To the Editor:
In his column Friday (“Minimum wage is a maximum loss for Rhode Island,” Jan. 31), author Scott Lloyd concluded his argument by stating, “Our citizens benefit best when businesses thrive.” What the author failed to mention is that the most widely acknowledged indicator of business health, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, is showing that businesses are in fact thriving. Yesterday it closed at 15,372.80. To be fair and balanced, that amounts to 191 percent of the value under the last conservative executive, President Bush.
What happened? President Obama abandoned the failed experimental economic policies of neo-conservatism. Milton Friedman’s deregulated utopia resulted in the greatest loss of market capital since the Great Depression. In its place arose the standard-bearer of the liberal economic ideal, John Maynard Keynes. Deficit spending once again salvaged a dire circumstance. As unemployment has dropped, the conservative voice has stunk of partisan politics and sour grapes.
U.S. Department of Labor statistics show that GDP per capita has increased every year despite the specter of minimum wage increases touted by the Heritage Foundation. It is indeed correct to state that minimum wage earners’ purchasing power has eroded significantly in the last 45 years. Despite what corporate-financed conservative think tanks may want you to believe, the Labor Department facts prove that business will likely be unaffected by such a wage increase.
Why isn’t the minimum wage tied to inflation? Good question. Perhaps it is time for some money to “trickle down” and fill the hole that has been made over the last 45 years.
Patrick Cusick
Applications engineer, Facilities Management
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