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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLow-wage corporate exploiters dressed as mom & pop | Posted by Jim Hightower
When corporate lobbyists and the congress critters they control attack efforts to raise the minimum wage to at least a bare level of human decency, they always try to cast the issue as an intolerable squeeze on struggling mom & pop stores. But wait what are those growling gorillas doing behind mom & pop's cash register?
Why they're multibillion-dollar, brand-name chains. These corporate behemoths not mom & pop are the chief exploiters of millions of low-wage American workers. They're rank profiteers, constantly lobbying in Congress, states, and cities to hold down working families, even as they wallow in record profits and shell out exorbitant, multimillion-dollar paychecks to their top executives.
When the people of Seattle recently agreed to raise the minimum pay in their city to $15 an hour, an outfit called the International Franchise Association wept crocodile tears for local small business owners, pledging to sue the city to overturn the "unfair" wage law. Don't look now, but IAF is not local and does not represent mom & pop. It's a Washington, DC, lobbying consortium made up of franchised corporate chains intent on keeping America's wage floor beneath the poverty level.
The chairman of IAF's executive committee is a McDonald's executive. Its board of directors sparkles with a who's who of superwealthy corporations, including Coca Cola, Marriott Hotels, Dunkin Donuts, Pepsi Food Services, and Taco Bell. Excuse me if I don't weep over the "tragedy" of them finally being made to pay honest wages.
http://jimhightower.com/node/8357
stuffmatters
(2,574 posts)I'm so sick of our lazy nightly local news representing The San Diego Taxpayers Assoc as small businesses, (even taxpaying people!) opposed to raising the minimum wage. Both the local Chamber of Commerce and this San Diego Taxpayers Assoc are just fronts for big business interests. They don't represent San Diego "Taxpayers", have never been elected or appointed by actual taxpayers, yet are always cited as some kind of local "people's" and small business representatives. A simple glance at the members of the Board of Director's on this San Diego Taxpayers Association belies Corporate/ALEC agenda only.
DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)The fact that the chains are the biggest threat to mom and pop.
IronLionZion
(45,380 posts)Mom and pop stores don't really have exorbitant lobbying power or make that much. They complain about the taxes on the 1% claiming it hurts small businesses, which is laughable to anyone who ever thinks about it.
If mom and pop are hurting, and I'm sure some of them are, then the lawmakers should tie it to revenue somehow. Like higher revenue "small businesses" should pay higher minimum wage. The rush to cut costs on everything to be "efficient" is a national problem that holds back economic growth and encourages unscrupulous behavior.