MIN WAGE FEE - What's wrong with telling folks "This charge brought to you by your Government"? - Granite Grok

MIN WAGE FEE – What’s wrong with telling folks “This charge brought to you by your Government”?

There are times I bookmark a post and then promptly forget about it because lots of other stuff is going on.  I ran across this post last year and never got around to it – but it still rings true. If Government mandates higher taxes through one means or another, why shouldn’t a business let its customers know that the higher price they have to pay is NOT due to the business but because of the politicians that decided to raise their cost of living all the while trying to make someone else (i.e., the biz) the heavy?  Reformatted, emphasis mine:

Oasis Cafe in Stillwater, Minnesota, has started putting three words on the bottom of every customer’s receipt — and once word got out earlier this week, the restaurant’s move ignited a decidedly nasty war of words online, placing the tiny establishment in the center of a statewide debate. The three words? “MIN WAGE FEE.” That’s right. And the fee? A 35-cent surcharge to all bills.

Image source: WCCO-TV

The 35 cents per tab is offsetting what the restaurant said it has to pay as part of an increased minimum wage for tipped employees, reported WCCO-TV in Minneapolis. Oasis management said they estimate the wage increase is costing the establishment more than $10,000 annually, WCCO added.  And many are angry about the way Oasis handled its added expenditure.

Ah yes, we will see the confusion and politico-economic illiteracy right after the jump

“It’s Oasis way of blaming our government for trying to set a fair living wage,” one person commented on Facebook, WCCO noted. ”It is political grandstanding.” “Ick, talk about cheapskates,” another vented. ”How embarrassing for the waitstaff.”

“Another conservatard tea Taliban establishment…” one commenter said. “what is that song again…oh yea, Another one WILL bite the dust!”

So, I keep wondering what is “fair” for a group of politicians to thrust the responsibility of welfare on to businesses?  What is “fair” that just because they have won a political race, they get to take private property to another simply because it will 1) make them feel good and 2) makes nice on Liberals know feel good about THEM selves – but not ever worry about any ill effects.  But to me, what is so “Unfair” that if government has arbitrarily raised the cost of providing a service, why SHOULDN’T a company do that?

Frankly, I’m quite sure that there was a whole lot of political grandstanding going on during the debate in the legislature and in the press – what, a business is just supposed to take it and give up its First Amendment Rights?  Just shut up and take it?  I think not.  And the owner thought not as well:

Oasis didn’t take the backlash without issuing a zinger of its own, WCCO noted: “Thumbing my nose at the law change, you’re right. Part of my thinking was to shine a light on this matter, which I truly believe is in the best interest of both my business and employees.”

Oasis added to WCCO that if Minnesota would pass a tip credit as 43 other states have done, the added 35 cents per bill wouldn’t be needed.

If, as Progressives say, that government is simply the word that we all do together, then why can’t we all talk about what we all are doing together?  Or once the majority decides, the minority is supposed to shut up about it (i.e., “settled law)?  But that is not how our Republic works, is it?

Heh!  I also had spied this on which the Today Show showed it’s bias:

‘Today’ Hosts Object to Restaurant Charging Extra Fee After Minimum Wage Hike

On Thursday’s NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie noted a restaurant in Minnesota that found “a unique way to offset the added expense” of the state hiking its minimum wage: “The Oasis Café is now including a ‘minimum wage fee’ on bills. You see it right there on the bill. Totals 35 cents….the cafe’s owners say this wage hike is going to cost them $10,000 a year, this is their way of protesting it…”

Guthrie touted: “Now complaints are piling up on the cafe’s Facebook page. One man says, ‘Look, if you can’t afford to pay your employees, then you shouldn’t be in business.'” Fill-in co-host Carson Daly chimed in: “I’d rather not know. Hike a cost here or there, get your 35 cents and don’t tell me.”

You shouldn’t be in business” Right – and this is playing out in a lot of businesses in Seattle – so, how’s that workin’ out for THOSE employees, eh?

Remember what Hillary once said: ‘I can’t be responsible for every under-capitalized small business in America’!

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