The "New" Senate

I have been told that nothing makes you Republican faster than owning your own business. Those who knew me in college know that I was a staunch Democrat and as you read now, you'll see that I'm now at least a "conservative" Democrat. This is almost directly related to owning my own business for 14 years.

The fact of the matter is, what passes as a Democrat today is what FDR (one of the greatest Democrats of all time, in my opinion) would have called a socialist. Although the "New Deal" is touted as the beginning of the welfare state, FDR was very intentional about the "hand up not hand out" philosophy. The New Deal programs were intended to be a baseline for survival, not the means to the good life without working.

Social Security was developed to keep the elderly from digging through dumpsters for food and shelter. It was not meant to take the place of savings and planning. The minimum wage was meant to be exactly that. A wage that provided a start for someone. There was never the intention that you would spend your entire working life earning merely the minimum. The wage was low enough to provide incentive for people to better their education, training, or situation, but not so low as to make the position merely a step above slave labor.

The Senate Democrats are pushing for an increase to $7.15 an hour without understanding that it will cost jobs. In my previous days as a video store owner, I employed mostly high school and college students. I could not have afforded to pay them $7.15 an hour so I would have either reduced their hours or laid them off altogether. Either way, it's less hours worked for them, less money for them to spend, and less tax revenue for the government. Basically, everyone loses.

The response would be that a small business such as mine is not required to pay Federal minimum wage. That's fine except that anyone who has worked with a high school student knows, they are all "wanna-be" lawyers and are well versed on their "rights" when it comes to working the least time for the most money. They all know what the minimum wage is and they won't work for less.

I weep for the Democratic Party who is kidnapped by the likes of Hillary Clinton, Ted Kennedy, and John Kerry. They are all filthy rich kids who are playing at be egalitarians. They've forgotten what it means to work hard for anything. In addition, they have deluded themselves into believing that we are all of equal capabilities. We are not. Some of us are smart and some of us are not. Some of us are motivated, and some of us are not. We are all different and thus our standing will be different.

The role of government (and I think FDR has my back on this one) is to guarantee that the meek and lowly are not being unfairly taken advantage of. It is not to guarantee that they can live in a 3 bedroom home with 4 kids who become college-educated all at the expense of government or business without comensurate work on their part.