WAGES: Look closely at motives

Would raising the minimum wage in Coeur d’Alene help or hurt workers? The easy answer is that it puts more money in the pockets of workers at low-wage jobs, so it would help them. Then again, if we were to raise the starting wage here, wouldn’t Spokane job seekers cross over and try to compete for a job here that pays 50 percent more than the same job in Washington?

If you ran a fast-food franchise in Coeur d’Alene and you were forced to pay $15 per hour, would you be more likely to hire a local kid with no experience or someone who was a shift manager at a similar franchise in Spokane? So, you would have to raise your prices (as McDonald’s franchises in Seattle have) making fast food more expensive, while making it harder for entry-level job seekers to find a job here. Perhaps they could learn to work in Spokane …

Sadly, many of the proponents of this measure understand that it will inflict more damage than good. Their actual intent is to create victims that they can use to further their agenda. For example, if a person is lucky enough to have a job, it pays well because progressive policymakers pushed the wage hike. If another person can’t find a job, it is because corporations are evil and business owners are greedy. Vote for liberals and they will wage war against the evil businesses.

So, the proponents can’t lose. The people they are pandering to lack the intellectual capacity to understand that they are being played as fools and pawns in a political game. They can’t actually understand the ramifications of it, in the same way that a child thinks the idea of ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner has no downside.

LARRY SPENCER

Kootenai County