If You’re Going To Have A Minimum Wage, You Need A Minimum Purchase

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – Why is it any different for the State to compel a business person to pay someone for a service that is rendered, and voluntary service that is rendered, at a preordained or predetermined price?  Why shouldn’t the State then be able to compel, or why shouldn’t the store be able to use the power of the State to compel the consumer to spend a minimum amount?  Don’t feed me this crap that the State has an interest here and only the State can do this.  Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

 

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  Hello, Dennis.

Caller Dennis:  Good morning, sir.  First off, I took my second trip down to New Orleans over Easter weekend with my family.  That was the first time I’d been there since the storm.  I’ve got to say, I like the city much better with the people in it than when it was empty like it was.  We had a wonderful time.  My son who’s looking at culinary arts was pretty much in heaven.  A lot of interesting people and very good people.  I really enjoyed it.  Vacationing in the city is not normally what I would consider a vacation but I did enjoy my time.

Mike:  Don’t wander outside of where the street signs say: Hey, tourist, you’re about to enter no-man’s land; turn around right now or lock and load.

Caller Dennis:  Believe me, we looked like the Hollywood version of tourists.  Right to my question, whether or not there should be a minimum wage aside — I don’t believe in it myself — we do have it.  And it’s one of those issues that comes up from time to time that drives you crazy —

Mike:  I’d like to say, because I wasn’t around when this was discussed, if you believe in the minimum wage, I’m going to say I believe in a minimum purchase then.  If you believe in a minimum wage, then when you go into a store where there is a set minimum wage as the State has dictated it, then there must be a minimum purchase, citizen.  You can’t go into a minimum wage store without purchasing at least $150 or whatever the case may be because that’s what it takes — if everyone that comes in here doesn’t make a minimum purchase, then I can’t pay my minimum wage.  Why is it any different for the State to compel a business person to pay someone for a service that is rendered, and voluntary service that is rendered, at a preordained or predetermined price?  Why shouldn’t the State then be able to compel, or why shouldn’t the store be able to use the power of the State to compel the consumer to spend a minimum amount?  Don’t feed me this crap that the State has an interest here and only the State can do this.  Fine, I’m going to go ahead and agree with you and flip it on its head.  We’ll have minimum wage and we’ll have minimum purchases.  How about that?

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Caller Dennis:  I would agree with you.  I can’t see where a set wage at a federal level applies equally across all 50 states.  You know and I know and everyone else that travels around the country knows that $7.50 an hour or whatever it actually is right now is going to have so much purchasing power in someplace like New York City or Los Angeles, but in Podunk or somewhere like that, it’s going to have more.  It’s an unequal amount.  To have one blanket minimum, it just constantly leaves open this thing like what happened a couple weeks ago.  They make it some big, giant issue that really isn’t an issue, in my eyes.  I don’t believe in all these different shades of gray that we paint everything nowadays.  Because Congress created this monster, do they have a responsibility periodically, whether it’s yearly, three years, five years, to look at raising it based off the cost-of-living increases that occur?

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Mike:  Kevin, you’re next on Mike Church Show.  How you doing?

Caller Kevin:  The question about the minimum wage, how do you feel about, if they’re going to raise the minimum wage a dollar or two or whatever they want to do, if they would give something back to the business owner in terms of some kind of a tax break on the backend so it balances things out?  I think that would be a way to go if they’re going to raise labor costs.

Mike:  So you want minimum wage so you can get a subsidy?

Caller Kevin:  No, no.  Let’s say I own a Papa John’s pizza delivery franchise location in the State of New York, let’s say.  They want to raise the minimum wage from whatever it is, $7.25, let’s say up to $9 an hour.  I would be okay with that if they would give me as the business owner some kind of a tax break on the backend so that I can balance out my books better.

Mike:  No, no, no.  The answer is no.  In the first instance, just because some other nitwits vote for the minimum wage, I would not be one of them.  To compound the error, I’m not going to set what amounts to a subsidy up in the tax code so it can be milked and abused to compensate for it.  For both questions, I’m in the negative.  I’m going to have to express my disapprobation at either query.

Caller Kevin:  I’m not necessarily for or against.  I’ve got mixed feelings back and forth on the minimum wage itself.  They keep wanting to raise it.

Mike:  Then let’s have minimum purchases at Papa John’s, which for some deliveries you do.  You have to order over ten bucks.  Okay, let’s have a minimum wage.  The minimum purchase is now $35.  You have to make that statutory.  You can’t make it voluntary.  If the wage is not voluntary, then the minimum purchase can’t be voluntary.  Either way, the State is compelling people to pay for things they otherwise would not pay for.  If you are for State coercion in the first instance, which is the minimum wage, then you need to be for State coercion in the other instance, which is to compensate the business owner for the minimum purchase.

Caller Kevin:  I’m with you; I get you.  I was just curious.  I was thinking that might be a good idea to offset on the backend.

Mike:  Isn’t that logical?  That’s logical.  Where’s the fault in the logic?

End Mike Church Show Transcript

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