>>President Bush yesterday suspended application of the federal law governing workers' pay on federal contracts in the Hurricane Katrina-damaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi.>>
Message 21688887
Yes, President Bush signed an Executive Order on September 8 which permits FEDERAL CONTRACTORS rebuilding in New Orleans and elsewhere in the Gulf States to pay below the "prevailing" (read minimum) wage. This "accomplishes" a number of things. It ensures that only those firms "approved" by Washington DC will get the contracts. It also ensures that the federal government will be "in charge" of the rebuilding, thereby giving the impression that it is THEY who are the saviors of the devastated areas. There is also the incidental benefit that companies with direct ties to the Bush Administration are already being signed up as these government contractors.
A "minimum wage" is disastrous economically, acting as it does to price out of the jobs market all those whose skills cannot command the mandated sum. Just as clearly, the young and unskilled are the worst hit because they cannot get a low-paying job in which they gain the skills needed to increase their value to present and future employers. In a welfare state, the professed reason for a minimum wage is to elevate the "poor" by raising the price of their labor. In reality, the minimum wage swells the ranks of the poor, thereby swelling the potential and actual ranks of the "clients" of the welfare state. The political purpose of all edicts which hamper or circumvent the MARKET is to give an impression of the indispensability of government CONTROL. But when that control is in danger of slipping, the rules are "bent". |
