Election - Part Tres

I had a conversation with a friend last night; an intelligent, good conservative, I thought, until he told me he voted for the minimum wage and Issue 5. Here's some of the conversation.

I asked him if the wage had been established @ $7.50 or $10.00/hour would he still have voted for it.

His reply; "I'm not sure where the cutoff would have been for me".

"How much should McDonald's pay for a pound of Hamburger?"

"I have no idea"

"But you seem to know much how much they should pay for labor?"

"Look... No one can live on $5.25 and hour"

"Then why shouldn't we make the minimum wage $20.00 with full benefits. I think everyone would be middle class then, wouldn't they?"

"Don't be ridiculous"

That conversation is exactly the point with the minimum wage... I wouldn't dream of telling McDonald's how much to pay their employees any more than telling them that they need to pay $4.50 a pound for high end hamburger. And yet, people somehow think it's OK to tell companies how much they should pay for their labor.

Even at $6.85 an hour, a 40 hour work week nets an annual income of $13,700.00; hardly a wage that could sustain a family. So this person hadn't even considered what the wage would be for the employee to have a sustainable wage.

Then our discussion rolled over to Issue 5 which he voted for. Of course he doesn't smoke so he has no problem telling businesses to not permit smoking on their premises.... 99.999999999% of which he will never visit. It smacks of the nanny state big time.

I'm no smoker, so Issue 5 has no short term, direct impact on me. I will actually enjoy going to bars and restaurants without the smoke.

However, in this country we have turned modern day smokers into the lepers of biblical times.

I think it's disgusting to walk through an airport and see huddled masses all bunched up smoking in a lounge... It's repugnant that our society treats people that way. In my mind it's the epitome of NIMBY, we can ban your vice but don't touch mine.

So if you clowns start coming after my Cheesburgers and Beer, I'm going to shoot you.... assuming you haven't already taken my gun.