Governments think they know more about everything than anyone, progressive governments more than any other, and California, as the lead fool in this parade of fools, often sets the example for what not to do.
It is very rare, but they sometimes discover just how politically damaging their knee-jerk idiocracy can be—always after the fact, of course. Planned minimum wage hikes, for example, will so heavily burden an already deficit-ridden state budget that paying them would cut into their payoffs to constituent groups doing business as “Liberal Programs.”
Progressives in Sacramento rarely think twice before burdening businesses. But lo and behold, they are having second thoughts about California’s new $25-an-hour minimum wage for healthcare workers. Why? …
The state’s budget deficit has ballooned to $45 billion. Mr. Newsom projects that the new healthcare minimum wage would cost the state $4 billion more a year owing to higher Medicaid costs and compensation for workers at state-owned facilities. Legislative analyses warned about these costs, but Mr. Newsom signed the law anyway.
Thus the minimum wage for healthcare workers is set to rise to between $18 and $23 an hour this Saturday, depending on the type and size of healthcare provider. California’s current minimum wage for all workers is $16 an hour. Nearly all workers at healthcare facilities including janitors will have to be paid at least $25 an hour by 2028.
Say hello to something called “you eventually run out of other people’s money.” And they have. The state has to find a way to pay for the 45 billion in debt it already has – perhaps Putin can invade Los Angeles County, and the feds can whip up a funding bill, but that might require CIA bases on the border or something, so unlikely. That means more taxes on the already heavily taxed Cali residents. More taxes take back some of what they claimed they gave you when the state-mandated wage hikes.
Typically, these encroachments benefit union bosses, who, when pay is forced up, can then hike union dues—and that’s probably still happening—paycheck as a laundromat for more government spending. Add tax hikes, and everyone gets to join in on that scheme, assuming the higher operating costs won’t kill your job or businesses or just drive them out of state. That happens. The unemployed move to the debit side of the spreadsheet, and Gov. Nuisance has to find more money.
And isn’t that an interesting problem? You give people what you claim is a living wage, which you must then steal even more of to pay for all the liberal programs of which the wage hike might make you apart.
It’s not very smart, but the government still thinks it knows better.
