George Zimmerman in the News Again, It Must be Monday
Posted by MichaelGroff on December 9, 2013 | Filed under Podcasts, Uncategorized
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One would think that after being acquitted of murder and man slaughter charges a person would keep a low profile. Luckily for journalists or fans of real-life drama George Zimmerman doesn’t follow that line of reasoning.
It hasn’t even been six months since Zimmerman was found not guilty in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin and already he’s had multiple incidents involving police and/or domestic situations. In September, Zimmerman reportedly was involved in a dispute with his ex-wife in which he allegedly brandished a firearm. Upon investigation he was not charged with a crime for this incident. Last month he was charged with (felony) aggravated assault. According to court documents Zimmerman also pointed a shot gun at his girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe, and was heard acting aggressive toward her on a 911 call.
Today, however, Scheibe would like to drop the charges stating that the police misinterpreted her story and that Zimmerman never pointed a gun at her. This is a stark contrast from the 911 call where Scheibe also notes that Zimmerman broke furniture and was being abusive. Perhaps these two really do deserve one another.
Apparently George Zimmerman is the 21st century version of OJ Simpson; the networks love the story, news junkies are excited and the rest of us would just like him to go away quietly.
“One Big Mac… that’ll be eight dollars please”
Last week thousands of protesters gathered outside various fast food establishments across the country with one simple demand… raise the minimum wage. Currently the U.S. minimum wage is $7.25/hour, but some members of congress along with labor unions and protesters are seeking to more than double this figure (to $15/hour) within the next few years.
The fast food industry is not the only area in which wages are relatively close to the minimum. Some retail outlets, grocery stores and most notably Walmart generally have a starting wage at or just above $7.25/hour. The proposed drastic increase would have a significantly broader reach than just the aforementioned businesses. Call centers, sales/customer service representatives, security guards, even some radio personalities would see their wages tick upwards should this new wage structure be implimented.
What could possibly be wrong with that?
So far the brunt of the discussion seems focused on what is a living wage and whether or not multi-billion dollar corporations have an obligation to provide higher compensation to their employees. What seems to be lost in the discussion is how such a dramatic increase in hourly pay would affect small and medium sized businesses. Some economists believe that McDonalds and Walmart could easily afford to pay all of their employees twice as much as they are now and still turn a profit. While that premise seems very doubtful, let’s go with it for now and focus on the ‘mom-and-pop’ type businesses with much smaller revenues/profit margins.
Stores, restaurants, bars and businesses with a small number of employees generally have a fairly narrow profit margin. Most small business type restaurants can only afford to pay their employees wages under $9/hour in order to still turn a profit. If a small business such as this were forced to increase the wages of their employees to $15/hour one could imagine the ramifications. Business owners would be forced to make difficult decisions; “do I want to increase prices to compensate? I may have to lay off an employee or two as I can’t afford everyone now?”
The second part of the double whammy that such wage hikes would bring impacts the consumer. If a business pays twice as much to it’s employees, how will this affect the price of goods and services? Answer: A lot! Sure, maybe the price of a Big Mac at McDonalds doesn’t increase that dramatically, but the small business/restaurant may suddenly have a radical price increase to compensate.
Finally, if more people are making a higher wage, what happens to the value of the dollar? Did basic high school economics escape law makers and proponents of this wage increase? The more money that flows into an economy, the less valuable the dollar becomes.
Also on this Episode…
– Seattle Mariners break the bank and pay Robinson Cano a ten year deal valued somewhere between ‘insane’ and ‘A-Rod’
– Remember that story about the New Jersey restaurant worker stiffed out of a tip for being “gay”. Dayne Morales posted her story on facebook and received sympathy donations and a huge outpouring of support…. too bad her story was a complete hoax. As a lovely bonus, she’s a proven pathological liar—even regarding her military service.
– Joan Jett makes it into a headline in the 21st century.
– The pop chart makes us wish we were listening to Joan Jett instead…
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July 19, 2015 at 10:38 am
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