Minimum-wage spiral

Decades ago, American businesses would hire the neighborhood kid for a few bucks an hour to do basic work. The kids with no skills had a job that allowed them to save for their future: education and later a car and housing. And society was rewarded with an independent adult with skills and the start of a lifelong work ethic.

Now the socialists pander to the people, delivering on higher minimum wage, now $12 an hour for minimal or no skills. The result is higher homelessness and forcing business to find ways to deliver a product without human hands touching it. Fast-food joints now showcase the ordering kiosks in their lobby. Convenience stores now feature lottery machines dispensing tickets. Supermarkets and restaurants are replacing employees with checkout and ordering computers.

The politicians get richer while parents are saddled with higher taxes and adult kids who can’t find work for their minimal skills. Other minimum wage workers double and triple-up on apartments and houses trying to survive. As the tent cities multiply, the rich politicians wring their hands (knowing they created the misery) and cry for higher wages and taxes, to solve their self-inflicted problem.

Larry Treffry

Spokane