March 9, 2019 photo of Presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden Jr. preparing to address a crowd in Detroit, one day prior to the Michigan COVID outbreak. (Lucky Statesman Archives).

Socialist Wish List: Biden Calls to Double Minimum Wage
5/5/2021

President Biden's first joint address to Congress was music to the ears of every American socialist.

In addition to a proposed $4T spending plan, the president called on Congress to put a bill on his desk that would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. Unfortunately, this is not the same Joe Biden that campaigned on unity and bipartisanship.

President Biden failed to justify how a $4T spending plan would help our economy after a government-induced recession. Biden's justification was the possibility of temporary jobs. He mentioned a payment method by raising taxes on people making more than $400,000 a year and raising the capital gains tax, but that wouldn't scrape the surface of an expense this size.

After the address, Biden was seen rubbing elbows with mathematically impaired Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Bernie Sanders. The two exchanged mask-hidden smiles as an unspoken message of solidarity.

On the surface, Biden's call to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour may seem like a step in the right direction to fight for the working class, but it has never worked out that way.

A mandated wage increase to $15 an hour makes it illegal for one to voluntarily work if the value of the service they provide is any amount less than $15 an hour. A business owner with thin profit margins trying to stay afloat under the current conditions will undoubtedly go out of business if this legislation is signed. Among businesses that are currently well off, profit margins will decrease because of the new expense. Many think that America's businesses can afford this wage hike but fail to recognize that a decrease in a companies profits inhibits their possible expansion, innovation, and future job creation. As a result, the American economy across the board will weaken, more people will be out of work, there will be fewer jobs available for young people, and hours will be cut.

The people that this legislation is intended to save will be at the brunt of this strike to our economy. According to a Harvard Business School study, if the minimum wage is raised by $1, a restaurant is 4 to 10 percent more likely to go out of business. If Democrats double the federal minimum wage, from $7.25 to $15, the impact on businesses would be incomprehensible.

Aside from the effect a minimum wage hike would have on jobs, the minimum wage would pump up the cost of goods. For a business to survive a dramatic increase in the cost of production, it would have to increase the price of its service(s) or product(s). As a result, it will lead to higher prices for the middle class and everyday Americans.

An effective free-market solution to increasing wages for those who accurately proclaim their work is worth more than they're paid is collective bargaining. Grassroots unions have been proven to be an effective strategy to increase wages for those who deserve an increase.

President Biden has been in government for nearly half of a century. He knows the impact raising the minimum wage will have on our country in the long term. Unfortunately, Biden does not care about the long-term effect because his only focus is to push a far-left agenda in an attempt to buy votes. The only goal he has in mind is to win in 2024 to remain in office throughout the 2020s until the age of 86.