Doug Bandow Quote

"[E]conomic liberty and creative entrepreneurship are the basis of any solution to today’s social and economic difficulties. Blaming business, setting wages, and attempting to run the economy by decree from Washington only exacerbates the problems. Consider the minimum wage. It seems so simple: Tell business to pay its workers more. But a hike in the minimum wage is essentially a tax, punishing precisely those companies that hire workers with the least skills."

by:	Doug Bandow (1954- ) American columnist, author, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute
Source:	Big business is not to blame, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, October 13, 1995.
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Categories:	Economics, Government, Socialism, Tax, Trade
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A most *Excellent* quote. When will the Democraps GET IT???? Business creates jobs and jobs keep the economy going. When people are working and have $$$ to spend, happiness usually comes into play. Hmmmmm.....what a concept!!  -- L.P., Kirkland, WA      3
A system wherein our "currency" is manipulated, stimulated, inflated and deflated at the drop of a hat by people that are unelected, unnaccountable, irresponsible and predatory is a system of tyranny. Abolish the Fed and return to the Constitution. Take out the trash in November.  -- J Carlton, Calgary      3
Economic liberty and creative entrepreneurship would eliminate the unconstitutional central bank, de-industrialization policies and enforcement, socialism - including the nationalization of the transportation and medical industry and, all the non-criminal problems associated with illegal immigration. Such economy and creativity have nothing to do with social ills or difficulties except as a result of integrity, charity, and morality. The statist theocracy infesting this land has not only dummied down a creative people sufficiently that their mind set is to clamber for jobs instead of entrepreneurially creating them but also, has made success there almost impossible (with anti-business taxes, regulations, banking, direct government involvement, threat of nationalization, etc., etc., etc.).  -- Mike, Norwalk      1
Wow... now the radical right is claiming that paying its workers is a tax... the disconnect from any form of reality based thinking on their part is unbelievable! Perhaps LP should try to live on minimum wage, there is not enough to even pay for basics such as a roof and food, say nothing of basic health care.  -- Anonymous, Reston, VA US      1 4
How can guys this stupid appear on a "syndicated" web site. It is not a tax on companies but a tax on consumers. We will pay higher costs for the items produced. It is a small inconvenience compared to having folks working yet starving. A shoe mfg. and a shirt mfg. who pay decent wages will have employees who are able to buy each others shoes and shirts. Everybody wins!  -- Waffler, Smith      3
You had to know that Anonymous and Waffler wouldn't understand anything about economics. When the minimum wage is increased thousands of entry level jobs that teens need simply disappear. If you need a minimum wage , why hell, let's make it 50 dollars an hour. Of course business couldn't pay it and no one would have a job but what the heck.  -- jim k, Austin,Tx      2
Do Waffler and Anonymous wonder why these jobs are going overseas?  -- cal, lewisville, tx      2
Without the minimum wage we would have more of both, the super rich, and the working poor. I am sure guys like cal, jim also never heard of slavery, sweat shops, etcetera. Cal if you would read the news you would know that coastal Chineese provinces have increased their minimum wage and jobs in China are moving further inland to the find more slaves. So what is new about that?  -- Waffler, Smith      1 2
Waffler, the minimum wage is not a "minimum" it's a "ceiling". Much better to let the market dictate wages than it is the to let Government do so.  -- J Carlton, Calgary      3
There's only one problem with this quote. It makes too much sense and therefore liberals like Waffler and Anonymous will not understand it. The normal progression for most working people is to start at the lowest rung and work yourself up. You can, depending on your mental ability, your ambition, and self-discipline make about as much money as you decide to. Nobody expects a married man with two children to be able to exist on a hamburger flippers wages. Forcing employers to raise wages creates more problems than it solves. It raises prices to customers, it restricts entry into the work place, and if carried to extremes like liberals will always do, it forces jobs overseas. You see Waffler and Anonymous don't understand how capitalism works. They think they know, but they don't know squat. What they know is what Marx Lenin thought was the solution to being a wage slave. Instead, socialism makes you a helpless, irresponsible, nonproductive ward of the state who forces you to work at minimum wages at mind-numbing, nonproductive government jobs.  -- GunnyCee, Durham, NC      3
