Just a quick link to Misanthrope Girl's post on the Living Wage... and the illuminating arithmetic showing that the only reason why there is a gap between the "Living Wage" and the National Minimum Wage is because of the tax that is taken.
So, obviously, the response of the caring Left is to argue that the State should stop pushing the income of minimum-wage earners below what it regards as a living wage and take these people out of the tax system, lifting them from poverty at a stroke? Errr, no, they want to force employers to increase wages so that the State gets even more money, employers are left with even less (in a time of economic difficulty...) and the employee is left with the same.
The Left has always been about stealing money from the productive in order to line their own pockets and create cosy jobs for their supporters, but it is a while since they have been this transparent about it.
All wrong. Nice people want everyone's lot to be improved. They don't want a race to the bottom by cutting public sector pay/pensions they want a race to the top by improving private sector pay/pensions. Only nasty selfish greedy people think that the tax and benefit system is too complicated and creates perverse incentives for employers and the low paid.
ReplyDeleteIt would all be totally affordable if Starbucks and Ikea and eBay and Google paid their fair share of tax instead of naughtily abiding by the law, and if employers accepted lower evil profit margins and invested more in their human capital for the long term.
What a very negative blog post. Shame on you!
[Enough platitudes for you? I knew the game was up when this argument was put forward by someone I know who works for a major investment bank.]