NY Times Letters to the Editor on Bob Herbert's column

[La_Serpiente]

Found this letter over at the times.

To the Editor:

Bob Herbert (column, Dec. 15) sees the current $5.15 minimum wage as "pathetic." He's right, but for the wrong reason. The minimum wage is pathetic, not because it's too low, but because it makes unemployable our least productive and most vulnerable workers. Those whose productivity falls short of the minimum wage are not able to get or keep jobs. Raising the minimum wage would further hurt their chance for jobs.

In fact, the minimum wage should be abolished. The Times put it well in an excellent 1987 editorial, "The Right Minimum Wage: $0.00." You stated, "Raising the minimum wage by a substantial amount would price working poor people out of the job market."

That was true then, and it's true now. Those who want to help the poor should concentrate on eliminating barriers that prevent them from getting jobs, rather than erecting new ones.

DAVID R. HENDERSON
Pacific Grove, Calif., Dec. 15, 2003
The writer is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Letters to the Editor

I don't know how much longer I can handle Republicans.

[Nay]

1. Of course, they always refuse to address the question:

"So which poor people care that they are priced out of a job market that would pay them a dollar an hour?" No one can live on that, so what's the difference between that and what we have now? At least a min wage sets some sort of floor for people who can hold jobs.

[rfranklin]

2. Notice that their role model is Hoover...

Herbert Hoover or J. Edgar? Take your pick.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. I'm surprised he doesn't advocate slavery

you know, 'hiring people for life' in exchange for maybe food, clothing, and shelter. Oh, and the boss gets to buy and sell you.