I wonder if Waffler ever had a job? A business...any business has expenses to pay. Waffler doesn't seem to take this into account. He believes that every penny that goes into the resgister goes straight to the employer's pocket. Expenses include the cost of labor. The idea is to balance your expenses with your income in order to make a profit. As long as you make a profit, you stay in business. If your wages are too low, your employees will leave for a better paying job. If you have no emloyees, you have no business. Wages are negotiated between the employee and the employer. The government has no business in this negotiation. If an employee isn't satisfied with the pay he's getting, he has options. One is to quit and go on the government dole. Another is to go to night school to learn a different trade. Another is to impress the boss by working hard, volunteering when he doesn't have to, going to night school to learn more about the business he's in, and in short making himself more valuable to the boss, and thereby earning frequent raises in pay. But you do know Waffler, thay any of these options means you have to get off your butt and take some action. Sitting around whining about how little you get paid is for losers like yourself.  -- GunnyCee, Durham, NC      2
GunnyCee is so full of himself he fails to read. I SAID and if you know anything about business you should know that costs get passed on to consumers. If a person cannot stay in business without being paying a decent wage taking care of his taxes etcetera then he should be out of buiness. I met a home builder who hired illegals, if he hired real Americans he said he would have to increase his home price by $20,000. Farmers hire illegals because "real people ask for wages and benefits" a farmer told me. I know more about business GunnyCee than you do so there! Starbucks claims it's success is due to a very happy and satisfied work force, it gives health care to anyone working 20 hours a week. The best employers with the best products have the best wages and benefit packages, why do you think that is Gunny! Why do you think that is Gunny, huh, huh, lhuh?  -- Waffler, Smith      1
-- Nick
Hmm, why not a maximum wage, Waffler? This way we could make sure no one gets too rich either! While we are at it, why not a single wage -- everyone earns the same amount no matter whether they are sweeping a hallway or transplanting a heart. Is there nothing the US government cannot dictate? Where in the Constitution have the People given the power to set wages in the States? SHouldn't we remember that we are not talking abpout mandatory employment -- people have the choice to work for whatever they chose -- and employers should be able to decide what to pay for the work beiong done for them. What is being ignored is that in order to get paid more for your labor, you have to provide a service that is worth the amount being paid. WTF -- I cannot find a single thing in Wal-Mart that is not made in CHINA by folks paid but a couple bucks a day -- of course, food only costs a few cents. So by requiring US businesses to pay people more than they are worth, we have driven industry and production to China -- communist slave labor!! What hypocrisy!! And it is NOT an accident.  -- E Archer, NYC      2
How about dropping ideology Archer and embracing pragmatism. China also now has wage laws in some of the coastal provinces and some jobs are moving further in land where cheaper labor can be had. I would assume that you subscribe to the Malthus theory that people should be kept at starvation wages in order to keep them from over populating the planet. The best way to boots wages would be to have less babies. Well I am for that also but studies show that wealth and education also tend to cause folk to have less babies. And goodness knows the most pressing need in today's world is less babies, a shriking population and evironmental integrity.  -- Waffler, Smith      2
Inflation is the biggest scam of all. Do you think that greed sleeps ? Lording over labor is a very old job perfected by the best of industry. Very few employers care for their employees. Such as promises made of continued work through the holidays, raises to keep up with inflation. To be one up on labor is comfort of position. Education opens a door and closes a door. Only when one needs skill of labor will he or she seek it out. The standard of living for blue collar and white collar has never been the same and never will be. Content with one's position brings happiness. Only when greed pushes out the blue collar workers from enjoying simple things in life do they find them, the blue collars in the wealthy's face. Honor among the trades has been pushed out in this country by the degrading of position among the trades in this country. Scale of wage squander by greediness of the deal. You pay for what you get. Unless you think white collar is better than blue collar. What do you think ? For those with a high degree of education you pay to have the work done, then when older you wish to learn of the trades. A life time to become a master carpenter or mason. Do they come cheap ? There are those that would have them become cheap by degrading their worth. Such as industry seeking to replace our quality with another nation's labor and substandard quality. Banks overinflating the worth of home and property, greediness of fed and state to raise unjust property taxes, push one out to make way for another because they don't care about the common man !! Do you ? It is obvious America has been sold out for the blue collar worker because once scale rose across the country greed was there to relieve him of his increase every step of the way. Government in bed with management allowing labor to be raped by the wealthy. Honesty taught to the simple so as to take advantage of the simple in the long run. while big banking and their families live on through time. There is no fair deal anymore. For most lie and cheat to suit themselves. Credit based economics is garbage. Greed drives people out of their homes, jobs and transportation. Too many paper pushers making cuff money off the back of the laborer. that is the truth !!! Have you worked hard labor ? By the sweat of your brow to put food on the table. Or take the family camping. With all the wealthy driving motor homes costing hundreds of thousands of dollars now, the blue collar worker can't afford a camp site now or even a fishing license. Big business and big government are pissing us off in a bad way. Get the picture now. We don't need immigrants unchecked, the government does. Wealthy liberals with bleeding hearts who would not open their door to their neighbor but bring a stranger in to give him that which he has just stolen from you.  -- Ron, Salem
