Here is an incredibly deceptive U-T story, topped only by the even more deceptive headline “WAGE PUSH GETS BUSINESS BACKING.” The story is about a handful of businesses that recently held a press conference advocating that the city of San Diego adopt a dramatically higher minimum wage ($13 is the one currently proposed by progressives for our city).
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/Jun/07/tp-wage-push-gets-business-backing/
Nowhere in the U-T story does the reporter try to quantify the NUMBER or PERCENTAGE of businesses calling for a higher minimum wage at the press conference. He doesn’t tell us how many business owners showed up for the event. At the VERY least, he should point out the obvious – that a few businesses supporting such a policy tells us nothing about the breadth or depth of such business support.
Indeed, reading the headline, one could conclude that MOST businesses support a much higher minimum wage. Does ANYONE think that such is the case?
In a city this big with a substantial Democrat plurality in voter registrations, it can’t be too difficult to pull together a dozen business owners (IF that many) willing to advocate for a higher minimum wage. So? I probably could cobble together a dozen such owners to support or oppose ANY policy.
Would such a small number of cherry-picked companies therefore represent the voice of the business community, or even a significant percentage of that community? I think not.
But there’s more. In the PRINT version of this story are two additional paragraphs that expose the blatant hypocrisy of this “business” call for a higher minimum wage. Here’s what you can’t read online:
Howard Schwartz, owner of a downtown Ace Hardware store that hosted Thursday’s event, said the minimum wage should be increased — but not as sharply as proposed and NOT ON THE BACKS OF SMALL BUSINESSES.” [my emphasis].
“Small businesses are not hoarding cash, we do not have shareholder dividends and we don’t have high CEO salaries,” he said.
SOOOOO, to summarize, the business owner hosting the press conference touting the minimum wage increase wants the mandatory wage boost to apply only to his larger competitors — Home Depot, Lowe’s and other better run, more successful businesses that are boxing his ears with better selection and lower prices. HIS company should be exempt for the higher minimum wage.
Ace Hardware business owner Howard Schwartz wants other businessess to help the supposedly downtrodden while he makes windfall profits from the cost disadvantage gained by being able to pay lower wages. The quintessential compassionate liberal.
Comments 2
Thanks Richard but it is your commentary that the U-T should be printing.
Author
Thanks, Eric!
There’s another aspect I commented on in the story — responding to the assertion that big businesses are “hoarding cash”:
It’s progressive propaganda.
Why would anyone “hoard” cash — a depreciating asset earning essentially zero rate of return? Are business people THAT stooopid? According to the loony left – yes.
But a “greedy”person (any sane person) would INVEST such excessive cash — IF they could find a suitable investment that offered a positive return vs. the risk.
The hesitancy of business management to make such investments reflects their lack of confidence in the longer term prospects of the economy and their business — thanks in large part to Obamacare and other anti-business federal (and California) policies. Hopefully that uncertainty is finally dissipating.
Moreover, the left uses the “$2 trillion” hoarded figure as the basis for their absurd claim. But businesses ALWAYS have at least a trillion of cash standing by for short term expenses — primarily payroll outlays. Apparently loopy liberals think businesses just conjure up the needed money each payday.