Sweeney: Minimum wage should be N.J. constitutional issue

my thoughts on the article

Source: http://tinyurl.com/8p6jcal

Rep. Sweeney,

Please stop pandering for votes. There is a plethora of studies that show the correlation between raising the minimum wage and its negative effect on employment. Businesses are not charities; we create or fill positions when we believe the worker will generate net revenue or net value. Higher minimum wages are especially destructive for people with poor work skills and limited work experience. This is why young people and minorities tend to suffer most – which is exactly what we see in the government data, with the teenage unemployment rates now at an astounding (and depressing) 26 percent level and blacks suffering from a joblessness rate of more than 15 percent.

Yet, it is your last paragraph that is most troubling. “Our state constitution’s overarching goal is to ensure a basic standard and quality of life for residents. For 65 years, the people have amended it to ensure their own security. Amending it to guarantee a livable minimum wage is part of that tradition.”

Your goal is more nefarious and far-reaching perhaps? Let us look at your key words, “basic standard and quality of life” & “guarantee a livable minimum wage.” Who determines what an acceptable “basic standard and quality of life” is? Who determines what a “livable minimum wage” is? Where do you address the root cause of any deficiencies in life style or income? Here is a term you may be familiar with: “personal responsibility”. Liberty and freedom require equality under the law coupled with personal responsibility. What made Americans who we are is a historically unprecedented level of freedom and responsibility. The real danger today is not merely a loss of prosperity,a reduction in our standard of living,  but a loss of the kind of CHARACTER on which prosperity is based! Of course the failure of the American dream couldn't have been caused by declining educational standards because children getting the grades they deserve would hurt their self-esteem;  it’s not due to unfettered illegal unskilled immigration; it’s not due to the destruction of the nuclear family; it’s not due to drugs; it’s not due to alcohol abuse.

If you don't want to be poor, do four things:

1) Finish High School

2) Don't have a child out of wedlock

3) Don't have a child before you are 21.

4) Increase your knowledge/skill set.

Remember: What is popular isn’t necessarily politically responsible.