This is also the case with the ACA, we tack on a massive amount of regulation onto an already broken system to fix a problem with only 10% of the population. That 10% of the population gets helped (and that is debatable) at the expense of everyone else - how many people lost their insurance or are stand a good chance of loosing it?Appears the CBO has estimated that somewhere between 500,000 and 1,000,000 jobs will be lost due to Obama’s hike in the minimum wage for federal contractors. On the flip side, it also estimated that the hike would take an approximately equal number out of poverty.
So, that’s the choice. Is it the moral choice to put one man out of work entirely so another man can earn some $3.00 more per hour?
Hard to believe either of the numbers until one realizes that “federal contractors” are a very wide range of businesses. That doesn’t mean “federal employees”, but the employees of any company that does business with the government. So that would include virtually all healthcare companies, food producers, concessionaires in federal parks, etc.
And, of course, the CBO could be wrong in either case. But the real point here is that there’s no “free lunch” when it comes to government fiats. Someone always pays the price. And therefore, there is no self-evident or even probable “moral imperative” to raise the national minimum wage. Might be the moral thing to do, depending on result; might be the immoral thing to do depending on the same thing.
So, in expressing his own political opinion about the minimum wage, the good Archbishop spoke a bit early, perhaps. And that he did it on USCCB stationery could have the unfortunate consequence of causing people to imagine that somehow the Catholic Church supports the Archbishop’s opinion, including the job loss that the CBO seems to think would result.
In my opinion, clerics should be more careful about such things.
“…, but rather as pastors and teachers who every day, in our ministries and churches, see the pain and struggles caused by an economy that simply does not produce enough jobs with just wages”So if the bishop is not speaking as an economist and explaining what the best economic solution is and he’s not speaking from church doctrine telling us what the right moral choice is what, exactly, is he speaking as? The letter stated…
The stated purpose was…If he isn’t saying that raising the minimum wage is right either economically or morally then what is he telling us?
The claim that a raise in the MW will cause job losses is false. It is a cruel myth intending to crush the low income worker and to increase income for the wealthy. Already we have seen in the USA since 1970, a huge increase in the disparity of income between the working poor and the top one percent. As His Holiness Pope Francis has taught in Evangelii Gaudium, - the structural causes of inequality must be attacked in order to find a solution to the problems of the world.
- Please link these studies,…
Then take it up with the Congressional Budget Office, which thinks differently. If you have the evidence to refute the CBO perhaps you will share it with us before confronting them.The claim that a raise in the MW will cause job losses is false. .
Not every issue is a moral issue, but of course auto repair can be a moral issue. That is why there have been so many investigations exposing fraud in the business. For example, suppose your starter goes bad and your auto repair man tells you that he only uses genuine Honda parts and that a genuine Honda starter will cost $450. You approve the deal, but he substitutes a rebuilt starter which costs $100. It is a moral issue when a repair shop charges you for the genuine part, but substitutes a rebuilt one.If this was true then every issue would be a moral issue, even car repair.
Probably somebody can (probably already has) cherry-picked some economists and academicians who predict disaster from it. I think we can trust the White House Council’s proclamations on this about as much as we can trust their pronouncements on Obamacare, Benghazi and the IRS scandal.With reference to the latest report from the CBO, "
“Jason Furman, the chairman of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, said the CBO’s finding is flawed.
“CBO’s estimates of the impact of raising the minimum wage on employment does not reflect the current consensus view of economists,” he said in a blog post. “The bulk of academic studies, have concluded that the effects on employment of minimum wage increases in the range now under consideration are likely to be small to nonexistent.”"
Read more: thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/198631-white-house-pushes-back-on-cbo-minimum-wage-report#ixzz2tnWSbyBL
Since the lead paragraph in the article cited by the OP was this…*Writing in the Fort Lauderdale-based Sun-Sentinel, Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who serves as chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, called for an increase in the minimum wage. *The stated purpose was…
We urge you to consider closely any legislation that begins to heal our broken economy by promoting decent work and ensuring fair and just compensation for all workers.
We can of course act immorally in any situation but that doesn’t mean there is any particular moral question involved unique to that situation. It really makes no sense to claim that everything is a moral question because that erases the distinction between those issues that present us with specific moral choices and those that do not. If I choose wrongly in deciding what part of my car is preventing it from starting I have made a mistake, but if I choose wrongly in deciding whether or not to support (e.g.) euthanasia I have sinned. Big difference.Not every issue is a moral issue, but of course auto repair can be a moral issue.
Envy is a really horrible thing.CHAPTER TWO of the Catechism -
YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF
Jesus said to his disciples: "Love one another even as I have loved you."1
There seems to be many arguments in maintaining the current minimum wage but few of these are balanced with empathy in understanding in how it is for people in those. circumstances.
