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| Charles Payne appeared as a FOX News contributor before his debut as host of "Making Money" |
Payne's ideas, while typical for American Neo-Conservatives, are not usually laid-out so bluntly. While I cannot project into a future where pre-kindergarten may or may not not 'kill' jobs, I can opine on the past, bringing some historical context on where we have been, & what it would mean should the government leave our welfare to the will of capital:
The first attempts to legislate a minimum wage which Americans must be paid emerged from the economic morass of the post-1929 era. Capitalism was undergoing one of its periodic depressions, & this particular 'bust' of the boom-&-bust cycle had certainly left its mark. Millions of people, from Canada to Australia & everywhere in-between were flung into poverty. The international Capitalist system, in 'correcting,' had harmed workers as their national economies went the way of the United States. 1929 unleashed latent revolutionary social unrest. In the United States, Liberalism struggled to contain calls for social reform. In Italy & the Weimar Republic, Nationalism-Fascism became more insistent. The economic depression seemingly did not touch the Soviet Union, increasing support for Communism, & particularly Stalinism, in the United States & Europe.
During this international tragedy, working Americans suffered as some employers went out of business & others were under no obligation to pay them a 'living wage.' With jobs becoming so scarce, wages were depressed, & people were desperate for any work they could find. In 1933, the National Industrial Recovery Act included a stipulation that would establish a minimum wage. However, just 2 years later, the minimum wage in the United States would disappear when the Supreme Court case Schecter Poultry v. The United States invalidated the law in 1935. In some of the earliest, most difficult years of what is called 'The Great Depression,' American workers had no guarantee from the Bourgeoisie that they would be paid enough to live. Contrary to what Charles Payne says, Capitalism & Capitalists are under no compulsion of logic or self-interest to pay employees any particular amount with government acting as the People's Advocate and forcing them to. It is an easy assertion to make today, with the government guaranteeing some sort of standard for wages, but Payne's Neo-Conservative ideology would have been laughable in the Depression, when people were literally living & dying at the mercy of the Market. Government is the only structure powerful enough to serve as the People's Advocate.
And we only have to look at the position of the peasant-like American working-class of the Gilded Age to answer whether the Capitalist is impelled to provide education & a 'fair' wage to workers. Neo-Liberalism, Economic Liberalism, Neo-Conservatism-- Whatever name it may go under is a fantasy that has only ever existed in the realm of ideological philosophy. If Capitalism was left to its own devices, it would create squalor across wide swathes of the United States (& it has already done that, to a lesser extent, *with* regulation). The only force that is slowing down the concentration of wealth is government legislation, enforcement, & intervention in the economy. If this were lifted, & government-mandated wages & government-funded schools were repealed, the true decimatory nature of our economic system would be revealed. We would be under no illusions -- The variety of which we have the luxury to indulge in today.
Neo-Conservatives know very well that it is Capital's imperative and interest to create more capital. The idea that in the struggle for more wealth, that corporations would 'create' minimum wages & schooling on their own, is an ideological myth. It is an ideologically-driven myth that is created and maintained by the Bourgeoisie to justify the transfer of wealth upward in society. Workers must wrest this power away from them, & use it for our own ends. When one looks at the Market, its functions & motivations, human welfare does not enter the equation. Nor should we really expect it to. It is not private capital's responsibility to aid us, nor should it be. We must shed our illusions of the generosity of the Bourgeoisie, and take command of the government, working through it as the People's Advocate.
Minimum wages without government mandate is a fantasy more idealistic than any utopian Marxist could conceive of.
☭Jakob☭
For more on "Making Money With Charles Payne"
For more on Schecter Poultry v. The United States
For information about current minimum wages in the United States
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