Wal-Mart's Call For A Minimum Wage Increase
Doug Kendall
October 27, 2005
I’m going to keep my opinion on this one short and sweet.
This week, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott reportedly called on Congress to consider raising the minimum wage in the US.
First of all, a minimum wage standard is incompatible with a free market economy. As I’ve said before, we do not have a free market here in the US; we have a controlled and regulated economy. If government removed itself from the equation, we’d all be a heck of a lot better off.
Wal-Mart maintains that it already pays its employees more than the minimum wage, so Wal-Mart probably won’t be affected by a minimum wage increase. It’s the other businesses that typically pay minimum wage (to unskilled workers) that will be affected.
Now, where do most low- to middle-income families shop, in the US? Wal-Mart.
So, in my opinion, Wal-Mart basically wants the government to force other businesses to pay their employees more money, so that those people will have more money to spend…at Wal-Mart.
If that's the case, it’s despicable, but genius, on the part of Wal-Mart.
Also, I find it interesting that Wal-Mart—with its power to demand that all suppliers begin using RFID (radio frequency identification) tags on crates—is not calling for China to raise its minimum wage.
Hmmm...
Copyright Doug Kendall 2005. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Doug Kendall and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Common Voice.
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