As others have pointed out, this sort of pseudo-macho crap is pretty common from the right, but am I the only one who notices that he’s not just spouting hatred and wishing to beat the hell out of war critics? He’s specifically singling out a particular group: war critics in the United States Congress. He’s advocating violence against elected officials for having a different view on a political issue.

No, nothing fascist about that.

It seems to be more common lately; not just the violent rhetoric, but advocacy of violence against elected officials. It’s particularly low, imo.

Thank your for your reply. My definition of a well-functioning social structure is one in which other people besides myself actually read countless papers in economics while I, like a bloated parasite, feed off their intellectual efforts.

You’ll have to excuse me. It’s time for me to bow and prostrate to Allah with the other Keynsians.

OK, let’s follow this thought to its logical conclusion. If raising wages leads to lower employment, then lowering wages must lead to higher employment – businesses can employ more people, since it’s cheaper to do so. And because this implied relationship is linear, every wage drop leads to a similar increase in employment. So, logically, we are best off, employment-wise, if we lower wages to the lowest possible point – nothing. Once we’re all slaves, we’ll all have jobs! Our masters will certainly find something for us to do, if it costs them nothing to put us to work!

Of course, if nobody gets paid, then nobody gets to eat, which results in a huge decrease in the employable, which severely afffects our economy, and not in a good way. So, the actual level of wages is important too! Gasp! Sometimes I wonder if these oh-so-edumacated conservatives have ever actually read Adam Smith, on whom they base what they laughably call their economic ‘thought.’

It makes perfect sense. If you tell the companies that are currently paying $7.25/hour that they have to pay $7.25/hour, they will stop hiring people at $7.25/hour, because they couldn’t possibly afford to pay all those people $7.25/hour.

Local economy be damned. If that money isn’t going into an overseas tax shelter, then the American economy will surely collapse. Because…erm…look, a brown person!

“Has anyone ever actually seen any real-world statistics that support the idea that raising the minimum wage causes unemployment etcetera”

Countless papers have explored the issue. The conclusion is constant: There is no evidence that a change in macroeconomic policy – such as raising the minimum wage – has any *predictable* affect on microeconomic activity – such as unemployment.

Unless he slipped into 3Bulls mode and filled his column with Emus and muffinwads and whatever. That would be an acceptable substitute.

I’ve also banned myself.

It almost makes you doubt the good faith of people who propose arguments for giving more money to rich people and taking more money from poor people.

Please, someone restore my faith in humanity!

Sorry, wingnuts, you really are going to have to try harder to make your greed, lack of empathy, and disdain for the poor seem like sensible policy. Tell you what, we’ll be magnanimous and give you 40 years or so out of power to think up some new shit.

DUMBASS by Jules Carlysle

Book Description
ATTENTION REPUBLICANS! Please use this book to beat yourselves about the head until November 2008! DUMBASS is the complete collection of outrageous quotes from President George W Bush, the world’s most powerful moron. Both hysterically funny and utterly infuriating, DUMBASS escorts readers humorously through years of George’s verbal carnage and leaves us wondering HOW and WHY someone so stupid was permitted to usurp America and orchestrate the greatest foreign relations disaster in history. Not your average quote book, DUMBASS reflects W’s own words through the unforgiving lens of popular culture and history as Carlysle utilizes clever quips, quotes, jokes and essays to draw greater (albeit disturbing) insight into the mind of this spectacularly and uniquely inept man. A scathing combination of humor and serious commentary, DUMBASS is a book you will read, re-read and share with your friends for years to come. (Or until the end of the world…whichever comes first)

Oh, please by all means Mark, why not just step up to the plate and find the first civilian war critic and demonstrate how well the American healthcare system treats your beaten down ass?

…a study by the Fiscal Policy Institute (FPI), a liberal New York think tank, finds that states with minimum wages above the federal level have had faster small-business and retail job growth. When business faces a higher minimum wage it uses labor more efficiently, worker morale improves, labor turnover falls, recruitment costs drop, and productivity increases, says James Parrott, an economist and an author of the FPI study. “The net result could be beneficial to business,” he says.

Canada’s economy is doing extremely well in spite of the US slowdown, and it has high taxes, and higher minimum wages. It also has an extremely good unemployment insurance program. Even when a person’s benefits run out they may still be eligible for funding to go to school for up to years (and have virtually all of their expenses paid – tuition, mortgage, food, rent, daycare, etc.) Unemployment rates are at 30-year lows across the country and many employers are having to pay more (in wages, benefits, and bonuses) to attract local workers; and labour shortfalls are forcing employers to import skilled and unskilled workers across industries. It’s a worker’s market right now.