quote:

Bush lifts wage rules for Katrina President signs executive order allowing contractors to pay below prevailing wage in affected areas. September 8, 2005: 9:42 PM EDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush issued an executive order Thursday allowing federal contractors rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage. In a notice to Congress, Bush said the hurricane had caused "a national emergency" that permits him to take such action under the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act in ravaged areas of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi. Bush's action came as the federal government moved to provide billions of dollars in aid, and drew rebukes from two of organized labor's biggest friends in Congress, Rep. George Miller of California and Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats. "The administration is using the devastation of Hurricane Katrina to cut the wages of people desperately trying to rebuild their lives and their communities," Miller said. "President Bush should immediately realize the colossal mistake he has made in signing this order and rescind it and ensure that America puts its people back to work in the wake of Katrina at wages that will get them and their families back on their feet," Miller said. "I regret the president's decision," said Kennedy. "One of the things the American people are very concerned about is shabby work and that certainly is true about the families whose houses are going to be rebuilt and buildings that are going to be restored," Kennedy said. The Davis-Bacon law requires federal contractors to pay workers at least the prevailing wages in the area where the work is conducted. It applies to federally funded construction projects such as highways and bridges. Bush's executive order suspends the requirements of the Davis-Bacon law for designated areas hit by the storm.

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/08/new...ina_wages.reut/

Bush is without a doubt the worst president in the history of the United States. When he is so blatently on the side of big business and religious idealogs its just sick.

Lets see the Republicans on this board defend this decision?

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*shakes head in dismay*

i wonder how the prevailing wage is defined. i imagine it's at the least the federal minimum wage. in any case, it just looks bad politically even if it's economic impact is negligible.



OFF TOPIC

my god dj, 55 posts in 5 years. wow.

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I dunno, I dont think this is something people should be overly too worried about. The business environment in the area is shot to pieces and manpower is a necessity. Minimum wages in this case just provide dissincentive for firms to hire enough people to get the job done.. No one will be forced to work at low wages. Lets remember that the workers are only there because they want to work, and not because they're slaves that are forced to work.. If NO ONE wants to work then the wage will naturally be pushed above the prevailing minimum wage. Its just supply and demand

I know, it's sad that businesses still have to put their bottom lines in front of getting such an important job done.. but such is life of the corporation.

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quote:

Originally posted by Dupz The business environment in the area is shot to pieces and manpower is a necessity. Minimum wages in this case just provide dissincentive for firms to hire enough people to get the job done.. No one will be forced to work at low wages.

Exactly.
You'll only scare businesses away with a high min. wage; even new potential local businesses.

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basic law of economics...The more something costs, the less you get of it.

Higher cost of labor = less workers (and more substitutes)

If you really cared about the poor and unemployed, you should support the abolition of the minimum wage as well as MAJOR tax reductions for all workers and employers in this country.

The government has never created a dime of wealth. When you advocate policies that get in the way of free markets, you are only hurting those you claim to care about.

quote:

Originally posted by Capitalizt basic law of economics...The more something costs, the less you get of it. Higher cost of labor = less workers (and more substitutes) If you really cared about the poor and unemployed, you should support the abolition of the minimum wage as well as MAJOR tax reductions for all workers and employers in this country. The government has never created a dime of wealth. When you advocate policies that get in the way of free markets, you are only hurting those you claim to care about.

Yea thats what the Tories said when Labour introduced the minimum wage in the UK, and do you know what? They were COMPLETELY wrong

Maybe you should spend your parents vast quantities of money on some economic lessons? I mean, you just dont have a clue!

Eg "Higher cost of labor = less workers"

Er no...if you wanna talk simple economic terms then 'Higher cost of labour' = higher prices

quote:

Originally posted by Capitalizt basic law of economics...The more something costs, the less you get of it. Higher cost of labor = less workers (and more substitutes) If you really cared about the poor and unemployed, you should support the abolition of the minimum wage as well as MAJOR tax reductions for all workers and employers in this country.

Yeh so America can turn into 3rd world country like INDIA and pay everyone $2/hour and have the few large corporations control 90% of wealth distribution. If they abolish the minuimum wage in America people wont have Walmart to worry about, but every freaken employer of blue color labor would exploit the system. One thing we learn from human nature is you give the person the carrot he is always going to take it.

I wonder if Haliburton will take over reconstruction? will they pay them 3 dollars a day? someone will make big money off the diaster ,just not the people who lost everything.imho vote these republicans out in 2006 save america from another diaster !!!

-On a side note: Yeh I have 55+ posts in 5 years.. I'm batting a good average where I wanna avg about 10-15 posts a year.

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Last edited by dj on Sep-09-2005 at 15:34

quote:

Originally posted by dj -On a side note: Yeh I have 55+ posts in 5 years.. I'm batting a good average where I wanna avg about 10-15 posts a year.

I think you just exceeded your post limit for this quarter.

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quote:

Originally posted by George Smiley Yea thats what the Tories said when Labour introduced the minimum wage in the UK, and do you know what? They were COMPLETELY wrong Maybe you should spend your parents vast quantities of money on some economic lessons? I mean, you just dont have a clue! Eg "Higher cost of labor = less workers" Er no...if you wanna talk simple economic terms then 'Higher cost of labour' = higher prices

ACTUALLY...when minimum wage increases, so does the unemployment rate. Higher cost of labor will in fact lead to a higher COST OF DOING BUSINESS. Companies can not just raise prices everytime their costs of doing business increase, so in order to compensate for the higher costs, they use less workers. Read any economics text book and you'll see.

For example, say you have five employees at McDonald's that make $5 an hour. The company is paying $25 per hour for these five workers. The gov't then comes along and raises the minimum wage to $6 an hour. Now McDonald's must pay $30 for the same amount of labor. It's ridiculous to think that a McDonald's restaurant will go through all the trouble of changing all their prices on the menu just because their costs went up. It's more realistic, and much easier, to lay off one employee and pay four workers $6 an hour for a total cost of $24 an hour. See...minimum wage goes up and so does unemployment.

And dj, just because he temporarily suspended the minimum wage in the affected areas does not mean we're turning into a third world country...get a grip. He's merely doing it to stimulate business and reconstruction in the area. Companies still will have to pay a good price for premium labor. A guy with an engineering degree who's supposed to help reconstruct rigs isn't going to be paid $3 an hour, nor are the actual construction workers.

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quote:

Originally posted by Vyper0987 ACTUALLY...when minimum wage increases, so does the unemployment rate.

And like I said, not proven to be the case...

quote:

Originally posted by George Smiley And like I said, not proven to be the case...

It's an older study (five years ago), but the case hasn't changed.

http://www.ncpa.org/hotlines/min/employ.html

http://www.ncpa.org/studies/s190/s190c.html

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quote:

Originally posted by Vyper0987 And just because he temporarily suspended the minimum wage in the affected areas does not mean we're turning into a third world country...get a grip. He's merely doing it to stimulate business and reconstruction in the area.

I wasnt saying we are turning into a third world country because of temporarily suspending the minumum wage in hurricane hit areas. What I was commenting on is "Capitalizt" post about advocating eliminating minimum wage to somehow decrease poor in this country.

All that will do is drive a large wage gap between rich and poor. There is already a problem in America with the shrinking middle class. The problem is that the wage distribution in America is so far off tilt with fairness. Why does a CEO deserve 100x times the average employees salary of the company he works for? CEO's play dumb when shit hits the fan like ENRON or WORLDCOM, but when things go right like @ GE Jack Welch becomes some sudo American Business Icon. Its really the problem of a greedy capitalist culture.

/dj

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