Ron, please, keep your comments brief and to the point of the quote. Long ramblings without commenting on or rating the quote will be deleted. Thanks.  -- Editor, Liberty Quotes
GunnyCee, Waffler is an IRS employee with religious and economic ideologies written on his heart that are diametrically apposed to the law of nature and of nature's God's - fiscal law. The "A" from Reston does the standard liberal mis-representation in stating "the radical right is claiming that paying its workers is a tax". I will write this real slow so even the “A” from Reston can get it. When a centralized government (working from a mentality of religious morality, as is averse to fiscal law) plans and controls an economy (treating industry as a social charity), the statist theocracy enforces its dogma (through canons) that, it owns the means of producing and distributing goods / services. When an entity of industry voluntarily agrees with a laborer to render a medium of exchange for labors expended, there is no related tax. When the statist theocracy mandates that its patrons receive a beyond agreement emolument, that extra amount is an inflationary tax.  -- Mike, Norwalk      2
-- Ronw13, USA
Editor, I agree with you that comments need to be less wordy. Remember the old saying that brevity is the soul of wit.  -- jim k, Austin      1
"Government is a disease masquerading as its own cure." (Robert LeFevre) Government, totally aloof of We The People (the individual sovereigns at nature's law) expands debt (frns) beyond an economy's ability to absorb. A tax here is "a fee or dues levied on the members of an organization to meet its expenses."  (American Heritage Dictionary) The chattel cogs of the occupying statist theocracy infesting this land (members, citizens, etc.) are inflicted with an inflation tax (the statist theocracy expands the supply of debt beyond an economy's ability to absorb, so that it {the government} may pay its self imposed religious duties, costs and to meet its expenses. In the intended inflation (that which is used as a medium of exchange becomes less and less valuable) cog members suffer as their labors become less and less valuable. The disease, instead of curing the dilemma itself, it passes the buck to falsely declaring the real cure to be, taxing injured third parties (business) to magically come up with extra money (like the government did) to pay certain individuals what their diseased religion demands. I no longer will eat at McDonalds because the diseased system has created a lack of service and cost of product that is no longer tolerable.  -- Mike, Norwalk      1
The Socialist finally understands the concept of yuppie, young upwardly professional. The more victims you have the more you can pile up and the higher you can climb on them and the more upward you go.  -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown      1
As always I have to explain Socialist ambitions are not high or low but forward, incorporating more life energy into the equation.  -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown      1
Sillik, Socialist ambitions, by definition, historical experience and in all ways describes life's energy equation by means of slavery, pain, destruction of man's nobility, economic disaster and the collective's failure over the individual sovereign's success.  -- Mike, Norwalk
Mr. Mike Norwalk you are a victim of a false historical informational process written by the "winners." The Socialism of now is being written by the mentally healthy. Socialism is a compliment of freedom and democracy. These constitutes are the inseparable components for human progress separated by a fiendish money making scheme by the different oppositional forces of what was called the Cold War. The typical divide and conquer strategy which business typically deploys.  -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown
Mike Norwalk, Socialism employs a unite and move forward strategy; as does true Freedom and Democracy.  -- Fredrick William Sillik, Anytown      1
Sillik, as attributed to Benjamin Franklin, democracy is accurately and descriptively described as: two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for supper. Freedom is a well armed lamb contesting the vote. If that is the strategy you wish to unite and move forward with (socialism is slavery under the Borg) — NO thanks. A democracy supposes the many make the law (individual sovereignty, inalienable rights and liberty at nature's law are not considered / do not exist within a democracy — only the majority's will) A republican form of government administers law(s) that already exist (LAW” - is a tangible’s applied static measurement within a domain of absolutes {biology, chemistry, physics / science, fiscal / economics, gravity, math, magnetics, life, liberty, inalienable rights, etc.}). I chose a strategy based on nature's law to unite and move forward on.  -- Mike, Norwalk

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