Tioga Herald

My reply on Daily Kos article, “Las Vegas restaurant manager shows exactly why he might be having trouble hiring workers”:

Someone replies with, “We often seem to forget that these are localized phenomena, as is the notion of a living wage.” Agreed. This statement describes part of a complex problem. I believe minimum wage and unemployment numbers need to be set at a more local level. I must say that when one is searching for a job, they should inquire as to the rate of pay. What is the sense otherwise? With benefits being trashed and other really bad treatment of employees, what gives incentive to work? I don’t think it is the amount in an unemployment check. With that being said, I can also explain what local management in Florida did when we, in a union, tried to ask for a salary comparable with the higher cost of living. In an area in Florida, just to the north of us, the workers were getting a higher salary with a lower cost of living. If cooks find this to be happening, then I say they should go for it. But they are not lazy in doing so. As a company man in a corporation, I was loyal to the company. Then Republican lovers of money came in to take over the corporation in order to merge it with others and create a monopoly. Employees may have been loyal to the company, but these Republican jerks could have cared less about loyalty, as in the days of Thomas J. Watson at IBM and other corporations. In the case of our union in Florida, we lost employees to this other area with a lower cost of living. Also, there was a different union representing the employees there. This opens up other methods to fix the problem. Change the union or move to where the union is negotiating something better. In today’s world, if there are plenty of jobs, then capitalist supply and demand dictates the process. Or else the union which is being trashed with lower salaries than what is affordable with a higher cost of living is fortunate enough to negotiate a better price. But if the management then turns and uses denial about the cost of living (denial is a word which frequently describes many Republicans in management today), and refuse to negotiate, like McConnell in the U.S. Senate, then what can be done? A management which tries to use the cost of living overall in the southeastern United States rather than the cost of living in the Miami metropolitan area are absurd nutso people. But they dig in their heels and refuse to listen and compromise. This is why I say this is a very complex issue which requires people ON BOTH SIDES to hold to their principles, but compromise on the actions taken. Also to not be in denial about what the cost of living really is. And I have other examples. Such as a county in upstate New York where one end of the county pays a higher teacher salary than at the other end of the county, due to which union represents the group and the cost of living in each area of the county.In this case, unlike the dismal experience with a south Florida bunch of idiots in management where it ended up the area with a lower cost of living received a higher wage, in this upstate NY county, back in the 1970s, the salaries better matched the cost of living in each part of the county. This is where I say minimum wage should be determined at a more localized and/or state level. The Scandinavian countries are socialist democracies. Yet, they have no minimum wage because the cost of living is somewhat closer across the board in those nations. What if the European Union decided to impose a minimum wage across all of Europe? Do they do this? I doubt it, but correct me if I am wrong. At any rate, such an event, if true, would likely not set well in the socialist democratic nations of Scandinavia where, in Denmark, the people have been surveyed, along with all around the world, and the Danes come up as the happiest people on earth. How does that compare with a survey which combines all people in the European Union? The last survey like this one and the USA ranked down about 26th. I began this reply agreeing with the statement: ““We often seem to forget that these are localized phenomena, as is the notion of a living wage.” My experiences and observations validate this as being a rational thought.