To the Editor,

H.L. Menken speaking of political parties posited that “one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule and both commonly succeed, and they are right.” As you point our in your Nov. 19 editorial, Democratic presidential candidates argue for a minimum wage while Republican candidates disagree with the idea. Your opinion weighed the merits of the idea against the increased cost of labor and how that was sorted out by the supply/demand theory from Econ. 101.

I am not trained in economics but I do recognize the wisdom of George Bernard Shaw’s quip that, “If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion. Other things beside cost of labor ought to be considered. Steadily declining labor market participation ought to bother us all. Fewer and fewer people are making the effort because of backward incentives that do not value hard work. If you look at the percentage of Americans working wince 2007, the graph looks like a slide in a playground.

Standard and Poors worries that U.S. economic growth is held down by growing income inequality. In 1979, 59.9 percent of American households earned enough to be considered middle class (between 0.5 and 1.5 times the national median income). By 2012, that had fallen to 45.1 percent. The trend is not our friend, just look around and talk to working people. This is that multiplier effect. If one has disposable income, one spends it. They go to the movies, out to eat and so forth. If you don’t have it you don’t and that leads to contraction of goods and services. Remember that about 70 percent of our economy is driven by consumer spending.

Sociologists (I am not one of those either) observe that higher income inequality leads to lower marriage rates. Higher income earners continue to marry while lower income do not in as great a number. This opens the consequence of single parent families and the struggles such a situation involves for the children and adult. This provides societal costs as well.

People working for low wages want the best for themselves and their families. The pressures that they face impact us as well. Some low wage workers are subsidized by the government’s safety net. These costs and others get left out of the conversation. The variables I have mentioned and more seldom get discussed as to their impact on the larger society and economy.

A free and open consideration of such issues is needed. However, we cannot have that because lines are drawn between political parties and the name calling and mean spiritedness make genuine inquiry next to impossible. Minimum wage and income inequality are two issues of many that cannot get resolved due to Democrats and Republicans (or any political party I know of) talking past each other rather than to each other. If we cannot deal with long-term issues, we will not be the first society to have failed to learn from others’ mistakes.

 

Joe Phipps

Washington