Got a letter from Sen McCain in response to my "min wage" petition

[Bobbieo]

"McCain wrote, “As you know, I am very concerned about the impact a hike in the minimum wage would have on small businesses. Many small enterprises operate on a very thin margin, and the imposition of additional costs cold result in the closure of businesses and the loss of jobs.”

How many small businesses are left anymore? The corner groceries and local hardware stores are gone. Aren’t most of the remaining ones are operating as a franchise?

[John Q. Citizen]

1. There are still a lot of small business. They usually pay

a lot better than Walmart.

McCain is an asshole.

[Master Mahon]

2. You got the 'Mickey C'

canned neocon spin response!
He's clearly settled into the neocon camp.
In a way I'm glad. This will hopefully seal his complete failure on the road to the white house, and relagate him to picking up Bob Dole's role
doing Viagra commercials!!

[Beaverhausen]

3. write back and tell him if people had more money to spend at these...

...businesses, their profits would go up.

God he pisses me off. He knows better.

[Bobbieo]

6. What are the small business these days?

I don't do much shopping any more.

[graywarrior]

4. I consider a family with bills and expenses to pay a smal business

Fuck McCain. Him and his Bush hugs.

[QuestionAll...]

5. creep. He was the one that said Americans wouldn't pick

tomatoes for even 50 bucks an hour in the illegal immigration distraction days...
Hope that bastard got a flood of resume faxes on that one.

[valerief]

7. McCain is nothing but a shillbilly. n/t

[earth mom]

12. Shillbilly! Good one! I LOVE IT!

:toast:

BTW-does anyone know just where are those $50 an hour jobs picking veggies McCain talking about? I could use some extra cash. :eyes:

[Selatius]

8. It's a false statement

A small business won't go out of business because every small business that pays minimum wage would have to absorb the changes in minimum wage, so nobody would gain an advantage over everybody else.

It is when a small business attempts to defy the prevailing market forces that it can get into trouble. If you operate a fast food joint and decided to pay 15 dollars an hour instead of 7 an hour like all the other competitors with the current minimum wage stuck at 5.15, of course you'll have slimmer margins, because your labor costs consume a larger portion of your revenue stream than what a comparable firm that pays a more typical rate would have consumed. You will have less money left over to reinvest in your venture, which will give your competitors an advantage over you.

If Firm A that builds cars and other machines decided to spend money trying to clean up the environmental mess it produces in the manufacturing process while firms B, C, D, E, F, etc. don't even bother, guess whose product is going to come out the most expensive relative to other firms? You need to make everybody do the right thing to protect the guy who does the right thing from being overwhelmed by everybody else who, for some reason, don't want to do the right thing.

The free markets work, but sometimes you need regulation to prevent it from going into excess. A better long-term option for workers would be to form worker co-op businesses. Nobody owns the business but the workers, so there is no temptation to try and pay workers the lowest possible amount they can get away with in the labor market just so one can pocket the most cash.

[K8-EEE]

9. OK Then Exempt The Small Businesses, Asshole!!

As if he would. They take money from WalMart and Home Depot and think they can come across as pro-small business? Yeah right.

[demosincebirth]

10. Thats the usual (the sky is falling ) republican response.

If a 2 buck and hour raise for an employee in going to make that business go broke then it shouldn't be in business.

[raysr]

11. If these "small" businesses

are making so little profit that they can't pay a livable wage they have already failed and should bag it.

[Justice Is Comin]

13. There are a lot of people ready to take your place

and they wouldn't need that $31,000 increase you gave yourself either.