If you look up populism in the dictionary, it should read “shameless pandering.” True to form, Edwards unveils his ‘plan’ to lift 10 million people out of poverty:
Unlike President Bush, Edwards will reward and encourage work by raising the minimum wage by at least $1.50 and increasing the earned income tax credit and the refundable child credit for the working poor. Together, these proposals will raise the earnings of an individual making the minimum wage by $3,500 or more. His proposals help both parents and workers without children, and include relief from the heavy marriage penalty that falls on the working poor. These steps will offer as much as $500 per year to millions of Americans earning less than $15,000. Edwards will also create new jobs with good wages and benefits in struggling communities by offering billions of dollars in new venture capital to businesses that create quality jobs. Finally, Edwards will guarantee free health care for every person in poverty and offer generous tax credits for lower-income Americans to purchase health care, so that poor families will not have to worry about losing their health care if they enter the workforce.
New ideas from the Democrats in this new millenium- raising the minimum wage, transfer payments, and corporate welfare.
I will never understand the left’s fetish for the minimum wage as anything other than an election tool. If you raise the minimum wage, it would seem to me all you are doing is reducing employers willingness to hire new employees, and increasing the production costs to all producers. Thus prices rise, and although you may temporarily inflate the paper wealth of the working poor, in essence you are actually decreasing their purchasing power. Then, when the poverty rate is re-indexed, you are right back to where you started or worse.
Of course by then it will be another election, and you can propose increasing the minimum wage another $1.50.
Are there things I am not considering?