The Catechism also says
It is a part of the Church’s mission "to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it. the means, the only means, she may use are those which are in accord with the Gospel and the welfare of all men according to the diversity of times and circumstances."53
As Catholics these are doctrines we are to follow.
When you compare $7 an hour with the top paid CEO in 2012
ORACLE CORP Lawrence J. Ellison $96,160,696
TESLA MOTORS INC Elon Musk $78,150,010
GAMCO INVESTORS INC Mario J. Gabelli $68,970,486
ACTIVISION BLIZZARD INC Robert A. Kotick $64,942,306
CBS CORP Leslie Moonves $62,157,026
CHENIERE ENERGY INC Charif Souki $57,518,332
CREDIT ACCEPTANCE CORP Brett A. Roberts $54,282,500
MCKESSON CORP John H. Hammergren $51,744,999
DISCOVERY COMM INC David M. Zaslav $49,932,867
HCA HOLDINGS INC Richard M. Bracken $46,359,246
While these people may have important positions it is hard to argue that one person can earn $1,849,244 a week while another earns $280.
If you read the definition posted above, you will notice that envy involves wanting another’s good for oneself. Envy is not an issue here.Envy is a really horrible thing.
2539 Envy is a capital sin. It refers to the sadness at the sight of another’s goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself, even unjustly. When it wishes grave harm to a neighbor it is a mortal sin:
You should really talk to your spiritual director about the unhealthy attitude you demonstrated in your post.
Fortunately we do not have a Pope that goes around wringing his hands over how some media will spin his words. I for one don’t swallow everything I read in the paper. Do you?Since the lead paragraph in the article cited by the OP was this…
Writing in the Fort Lauderdale-based Sun-Sentinel…,
It very well is envy. (and jealousy)It’s not Envy…
Sorry I’m not up on my Pope Leo’s XIII RERUM NOVARUM of 1891It very well is envy. (and jealousy)
Maybe not for you personally, but sociologically, it most certainly is.
Perhaps you need to brush up a little bit on papal infallibility:Sorry I’m not up on my Pope Leo’s XIII RERUM NOVARUM of 1891
(but he does state “that the hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands of comparatively few; so that a small number of very rich men have been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself.”)
I was just following the current doctrine of Pope Francis - who teachings are seen as infallible (nor would an infallible definition ever occur in *any *Apostolic Exhoration).
I just believe that compassion is one of the most fundamental elements of Catholicism and that to love my neighbour means to acknowledge we live in an society.
Lots of money. Of course, we don’t know how much of it is in the form of stock options, the value of which depends on the company’s and CEO’s performance.CHAPTER TWO of the Catechism -
YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF
Jesus said to his disciples: "Love one another even as I have loved you."1
There seems to be many arguments in maintaining the current minimum wage but few of these are balanced with empathy in understanding in how it is for people in those. circumstances.
The Catechism also says
It is a part of the Church’s mission "to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it. the means, the only means, she may use are those which are in accord with the Gospel and the welfare of all men according to the diversity of times and circumstances."53
As Catholics these are doctrines we are to follow.
When you compare $7 an hour with the top paid CEO in 2012
ORACLE CORP Lawrence J. Ellison $96,160,696
TESLA MOTORS INC Elon Musk $78,150,010
GAMCO INVESTORS INC Mario J. Gabelli $68,970,486
ACTIVISION BLIZZARD INC Robert A. Kotick $64,942,306
CBS CORP Leslie Moonves $62,157,026
CHENIERE ENERGY INC Charif Souki $57,518,332
CREDIT ACCEPTANCE CORP Brett A. Roberts $54,282,500
MCKESSON CORP John H. Hammergren $51,744,999
DISCOVERY COMM INC David M. Zaslav $49,932,867
HCA HOLDINGS INC Richard M. Bracken $46,359,246
While these people may have important positions it is hard to argue that one person can earn $1,849,244 a week while another earns $280.
You should re-read your link. They hide it, but they do admit the effects predicted. They show a 4% increase in prices for a 10% increase in the MW. So while employment may not have changed much, (although I wasn’t impressed with their analysis or conclusion on that point), other possible outcomes (which were predicted) showed up right on cue. Namely, wage increase expenses were passed on to the consumer.Why does the minimum wage have no discernible effect on employment?
John Schmitt
cepr.net/documents/publications/min-wage-2013-02.pdf
And there are about twenty other studies, showing no discernible effect on employment due to an increase in the minimum wage.
Because it doesn’t just affect the lowest 2%. If the MW is increased to $10/hour, then those currently making $10/hr will want a raise. The reason they want a raise is because they know they are more productive, more skilled, and a better employee than a MW worker. So MW increases affect quite a bit.If there is a connection, which is highly debatable, since how can the lowest 2% of the labor force have a big impact on the cost of living, the real question is what is the direction of causality? Perhaps the high MW is caused by the high cost of living? Bring down the cost of living and there will be less reason to raise the MW.