Immediately after taking control of both houses of congress in 2007, euphoric Democrats rammed through legislation that took a step towards the long-cherished lefty goal of reducing income inequality. They imposed the federal minimum wage on two U.S. territories, American Samoa and the commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. But then last month congress quietly backed away from it.
Just three years after a Democrat-led Congress imposed the federal minimum wage on two U.S. territories in the Pacific, lawmakers last month halted the program in its tracks, acknowledging the move had sapped thousands of jobs from American Samoa and the commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
The two-year delay in the case of American Samoa and one-year reprieve for the Northern Mariana Islands was imposed even as both parties have sparred over the effects of the minimum wage in the U.S. during the troubled economy.
"We said this increase would be harmful in 2007, and the Democrats did it anyway," said Rep. Patrick T. McHenry, North Carolina Republican. "It proves our point that the federal government setting wage rates is destructive to job creation, whether it's in American Samoa or western North Carolina."
Let's not jump to any conclusions here by assuming that Democrats aren't bright enough to understand basic economic principles of supply and demand, or that they are so obtuse as to be oblivious to history's many lessons on the impact of price controls. Nancy Pelosi, herself, stands as testament to their firm grasp of the concepts.
Ms. Pelosi was careful to include an exemption from the new minimum wage legislation for American Samoa, a fact which implies she knew just what the law would do.
It so happens that StarKist, a company famous for annoying us with years of Charlie the Tuna ads, owns a cannery which is located in American Samoa. Del Monte owns StarKist. Del Monte also has its headquarters in San Francisco, which happens to be in Nancy Pelosi's congressional district. There's an excellent chance that Pelosi got a quick Econ 101 refresher from Del Monte, which prompted her, in her boundless gratitude, to write in the special favor for American Samoa.
Fortunately for egalitarian-minded Democrats who didn't happen to have Del Monte headquarters in their congressional districts, the downtrodden sub-minimum wage workers of American Samoa got some help from an unlikely source. Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, the Illinois Republican who happens to be running for Barack Obama's Senate seat, stepped in to insist that American Samoa to be included in the legislation along with the Northern Mariana Islands. What a guy! What a heart!
What a mess. The law of unintended consequences, or maybe it was the law of obvious-consequences-that-weren't-supposed-to-apply-to-our-friends took effect. The impact of the legislation manifested itself in late August when downtrodden sub-minimum wage workers became downtrodden unemployed workers.
Business
Saturday, Aug. 28, 2010
The Associated PressPAGO PAGO, American Samoa -- Nearly half of the 800 workers StarKist Co. planned to lay off at its American Samoa tuna cannery this year will lose their jobs this weekend.
StarKist Samoa General Manager Brett Butler said the rest of the layoffs would occur in October.
The job cuts will shrink StarKist's work force in American Samoa to less than 1,200, down from a peak of more than 3,000 two years ago.
StarKist has had to contend with federally mandated minimum-wage increases.
The layoffs follow September's closure of Chicken of the Sea's tuna cannery in American Samoa, which cost the jobs of 2,100 workers.
As you might imagine, when news of this oopsy-doopsy got out, egalitarian-minded Dems were quick to point the finger of blame at Kirk, who was strangely unavailable for comment. I have a delightful mental image of Representative Kirk resting comfortably as he recovers from injuries sustained while laughing hysterically at the Democrats' predicament, which he so artfully engineered.
Amidst a chorus of Republican I-told-you-sos, Democrats reimposed the lower minimum wage. Credit Dems for thinking outside the box. A higher minimum wage is the typical progressive answer to the injustices of capitalism. But this time they've righted their earlier right. Or something. It doesn't matter. Contradictions are no problem for the Democrats.
By now ardent lefties will have identified several dozen greater goods that they achieve through surrender on the American Samoa minimum wage issue. Maintaining congressional majorities is always near the top of that list. The fact that more cannery workers will be gainfully employed in American Samoa is probably not on it.
Which leads me to think, maybe Democrats really don't have a clue when it comes to the economy. Not that they aren't smart enough. For them, the economy is something they can use to boost their power. They're not really interesting in using their power to boost the economy, and it's going to cost them big this time around.
Starkist? DelMonte? TUNA?
OK, Can we set the wayback machine for
Bananas, Pineapples, special (fungible)considerations to afford extortion to plantation raiders, and (ahem)Fair-Exchange "considerations"for those impoverished coffee farmers raising "exotic" beans on the retirement-hobby plantations on the distant American territory island nation of Hawai'i?
It's soooooo cool to be seen at Starbucks for HOURS, pretending to be politically enlightened and engaged(with terminal indignation)on-line. Or writing "reviews" of authors, whose ideas I've never read more than the title/bio-CV, for Amazon/Wikipedia. Never fear. "Obama's gonna pay my..." pre-existing condition stress/sedentary, (insert made-up "emotional" disease)violent-victim-(*cough* France/Greece)protester, medical needs bills. I guess I can give up my marginally productive day job now. I've got the "free" APP for streaming MSNBC/NPR via. my hand-held "instant gratification" twitter "account".
Posted by: CaptDMO | October 23, 2010 at 11:07 AM
oops
...my marginally productive, "union labor" rate, day job...
Posted by: CaptDMO | October 23, 2010 at 11:10 AM