithE]

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

[William Thornton]

[William Thornton]

Dare I mention that even Fox recognizes that there are legit contra-Molly points to be made here.

..but who needs facts when there is a crusade to be conducted.

[KeithE]

[KeithE]

[ET]

[ET]

[ET]

[William Thornton]

[Sandy]

Long, long ago I realized that American Christians generally push the influence of Christian principles into the social institutions of education, government, and entertainment pretty hard. We hear a lot about standing on principles, preaching truth, and see a lot of single issue voting, especially when it comes to hot button issues like abortion, prayer in school and same-sex marriage. That is a position which contradicts that of their right wing Republican allies, "better government is less government," because to enforce what conservative Christians want requires more government intrusion and authority, not less. In return for what has amounted to not a lot more than lip service, conservative Christians have slavishly and obediently accepted positions of Republicanism as gospel, much of which is in direct conflict with their belief in the truths of scripture. Inevitably, conservative Christians are always going to take the side of money, wherever it lands, and accept positions which are diametrically opposed to the teachings of Jesus as recorded in scripture.

You'll hear all kinds of sermons in churches about sin, and about how evil the world is today, and how evil the government is, and how the country has been stolen (by whom?) and how moral values are going down the tubes. But I'll bet the odds are next to nothing that you could walk into a church tomorrow, and hear a sermon on Acts 4:32-35, especially not a literally interpreted one. And it's been quite a while since I heard a good sermon, in context, about Ananias and Sapphira. I used to hear them a lot, taken out of context, around "pledge the tithe" time. If you approach that one literally, they were members of a church that was practicing outright socialism, and when their selfish greed led them to keep some of the money themselves, so that they could have their cake and eat it too, they became capitalists, and God struck them dead because of it. How's that for literalism?

Health care, minimum wage, taxes, energy prices, you name it, if it involves someone making a mountain of cash, most conservative Christians are going with the cash, and against principle.

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

I don't really care if you dislike or disagree with my opinions. I do care if you impute sinful and selfish motivations to them. The former is impersonal, normal forum repartee while the latter is personal and unbecoming. The only data I have that says that you aren't very good at assessing attitudes and motivations are data that you cannot refute. I would limit that to your assessment of my own attitude and motivation which is dead wrong. Take it or leave it.

Keith: "Perhaps you claim it is all Spirit generated but in this case (PoorCare - cutesy huh?) that spirit would be very much contrary to the vast majority of biblical instruction on this matter"

Thanks for making one of my points. You mod/libs never stray very far from where you blithely pronounce your positions Biblically moral and that of conservatives Biblically immoral. Do you get this. It isn't roc...oh, never mind.

Let's be honest here. I could write your posts for you, as you could mine and as each of the handful of main commenters here could for each other.