by Daniel Rigney
Wealthy conservatives, including Charles Koch, Steve Forbes, and Rupert Murdoch, are standing their ground in opposition to any proposed increase in the federal minimum wage. Indeed, their media communications suggest that they oppose any minimum wage whatsoever, believing instead that wages should be allowed to fall (or rise) to whatever levels a free market dictates -- even to starvation levels, presumably, if that’s what labor markets really, really want.
From the standpoint of business owners, markets don’t want minimum wages; they want minimal wages that will reduce labor costs and increase profits. And the policy positions of the G.O.P. (Guard Our Profits?) naturally reflect the economic interests of these important donors and constituents.
Republican opposition to minimum wages rests on a firm foundation of gilded economic and moral principles. These include:
The Principle of Prosperity and Freedom for All
Charles Koch, according to his hometown Wichita Eagle (7/10/2013), “believes prosperity grows where economic freedom is greatest, where government intervention in business affairs is kept to a minimum…. Government regulations – including the minimum wage law – tend to hold everyone back, he said.… Koch said helping the disadvantaged is one of his primary motives” for launching a $200,000 anti-regulatory ad campaign.
Fortune estimates the freedom-loving Charles Koch’s wealth at $40 billion, earning him the equivalent of a lifetime average hourly wage of $58,500. This figure represents Koch’s net worth per hour of his life, from birth to his 78th birthday (@ 8766 hours per year), including time spent asleep. His younger brother David, age 73, has earned an even more industrious $62,510 per hour including crib time. This stands in rather stark contrast to the current federal minimum wage of a little over $7 per hour of American employee labor.
Don’t believe these figures? Do the arithmetic and see what you get. I couldn’t believe them either.
The Fundamental Right to Work for Less
Republican scion Steve Forbes is editor-in-chief of the influential Forbes magazine, which ran an editorial on the minimum wage (5/7/2013) stating: “The minimum wage violates the principle of freedom by limiting the range of choices open to workers, preventing them from accepting jobs at less than the legal minimum.” In other words, employees should have every right to work for less – a right that Forbes stands foursquare behind.
Forbes’s own net worth is a modest $420 million – less than a year’s worth of Koch money, but enough to earn him a lifetime average hourly wage of $726 from his silver-spooned birth to his most recent 66th birthday.
The Principles of Racial and Economic Justice
Guests on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News have attacked the minimum wage on numerous occasions. One talking foxhead, former Reagan economist Arthur Laffer (remember the Laffer curve?), slammed the minimum wage by calling it the “Black Teenage Unemployment Act” in a moment of compassionate and colorblind conservatism, while the American Enterprise Institute’s Michael Strain urged that the current $7.25 minimum be lowered to $4 for the long-term unemployed, who can apparently live on less than other unemployed people.
Fortune estimates the 83 year old Murdoch’s family fortune at $13.5 billion, yielding a lifetime average hourly wage of $18,555, beginning the day Murdoch won the birth lottery and crowned his way into a wealthy Australian family. He’s been living the deeply principled conservative life ever since.
These are clearly men who know the value of money, and who’ve worked and slept hard for every dollar they’ve inherited and parlayed. No one is better positioned to know the plight of low-wage workers than those who see them panoramically from a lofty and majestic height.
Wealthy conservatives, including Charles Koch, Steve Forbes, and Rupert Murdoch, are standing their ground in opposition to any proposed increase in the federal minimum wage. Indeed, their media communications suggest that they oppose any minimum wage whatsoever, believing instead that wages should be allowed to fall (or rise) to whatever levels a free market dictates -- even to starvation levels, presumably, if that’s what labor markets really, really want.
From the standpoint of business owners, markets don’t want minimum wages; they want minimal wages that will reduce labor costs and increase profits. And the policy positions of the G.O.P. (Guard Our Profits?) naturally reflect the economic interests of these important donors and constituents.
Republican opposition to minimum wages rests on a firm foundation of gilded economic and moral principles. These include:
The Principle of Prosperity and Freedom for All
Charles Koch, according to his hometown Wichita Eagle (7/10/2013), “believes prosperity grows where economic freedom is greatest, where government intervention in business affairs is kept to a minimum…. Government regulations – including the minimum wage law – tend to hold everyone back, he said.… Koch said helping the disadvantaged is one of his primary motives” for launching a $200,000 anti-regulatory ad campaign.
Fortune estimates the freedom-loving Charles Koch’s wealth at $40 billion, earning him the equivalent of a lifetime average hourly wage of $58,500. This figure represents Koch’s net worth per hour of his life, from birth to his 78th birthday (@ 8766 hours per year), including time spent asleep. His younger brother David, age 73, has earned an even more industrious $62,510 per hour including crib time. This stands in rather stark contrast to the current federal minimum wage of a little over $7 per hour of American employee labor.
Don’t believe these figures? Do the arithmetic and see what you get. I couldn’t believe them either.
The Fundamental Right to Work for Less
Republican scion Steve Forbes is editor-in-chief of the influential Forbes magazine, which ran an editorial on the minimum wage (5/7/2013) stating: “The minimum wage violates the principle of freedom by limiting the range of choices open to workers, preventing them from accepting jobs at less than the legal minimum.” In other words, employees should have every right to work for less – a right that Forbes stands foursquare behind.
Forbes’s own net worth is a modest $420 million – less than a year’s worth of Koch money, but enough to earn him a lifetime average hourly wage of $726 from his silver-spooned birth to his most recent 66th birthday.
The Principles of Racial and Economic Justice
Guests on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News have attacked the minimum wage on numerous occasions. One talking foxhead, former Reagan economist Arthur Laffer (remember the Laffer curve?), slammed the minimum wage by calling it the “Black Teenage Unemployment Act” in a moment of compassionate and colorblind conservatism, while the American Enterprise Institute’s Michael Strain urged that the current $7.25 minimum be lowered to $4 for the long-term unemployed, who can apparently live on less than other unemployed people.
Fortune estimates the 83 year old Murdoch’s family fortune at $13.5 billion, yielding a lifetime average hourly wage of $18,555, beginning the day Murdoch won the birth lottery and crowned his way into a wealthy Australian family. He’s been living the deeply principled conservative life ever since.
These are clearly men who know the value of money, and who’ve worked and slept hard for every dollar they’ve inherited and parlayed. No one is better positioned to know the plight of low-wage workers than those who see them panoramically from a lofty and majestic height.
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